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Hall of Fame Tour allows museum, baseball to break boundaries

For all the reverence given to the Baseball Hall of Fame, there are two perennial complaints from fans: The Cooperstown, N.Y., shrine is difficult to reach for many fans, far from a major airport or large city, and once you get there, the museum features plenty of traditional glass cases and plaques hanging on walls.

The tour announcement at the “Field of Dreams” site in Iowa
Photo by: GARTH FUERSTE / OPENVIEW 360
The coming Hall of Fame Tour, starting early next month in Davenport, Iowa, and hitting five other markets through October, seeks to address both issues and provide a different museum experience.

The tour, titled “We Are Baseball,” is a collaboration among the hall, MLB Advanced Media, Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner, IMAX Corp., CAA, United Talent Agency, Grand Slam Productions and others. The traveling, technology-focused showcase will feature a 12-minute IMAX movie, video-based exhibit cases that include vignettes about specific artifacts before revealing the actual items themselves, interactive games, iBeacon-triggered content, and a virtual reality experience based in part on MLB footage captured during spring training and offering fans the feeling of facing a 100 miles-per-hour fastball.

One such interactive exhibit, called the “History Selfie,” will place fans in a digital photo re-creation of key moments in baseball history, such as Carlton Fisk’s game-winning home run for Boston in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.

‘We Are Baseball’ tour stops

City Site Dates
Davenport, Iowa Modern Woodmen Park July 3-10
Milwaukee Miller Park July 15-31
Kansas City Kauffman Stadium Aug. 5-21
St. Louis Ballpark Village Aug. 26-Sept. 11
Bloomington, Minn. Mall of America Sept. 16-29
Las Vegas Las Vegas Convention Center Oct. 7-23

General admission tickets run from $26 for adults to $10 for children 4-10. A VIP-level experience is still in development.

The hall for years has sought to feature its exhibitions to a broader audience, foremost seen in the “Baseball As America” tour that displayed key baseball artifacts in 15 museums around the country from 2001 to 2008. “We Are Baseball,” more than two years in development, takes the concept further as a mobile museum that can be set up in sites such as ballparks, shopping malls and convention centers.

“This is very different, and really takes that traditional museum approach and turns it on its head,” said Jeff Idelson, Hall of Fame president.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who grew up roughly 60 miles from Cooperstown in Rome, N.Y., joked during a recent news conference announcing the tour at the “Field of Dreams” movie location in Dyersville, Iowa, that “Cooperstown’s not easy to get to, even for people who live in New York.” But he said the tour is a part of his effort to remove barriers to entry for fans to engage with the sport.

“We Are Baseball” will start in six cities this year, including four MLB markets. Ultimately, the involved parties intend to take the tour during the next several years to all big-league markets, key minor-league cities, and other key baseball destinations such as spring training in Arizona and Florida.

Werner, who produced the original IMAX film for the tour along with Legendary Entertainment chair and Hall of Fame board member Thomas Tull, said “We Are Baseball” also parallels the goals of MLB’s youth engagement initiatives such as Play Ball.

“We are trying to keep the essence of the hall and what makes it great, but also create an experience that is technologically modern and keeps generations getting excited about baseball,” Werner said.

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