Cooperstown from NYC - worth it?

[honus94566]

OK, ignore the thread title. I am sure it is more than worth it.

But, I do have a question, and am hoping for some advice from you northeasterners that are more familiar with the area than I am.

Here's my situation: I am from the western US, my wife really wants to visit NYC because she has never been. We have 3 kids and are pretty busy, so this is a rare escape for us, just my wife and I are going (the kids are staying at Grandma's).

We'll be landing in NYC late Wed night, and will be there until sunday evening. So we have basically 4 complete days. We are staying in Manhattan so we weren't planning on renting a car or anything, just doing things around there. She wants to see the sights, go to a broadway musical, restaurants, shopping, etc. Typical tourist stuff, nothing more than a short vacation with nothing specific really planned yet.

We are going at the end of september - perfect fall weather in the northeast, and I am sure perfect around cooperstown. So I am thinking it would be great if we could get out of the city for just 1 of the days and go to the hall of fame. She's a baseball fan too and would enjoy it, she knows quite a bit about cards, has read baseball books like the glory of our times, so I am sure she would enjoy the trip and not think of it as ruining a day of our vacation or anything.

But my question is, is this even plausible? for a day drip, somehow finding our way out of manhattan on public transit, renting a car in NJ or something, and driving out there? Am I nuts or can this be done? We have booked our flight but no hotels yet, so I guess there is always the option of staying one night somewhere, and coming back to NYC the next day. I dunno. Just kind of thinking out loud here.

If you were on vacation for 4 days in NYC would you see cooperstown as a viable side trip, or is it just too far away and complicated to get to? If so, how would you get there (take what transit out of the city, rent a car where, etc).

Oh, forgot to mention this, as it's probably relevant... It would probably be Saturday that we would go, as I am thinking the traffic/transit might be easier to navigate if it is not a weekday.

Thanks for any suggestions!