10 Must See Baseball Museums

There are quite a few baseball museums that are worth visiting if you are a baseball fan. Some are better than others. A few probably come to mind easy such as the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. There is nothing wrong with only seeing the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, but that one is not on this list. Of the 19 museums I visited while visiting All the Ballparks in 2009, the below ten are the ones that stood out as the best baseball museum experiences.

10. Play Ball: The Cactus League Experience at the Mesa Historical Museum - This is the newest of the museums that make my list of 10 Muse See Baseball Museums. It is also not exactly a museum, but rather just an exhibit at a larger museum. However, there are hopes that the exhibit will one day be able to be its own museum. The exhibit is about the history of spring training in Arizona. It is a rather small exhibit space, but there is plenty of artifacts to see and information about the Cactus League to read. The highlights include a Knothole wall through which you can see photos of the various Cactus League ballparks and an area where you can ball baseball on the Wii.

Website: www.playballexperience.com

9. The Original Baseball Hall of Fame Museum of Minnesota - This is a very interesting museum inside the Dome Plus souvenir store, which is across the street from the Herbert H. Humphrey Metrodome (where the Twins played until they got their new ballpark in 2010). The museum is mostly things collected by Ray Crump, who was a bat boy for the Washington Senators and moved to Minnesota with the Twins in 1961 as the first equipment manager for the Twins. The museum is a wonderful display of artifacts including mostly things related to the Senators and Twins. There is not much in the way of informational text, but the amount of artifacts are impressive (especially considering the small space) and decently organized.

Website: www.domeplus.com/Museum/index.htm

8. Braves Hall of Fame and Museum - This museum is located inside Turner Field, where the Atlanta Braves currently play. It may seem like a museum only worth visiting if you are a Braves fan, but it is actually an interesting museum for all baseball fans. The main reason is the team is the longest continuously operated club and the full history of the team is represented in the museum, especially its time in Boston. Of course, the main focus still is on the Atlanta Braves.

Website: http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/atl/ballpark/museum.jsp

7. Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum and Sport Legends Museum at Camden Yards - Technically these are two museum, however, they are closely associated including sharing a website and having combined ticket packages. The Sport Legends Museum is located right outside Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles currently play, and the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum is located a few blocks away and found by following baseballs on the sidewalks between the two museums. The Sports Legends Museum is mostly about baseball and football in Baltimore, so more of a place for fans of Baltimore sports. The Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum is rather small, but a great place to learn more about one of the greatest players ever and be where he grew up.

Website: www.baberuthmuseum.com

6. Yogi Berra Museum - The Yankees have their own museum inside the newest Yankee Stadium, but it is a joke of a museum when compared to the Yogi Berra Museum. The Yogi Berra Museum is located on the campus of Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey. The museum is not just about Yogi Berra, but also the history of baseball in New York City. It does a great job of combining the stuff about Yogi Berra's life right in with the timeline of baseball in New York City. Since he had ties with the Yankees and the Mets both teams are represented, but it is more about the Yankees after the initial history of baseball in New York City. A definite must visit for Yankee and Mets fans, but also a good place to visit for general baseball fans since it is full of baseball history beyond just being about Yogi Berra.

Website: www.yogiberramuseum.org