LEE — After five years of traveling, the Baseball in the Berkshires Museum is opening its new permanent location today.

The location — in the Lee Premium Outlets between Lindt and Johnson Murphy — will benefit from the heavy foot traffic of the outlets, said Larry Moore, director of Baseball in the Berkshires. The museum features the expected history of the Pittsfield teams, but also highlights Wahconah Park's history and less-told stories of baseball in the county.

Baseball in the Berkshires had its beginnings in 2015, when Moore and a few other local baseball enthusiasts set out to write a book, which led to the museum.

After the group left its first permanent location, it turned into a traveling museum. But even on the move, the museum grew. It had 250 artifacts when it left the mall, Moore said, but is debuting in its new location with more than 1,500.

Larry Moore, the director of Baseball in the Berkshires, talks about the women in baseball display at the organization’s new, permanent museum space at the Lee Premium Outlets that opens to the public today.

The new location is 2,000 square feet smaller than its last location, Moore said, "but it's got nooks and crannies, which makes it interesting."

The museum highlights the expected baseball history — like jerseys of Berkshire-born players or the stolen, then returned, Pittsfield Mets ring — but also touches on stories like the role women played in baseball in the county. For example, Miss Hall's School had two female baseball teams in the early 20th century, Moore said.

These findings are often driven by visitors asking about the history of different groups, Moore said. "All of a sudden, you start digging and you find that Pittsfield and Dalton both had Black teams in 1900."

The community donated important baseball artifacts, Moore said, like a Brooklyn Dodgers jersey from 1957, which is the last one before the team moved to Los Angeles.

Volunteers were instrumental to the move and the running of the museum, he said. "We wouldn’t exist without them."

The 1997 Pittsfield Mets championship ring, which was stolen from Wahconah Park on April 11 and returned on April 16, is on display where it was anonymously returned, at Baseball in the Berkshires’ new museum space at the Lee Premium Outlets.

The community also helped land the museum's current space, as the Lee Premium Outlets received calls about the museum's move, Moore said. So the outlets reached out to the museum and worked with it to secure a space.

"We finally found that spot that, next to Great Barrington, probably, is the hottest spot for foot traffic," he said.

"It just becomes the right type of atmosphere," Moore said. "Now, we're at the stage of looking to the future."

The move was made possible by grants and donations, which is how the organization funds itself, Moore said.

The museum is adding a few new exhibits, like educating students about the physics of a bat hitting a baseball, he said. It also has loaned items from Wahconah Park, including the old lockers used by players.

Baseball in the Berkshires is set to open its new, permanent museum space at the Lee Premium Outlets between the Lindt and Johnson Murphy. It's the museum's first permanent location since leaving the Berkshire Mall in 2019.

This location is free to visitors and will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday, he said. It will close for the winter in October, though it will open for busy weekends and field trips.

Baseball and the Berkshires are tightly entwined, Moore said. "I know that we can't call it America's game, but it is an American game here."