ESPN: Caple: Triumph and tears, hope and heartache reside just outside walls of Hall of Fame

Glimpses of various aspects of Cooperstown, centered on Cooperstown Dreams Park:

Presutti, the 73-year-old founder of Dreams Park, drives past the park’s 100-plus barracks for the youth teams that live and play here every week during the summer. Against a wonderful backdrop of wooded hills, we roll past some of the 22 ballfields, the 20 batting cages and the concession stands, all precisely maintained. When Presutti spots the rare piece of litter on the well-tended grass, he stops and picks it up. We pass two delighted parents who wave Presutti over and ask him for an autograph, praising him for Dreams Park and his speech at the opening ceremonies. Everyone calls him “Coach.’‘
. . .
There now are 104 teams every week throughout the summer, with a dozen players and four or five coaches per team. Presutti says they turn away thousands of teams a year and that teams put in applications years in advance. There are nearly 17,000 players every summer, each paying $850 to cover their three meals a day, housing, two sets of uniforms, laundry, a commemorative ring, a visit to the Hall of Fame and, of course, the games they play. “And it’s worth every penny,’’ one mother tells me.

The bad news is that they installed parking meters on Main Street. Read the whole thing, then visit.