Doubleday Field

Doubleday Field is a small working baseball stadium a block from the Baseball Hall of Fame, used for amateur and collegiate games throughout the summer and for the annual Hall of Fame Classic — an exhibition game featuring Hall of Famers and former major league players that traditionally accompanies induction weekend.

The stadium dates from the 1930s WPA era, with a single grandstand along the first-base line and a simple outfield fence. It has an unpretentious charm that contrasts pleasantly with the scale and polish of the Hall of Fame museum nearby. The grass field is well-maintained, and watching a game here — surrounded by the hills of central New York with a small, knowledgeable crowd — is about as close as you can get to the mythological origins of the sport, regardless of the dubious history behind the myth.

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The field was named for Abner Doubleday in 1920 and a plaque was later installed claiming he laid out the first baseball diamond here in 1839. Modern historians are certain this never happened — Doubleday was at West Point in 1839 and left no personal writings mentioning baseball. The field itself dates from 1920 and has capacity for about 9,000 spectators.

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