Vaughan to Cooperstown: the Baseball Hall of Fame weekend by chauffeured car

Cooperstown, the village and the Hall

Cooperstown is a lakeside village at the head of Otsego Lake in the hills of central New York, founded by James Fenimore Cooper's father and named Glimmerglass in the son's novels, and it holds the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum — the brick building on Main Street opened in 1939 on the strength of a myth that Abner Doubleday invented the game here, with three floors of the game's history, the Plaque Gallery of the inducted, the Babe Ruth room, the Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson galleries, the Sandlot Kids' Clubhouse for the under-tens, and the artifacts — the bats, the balls, the uniforms — that a Vaughan Blue Jays family recognises. Doubleday Field behind Main Street is the 1920 ballpark where the youth tournaments' finals are played; the Cooperstown Dreams Park and the All Star Village outside the village run the summer's twelve-and-under tournaments that bring ten thousand families a week, including Vaughan's travel teams; the Farmers' Museum and the Fenimore Art Museum on the lake's shore are the family's second day, and Brewery Ommegang's Belgian ales in the fields south of the village are the parents' hour. The This Is Cooperstown site has the village; the border guide has the bridges.

The road

From Maple the 400, the 407 and the 401 east, Kingston's lunch, the Thousand Islands Bridge, I-81 south to Syracuse, I-90 east to exit 30 at Herkimer and Route 28 south through the Mohawk valley's hills to the village — seven hours by the estimate and seven and a quarter with the booth and the stop; the western road by the Lewiston bridge and the Thruway to the same exit is the alternative, with the Syracuse post's Destiny USA as a stop for the children. Route 28's last hour is a two-lane road through farm country with the lake at its end, and the Sprinter carries a team's family and the equipment bags for a Dreams Park week.

The Hall of Fame, in order

The museum's day begins on the second floor with the game's timeline — the nineteenth century's town-ball origins and the Doubleday myth told honestly, the dead-ball era, Ruth's room with his bat and his locker, the Negro Leagues gallery, Robinson's 1947, the expansion era with the Blue Jays' 1992 and 1993 World Series artifacts that a Vaughan family finds first — then the third floor's Sacred Ground ballparks exhibit, the records room and the Hank Aaron gallery; then the first floor's Plaque Gallery, the hall of bronze faces from Cobb and Wagner to the newest class, where a family reads the Canadians' plaques — Ferguson Jenkins of Chatham, Larry Walker of Maple Ridge; and the Sandlot Kids' Clubhouse for the youngest. Three to four hours, the tickets on the Hall's site, and the Main Street lot beside the building for the SUV.

Doubleday Field and Main Street

Doubleday Field's brick grandstand of 1939 sits behind Main Street on the field where the myth placed the first game; it hosts the youth tournaments' championship games, the Hall of Fame Classic's old-timers in May and the public's own games by rental — a Vaughan travel team's dream is a game here, and the village's site has the field's schedule. Main Street's three blocks are the baseball shops — Mickey's Place, the Seventh Inning Stretch, the memorabilia dealers, the bat companies' stores, the Cooperstown Bat Company's factory tour — and the Doubleday Café, the Cooperstown Diner and the Schneider's bakery; the village has no traffic lights and the Sprinter parks once.

Otsego Lake, the Farmers' Museum and the Fenimore

Otsego Lake — Glimmerglass — runs nine miles north from the village with Kingfisher Tower's folly on its shore, the Glimmerglass State Park's beach and Hyde Hall mansion at its far end, the Glimmerglass Queen's cruises from the village dock, and the Glimmerglass Festival's opera house at Springfield in July and August for the parents. The Farmers' Museum on the lake's west shore is a living-history village of the 1840s — the blacksmith, the printer, the pharmacy, the farm's animals and the Empire State Carousel, carved with New York's history — and the Fenimore Art Museum across the road holds the Thaw Collection of American Indian art, the Hudson River School paintings and the Cooper family's rooms; the museums' site sells a combined ticket, and the two are the family's Sunday.

Ommegang, and the food

Brewery Ommegang, four miles south of the village in a hop field, brews Belgian-style ales in a farmhouse brewery with tours, a tasting room, a café and the summer concert series on its lawn — the parents' late afternoon while the children run the field — and the brewery's site has the tours; the village's Brewery Ommegang taproom on Main Street is the closer version. The Blue Mingo Grill on the lake's shore, the Otesaga Resort's dining room and the Doubleday Café are the dinners, and the Sprinter's cooler carries Ommegang's bottles home within the 48-hour exemption's 1.14-litre-of-spirits-or-8.5-litres-of-beer allowance.

The Otesaga, and where to stay

The Otesaga Resort Hotel of 1909 on the lake's shore at the village's edge — the columned verandah over the water, the Leatherstocking golf course, the pool and the rooms the Hall of Famers stay in during Induction Weekend — is the village's grand hotel and the travel desk's hold for a family that wants the lake; the Cooper Inn on Main Street, the Lake Front Hotel and the village's bed-and-breakfasts are the rest, and during a Dreams Park week the families rent houses around the lake, booked a year ahead.

The weekend, in shape

Friday at 9 from Maple, Kingston at noon, the bridge at 1:15, I-81 and I-90, Route 28's hills at 4:30, the Otesaga's verandah by 5:15, Main Street's evening; Saturday the Hall of Fame from nine to one, lunch at the Doubleday Café, Doubleday Field's game at two, the bat factory's tour, Ommegang at five, the lake's dinner; Sunday the Farmers' Museum at ten and the Fenimore at noon, the Glimmerglass Queen's cruise at two, the Sprinter at 3:30, Route 28 and I-90, the bridge at 7:15 with the 48-hour exemption on the bats, Maple by 11. Two nights, the Sprinter as a return with a Saturday on daily hire, one number in the booking engine.

Induction Weekend and the Dreams Park week

The Induction Weekend in late July fills the village with fifty thousand fans for the Sunday ceremony on the Clark Sports Center's lawn — free, outdoors, the new class's speeches and the returning Hall of Famers on the stage, the Saturday's parade of legends down Main Street — and a Vaughan family whose player is being inducted, or who simply wants the weekend, books the Sprinter and a house a year ahead; the Dreams Park's twelve-and-under tournament weeks run from June to August with a hundred teams a week living in the park's barracks, the parents in rented houses, and the Sprinter's role is the drive down with the team's families and the drive home with the trophies. The Hall's site has the Induction schedule.

What the chauffeur replaces

Seven hours each way with Route 28's last hour of two-lane hills as a driver; the bridge; the village's summer parking on Main Street, which is the one thing a village of eighteen hundred cannot do for ten thousand visitors; and the Sunday drive home with a bag of bats in the bay and a family asleep. For a couple the trip is a car's; for a baseball family of five or two families in a Sprinter for a Dreams Park week it is one fare and a parent who watched the game rather than the road.

Seasons

June to August for the tournaments, the lake and the Glimmerglass Festival, with the Induction Weekend in late July the fullest; May for the Hall of Fame Classic at Doubleday Field; September and October for the hills' colour and the village at its own pace, the best weekend for the Hall without the crowds; winter for the Hall open every day but Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year's, and the village under snow with the Otesaga closed until spring.

Pairing it

Cooperstown pairs with Syracuse ninety minutes west for a Destiny USA stop, with Albany and Saratoga ninety minutes east for the capital and the track, with Ithaca two hours southwest for a family adding Cornell, and with the Howe Caverns forty minutes east for the children's cave.

The Hall of Fame day, in order, for a baseball family of five

From the Otesaga at 8:30 on foot down Lake Street: the Hall's doors at nine with the timed tickets, the second floor's timeline and the Blue Jays' 1992 case first because the boys asked, Ruth's room, the Negro Leagues gallery, the third floor's Sacred Ground and the records wall at 10:45, the Plaque Gallery at 11:30 with Jenkins and Walker found, the Sandlot Clubhouse for the five-year-old while the teenagers do the gift shop; lunch at the Doubleday Café at 12:45; Doubleday Field's two o'clock tournament final from the grandstand; the Cooperstown Bat Company's factory tour at 3:30 with a bat engraved for each boy; Main Street's shops until five; Ommegang's lawn at 5:30 with the SUV and the Blue Mingo's dinner on the lake at 7:30. The bats ride home in the bay and are declared under the 48-hour exemption.

The Dreams Park week, for the team's families

When a Vaughan twelve-and-under team is accepted for a Dreams Park week the families need a house and a way down: the Sprinter carries four families' parents and siblings from Woodbridge on the Friday with the equipment bags in the bay, the team travelling with its coaches, and collects them the next Friday after the closing ceremony with the trophies and the pins; the week between is the park's games, the village's evenings and the lake, and the daily hire is two drives rather than seven days. The Dreams Park site has the tournament's dates, and the travel desk holds a lake house a year ahead.

Costs, plainly

The Cooperstown weekend is a return with a Saturday on daily hire in the booking engine; the Hall's tickets, the Otesaga and the bats are the family's own, and the 48-hour exemption covers the bats and the Ommegang bottles within the alcohol limit. Against the fare are seven hours each way with Route 28's hills as a driver, the bridge and Main Street's summer parking; a couple does this in a car, and a baseball family of five or four families sharing a Sprinter for a Dreams Park week book it for one fare and a parent who watched the final from the grandstand.

Booking it

Book a return from your Vaughan address with a Saturday on daily hire, or a daily hire for a Dreams Park week's two drives; tell us the Hall's day, the field's game, the hotel or the house, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Cooperstown weekend