Baseball Museum 12: Play Ball A History of Baseball in Philadelphia at the Betsy Ross House

Most of the places we visited in Philadelphia other than the Phillies game was left to Mik to decide to do or not. There was one thing I learned about after we got there, though, that I forced him to let me do anyways because it was baseball related. This was the Play Ball: A History of Baseball in Philadelphia at the Betsy Ross House. By the way I only have photos of the outside of the Betsy Ross house, since no photography was allowed in the exhibit.

The Play Ball: A History of Baseball in Philadelphia is not very big and is housed in a small room at the back of the gift shop. There is a small admission if you want to go into the Betsy Ross House, but I was able to go to just the baseball exhibit for free. This area is also the only accessible part of this attraction, so Mik could have seen it even though the actual Betsy Ross House is not an accessible place. Mik did not want to, though, so Dad just stayed with him in the car while I quickly saw this small exhibit.

The exhibit tells the history of baseball in Philadelphia, which is kind of similar to what we later saw in the Ashburn Alley area of Citizens Bank Park. This is actually more simplistic of a timeline than at the park, but there are actual items to see here. The items on display include seats from Shibe Park, seats from Veterans Stadium (you can actually sit on these), 1929 World Series tickets, brick from Shibe/Connie Mack Stadium, Philadelphia Athletics jerseys, old Phillies jerseys, 1950 World Series tickets, and 2008 Philles World Series Champions stuff including tickets, champagne bottle, and base.

I enjoyed going to this small exhibit. It is way better than just seeing the timeline at the park since it has actually artifacts to see first hand. The Betsy Ross House was a somewhat crowded attraction, but everyone that came in while I was looking at the baseball exhibit skipped it and went straight into the house. They might have come to see early American history and baseball history does not quite go that far back, but this exhibit is worth stopping at as it does have early Philadelphia baseball history.