B

He built it.

Now, you can go.

The GroveWood Baseball Museum sits inside a strip mall in Morristown, Tennessee, next to a Subway and across from a nail salon.

Its location is nearly as improbable as its existence, yet somehow both are perfect.

The GroveWood Baseball Museum houses the private collection of Jamison Pack, a Cocke County native who grew up to be a real estate investor who began collecting in earnest in 2013 after a trip to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Pack grew up loving baseball but fell out of touch with the game in the early 2000s. It was that trip to Cooperstown that reignited the passion and turned it into something else.

“Once I got back into it, started collecting some autographs,” he said. “After I first visited the Hall of Fame, that’s when I really dove into he history. It was so cool to be right there in front of a Ty Cobb jersey or that bat that Babe Ruth used or all the historic items that they’ve got there.

“I started reading books, really diving in, especially the early 1900s baseball era and from there started picking up some game used and player owned stuff and that’s really where that started. And then it just kind of took off from there, I got a little obsessed with.”

All that obsession led, to a 3,500 square foot museum to house his collection.

And what is in that collection? A history that spans from the late 1800s to about the year 2000. The objects on display range from pictures and autographs to game used memorabilia like uniforms, bats and balls and the occasional baseball curio as well.

Did that checkbook belong to the late Yankee legend Thuman Munson?

Yes. Yes, it did.

Stil, even as his collection grew, the idea of building his own museum remained something of a dream. A fun thought exercise the Pack didn’t expect to come to fruition.

Until it did.

“I had a place in our house that my wife so graciously allowed me to have, it was about 600 or 700 square feet and so I had a room there that I was just surrounded by baseball memorbillia. I quickly outgrew it but I had a loveseat in there. I would hang out in there and read baseball books and I realized how fun it was just to be surrounded by baseball memorabilia.

“That’s when I started dreaming and saying ‘Wouldn’t that be cool?’ but I was still three years or four years away from it being an actual possibility.

“I didn’t really think it would happen, it was just kind of a cool dream.”

And then the opportunity presented itself in 2021. Pack looked at various properties – including the Sherwood Commons space which he initially passed on – but every spot had its issues and on a return visit he was able to see the potential the space offers.

Today the museum is about 3,500 square feet divided basically into eras. From pre-1900s to the 1910s and into the 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond. There’s a section devoted to Negro League players like Satchel Page, Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell.

The facility is thick with the history of the game. People are wowed by the 1927 home run ball hit by Babe Ruth – his 13th of the year – as well as the Lou Gehrig home run ball of the same year.

There are historic items from the biggest names in the early history of the game like Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby, Smoky Joe Wood – who inspired the Wood in GroveWood Museum. And as history advances so do the names.

An undershirt worn by Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio as well as a ball from the 54th game of his famed 56 game hitting streak.

The Museum contains items connected to Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Bob Feller and more of the game’s greats into the 70s, 80s and 90s as well as items from famed baseball movies like “A League of their Own,” “Field of Dreams” and ‘‘Moneyball.’’

The exhibit closes with a pair of historic baseballs. One is from the famed Abner Doubleday game – an exhibition in 1939 to celebrate the opening of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The other? A game used ball from Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, Yankees and Cubs. Otherwise known as the called shot game where Babe Ruth may – or may not have – pointed the outfield stands telling the pitcher what he was going to do with the next pitch right before parking the ball in the bleachers.

The amount of baseball history on display is confounding.

That it exists in a strip mall in Morristown is mind blowing.

There are a lot of arguments to be made about which item on display is the most historic, but does Pack have a favorite?

“I get asked that a lot, I usually tell people, ‘No. I’ve got more like a Top 5 or a Top 10’ because I don’t want to give too much favor to one particular item. It would be easy to say the Babe Ruth homerun ball, but there’s a lot stuff, too. And some is underappreciated that I have a fondness for.

“I love those back stories, especially ones that aren’t famous.”

One of the “not famous” stories comes with a connection to Morristown. In 1959, a hot-shot prospect from California named Ken Hubbs passed up a football scholarship to Notre Dame and a basketball scholarship to play basketball for John Wooden at UCLA to sign with the Chicago Cubs who sent him to their Class D affiliate team in Morristown, Tenn.

With the 17-year-old Hubbs and another future major leaguer named Ossie Chavarria, the Morristown team – playing at Sherwood Park, less than 100 yards from the front doors of the Sherwood Commons strip mall that is home to the museum – took the league title.

Hubbs was advanced quickly through the minors and in 1962 was named National League Rookie of the Year and earned the Gold Glove – the first person in the history of the game to win the Gold Glove and Rookie of the Year in the same year. That season he set records for consecutive chances and without an error at second base.

Hubbs had a good sophomore season with the Cubs, but tragedy struck in early 1964 when he died in a plane crash.

Today, Hubbs memory is kept alive in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, which has the glove he used to set the records but also in the GroveWood Baseball Museum, so very close to where he played his first season of pro ball,

In addition to a picture of Hubbs, Pack has a ticket stub from the last home game in which he got a hit in Chicago and some of Hubbs’ homework from his junior year in high school. Pack has also recently acquired a team photo from the ’59 Morristown Cubs that took home the title.

Hubbs is just one of the many stories that Pack is ready to share with the world.

He’s partnering with the Citizen Tribune on a podcast that will debut in the coming weeks in which he and Tribune Managing Editor John Gullion will discuss this history of items in his collection and the stories surrounding them.

He has also recently introduced a website www.grovewoodbaseball.com where fellow baseball enthusiasts can request a tour at no cost. The Museum isn’t open to the public and doesn’t have regular hours but Pack is happy to show his collection with anyone who has an interest and created an Instagram page to do just that.

Pack has hosted a couple of events at the Museum featuring special guests multi-time All-Star Steve Sax and Dwier Brown, who played Kevin Costner’s father – John Kinsella – in “Field of Dreams.”

He’s planning another event with Braves legend Andruw Jones in late October and is selling tickets to cover appearance fees and travel costs.

Tickets for an autograph begin at $25 – full details are online on the museum’s website. There are a limited number of tickets for a VIP event as well.

He hopes it’s the first in a series of similar events to bring baseball luminaries to town, events where his fellow baseball acolytes can come talk about the game they love.

“That’s my favorite part of it, hearing their stories. Why do they love baseball? Their memories. Their favorite player, favorite team. Whatever drew them to baseball because that part always comes out at some point,” he said. “Especially on the small group tours where I get to talk with them and find out, there’s an era or an exhibit somewhere in here where they’re like ‘Oh, I loved them.’

“It’s so much fun. That’s what it comes down to, It’s so much fun to love baseball and baseball history and connect with people who love baseball the same as you. That’s been one of the best parts.

“The slogan is ‘A Collection That Connects Us.’ I feel like that’s what it is and that’s what it’s for.