Baseball trips beyond Cooperstown

Smaller museums also celebrate America's love of baseball

By Everett Potter

Most baseball fans are high on the country's best-known baseball museum, the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum located in Cooperstown, N.Y., but there also is a host of smaller museums around the country that commemorate a team, a terrific player or some other aspect of America's great national pastime. Here are a few to visit:

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
The Negro Leagues were founded in Kansas City, Mo., in 1920. Today, the city is home to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Exhibits chronicle the history of the first successfully organized black baseball league, which became a training ground for players like Jackie Robinson.

Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory
The Louisville Slugger Museum celebrates the venerable bats that have been made in that Kentucky city since 1884. The museum has a special exhibit, "Play Ball, Mr. President," showcasing baseballs signed by every U.S. president from Teddy Roosevelt to George Bush. That exhibit runs until the end of November.

Ivan Allen Jr. Braves Museum & Hall of Fame
Although this museum highlights notable Braves players such as Cy Young, Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, its name pays homage to the man responsible for bringing the team to town -- former mayor Ivan Allen Jr. The museum, at Turner Field, features more than 600 artifacts that track the Braves franchise, which began in Boston, moved to Milwaukee and ended up in Atlanta.

Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center
You can learn all about Yogi Berra, one of the game's best-loved catchers, at this museum on the campus of Montclair State University in Little Falls, N.J. Among the notable artifacts on display: all 10 of Berra's championships rings.

Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum
At this museum in Baltimore, near Camden Yards, you can see Babe Ruth's bats, jerseys and even the bedroom where the baseball legend was born.

Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame
Few players were lauded more than Ted Williams, "the Splendid Splinter," who is celebrated at the Tampa Bay Rays Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. In addition to featuring artifacts and exhibits about the legendary Red Sox player, the museum pays homage to the storied careers of some of baseball's best hitters, from Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio to Reggie Jackson and Wade Boggs.