Exhibition - Baseball in the Berkshires

Ventfort Hall is pleased to present Breaking Windows and Breaking Barriers: The Obscured History of Baseball in the Berkshires. The exhibit will be on display through Labor Day.

The exhibit, generously on loan from the nonprofit organization Baseball in the Berkshires, shows the long and storied history of baseball in the Berkshires. From the broken window by-law of 1791 and the first college game ever played in 1859 there were 60 years of minor league teams calling the Berkshires their home.

Highlights of the exhibit include information on at least a half dozen of local black teams in the Berkshires from 1858-1880.  Barnstorming black teams were a hit throughout the Berkshires with over 70 different black teams visiting the county. One of the more famous black athletes to play at Wahconah Park is Satchel Paige who played there in the early ’50’s.

Also featured in the exhibit are two women’s barnstorming teams that stopped in Pittsfield for a game in 1879 and Pittsfield High School had a girls’ baseball team in 1889 which Lanesborough was doing before the turn of the century. There is also a dress much like the ones worn by Pittsfield’s Miss Hall’s School.

There is also a long list of famous baseball players that left parts of their stories here such as “Say-Hey Kid”, “Joltin’ Joe”, “The Iron Horse” and of course, “The Babe”.