The Baseball Heritage Museum is located at League Park, the original home of Cleveland baseball, in the center of the historic Hough neighborhood of Cleveland. The Museum is dedicated to preserving the artifacts and stories of baseball’s past with a special focus on diversity in the sport.
The Museum uses the stories of challenge and triumph intrinsic in the stories of the Negro Leagues and other underserved demographics in the sport to take its presence to an additional level. General programming, youth educational offerings, community outreach and other initiatives are driven by the rich repository of life lessons in these stories. The Museum is also a driver of Cleveland’s sense of place, by continuously working to become a center of neighborhood life and a destination location for baseball and history lovers from across the city and across the country.
The mission of the Baseball Heritage Museum is to preserve and present the history of baseball and League Park while examining its trials and triumphs with diversity and inclusion. The Baseball Heritage Museum will do so by entertaining, educating, and enlightening the public about the sociocultural heritage and evolving sociological dynamics of baseball and the values it strives to represent.
In 1997, Bob Zimmer began displaying Negro League Baseball artifacts in his family’s jewelry store on E 4th Street. What was to be a one-time exhibit became so popular with store patrons and baseball fans alike that in a short time the exhibitions became their own museum.
The focus from what began as the Negro League Legends of Baseball expanded to highlight other under-served stories in the history of the sport, and the collection grew to include game treasured memorabilia from the Latina and Caribbean Leagues, the Industrial and Barnstormer Leagues, and the Women’s Leagues.
Soon the telling of the stories surrounding the artifacts became a key component of the Museum’s offerings. In the 2000’s the Museum was rebranded as ‘The Baseball Heritage Museum” at which time it also formalized its commitment to bringing baseball and education together. In 2014, after several years as a presence in the Gateway District, the Museum moved to its current location, the former ticket office at the newly renovated League Park in the historic Hough Neighborhood of Cleveland.
The Museum is physically positioned to tell its stories of challenge and perseverance from the center of a neighborhood whose own history has many parallels.
The Museum is committed to expanding its presence and service to the neighborhood and the community in order to be a responsible member of the community. Our commitment takes the form of neighborhood-focused programming and events, youth education offerings that use the lessons of baseball to teach the lessons of life, and activities for seniors that bring delight as memories come to life.
Beginning February 7
SAT & SUN 9-5
Beginning March 1
WED-SUN 9-5
