The Home Runs and Home Teams exhibit has arrived in Granville to showcase the history of baseball across the state as part of the local America 250 celebration.
Granville Museum President Randall Clemons said the exhibit was created by the East Tennessee History Museum in Knoxville. The exhibit features stories of local athletes, including a Granville native who played at Cumberland College before reaching the major leagues,
“You’re going to see history of baseball across the Volunteer State,” Clemons said. “You’re going to see how it has shaped people throughout Tennessee, and it is a national pastime.”
The arrival coincides with the opening of Independence Hall, a new building designed to tell the story of America over the last two and a half centuries.
Museum officials are currently reaching out to universities and youth baseball teams across Middle Tennessee to encourage them to visit the display. Clemons said the exhibit traces the sport from its early beginnings to its modern form.
“It’s a great experience for teams, for them to help them develop the young people that they have playing baseball as they see this exhibit,” Clemons said. “We’re working with the different universities in Middle Tennessee.”
Baseball has deep roots in the region, with small communities like Granville hosting travel teams back in the early 1900s. The new baseball display joins several other updated attractions in town, including an artisans gallery, a truck museum, and a historic home that traces local life from the 1880s to the present.
“I think we hope that they will be remembering the importance of baseball in their family and in their community, and that they will learn some of the things that they haven’t known about important people that have been involved in the game of baseball and have played baseball,” Clemons said. “It’s a great learning experience.”
The Home Runs and Home Teams exhibit will remain open to the public through October 31.
“It is the most professional exhibit that I’ve ever seen created,” Clemons said. “And we are so fortunate to be able to be the Middle Tennessee location for this exhibit.”