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Friday, February 1, 2008February 1 2008Hall of Fame Game ’08 Is It, As MLB Halts 7-Decade Run  Johnny Damon, fresh off the Boston Red Sox’ 2004 World Series miracle, came to Cooperstown the following May 23 for a memorable Hall of Fame Game against the Detroit Tigers. Who won? Who cares. Damon played a couple of innings before worshipful fans. He coached third base for a while. Then he took off his shirt and threw it to a young fan in the Doubleday Field stands. He ended up at Cooley’s for a couple of brewskis. Savor those memories. Because there will be no more. After this summer’s Hall of Fame Game – Monday, June 16, between the Chicago Cubs and the San Diego Padres – there will be no more. The National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum announced Tuesday, Jan. 29, that Major League Baseball has decided to do what it’s wanted to do for years: Scratch Cooperstown off its exhibition-game schedule. While the news was a shock to many, HoF President Dale Petroskey as well as others who follow MLB machinations said they had seen it coming for years. And with the loss of the last MLB in-season exhibition game, there’s nothing to do but cope. “There are a lot of opportunities we haven’t taken advantage of in the past,” Petroskey said in a Tuesday, Jan. 29, press briefing at 25 Main St. “We’re going to look into a lot of them now.” For instance, he said, the HoF is seeking to schedule a Doubleday Field game between the Japanese and South Korean national teams. And why shouldn’t the state high-school baseball championships be played here? Or games between top college teams? The International League will be celebrating its 125th anniversary Sunday, May 18, at Doubleday, when the Syracuse Chiefs will vie against the Rochester Red Wings. That the MLB kept the Hall of Fame Game going as long as they did “shows they recognize us as an important part of their heritage,” said Petroskey. As the Major Leagues expanded, pro teams have fewer and fewer days off during the season, going 18 days without a break. Fitting in Cooperstown got tougher and tougher, as indicated when the game was broken away from Induction Weekend festivities in 2003 to provide more scheduling flexibility. “Evolution means new traditions,” said Petroskey, putting the best face on it. “With challenges come opportunities. Things evolve.” Hall of Fame officials had conferred with Village Hall and the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce before the news became public, and Petroskey’s sentiment was echoed in those venues as well. “It’s certainly disappointing news,” said Mark Kingsley, Inn at Cooperstown proprietor and Chamber of Commerce president, who remembered the “huge bump” the Red Sox gave the May lodging business in 2005. “But it does present some opportunities.” “Hey, it’s a disappointment,” said Chamber executive director John Bullis, “but what are you going to do? Major League baseball did all of us a great service by coming here for so many years. It’s a great opportunity to find new and different ways to celebrate baseball. We’ve already begun to sit at the table with the Hall of Fame and the Village of Cooperstown to discuss the potential.” Even Jane Forbes Clark, HoF chairman of the board, was quoted using the term “creative and innovative” in the official press release. “We’re just going to have to go forward from here,” said Mayor Carol B. Waller, “to find other things to do at Doubleday Field. I think we have to be thankful for the years we had it.” The first mention that professional ballplayers might play here – according to Tom Heitz, Otsego town historian, who researched the question while in the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies – dates back to 1916 and the dedication of the Delaware & Hudson passenger station, that stone building set back in the trees northeast of Bruce Hall Hardware. “Major League teams will one day come to Cooperstown, presumably by train, to play games in tribute to baseball’s pastoral birthplace,” John K. Tener, National League president, declaimed from the podium, according to an account in The Freeman’s Journal. A stadium would be needed, of course, and Tener was shown the site of the future Doubleday Field, where the nationally beloved ballpark was completed in 1920. In 1939, a National League vs. American League All-Star Game was played in Cooperstown as part of the dedication of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The following year, a National League team and an American League team played during Induction Weekend, beginning a tradition that expires with this year’s game, the 70th. Beyond merchants’ concerns – last May’s Hall of Fame Game parade, held on a temperate and sunny day, packed the streets with families (i.e., customers) from around Central New York and beyond – it was pointed out that Cooperstown High School students depend on revenues from Induction Weekend and HoF Game Weekend to finance their two senior trips, a day in New York and three days in Washington, D.C. Hot-dog and soft-drink sales on Game Weekend alone raise between $6,000 and $12,000, according to High School Principal Gary Kuch, although Induction Weekend can generate eight or nine times that. Petroskey, whose three children – Clare, the youngest, will be graduating from CCS this June – have participated in those activities, was keenly aware of the potential impact, and said talks had already begun with the schools on how to minimize the effects.. Trustee Jeff Katz, chairman of the trustees’ Doubleday Field Committee and a baseball fan and published author, echoed the theme of sadness. “I think it’s tragic,” he said. Both Parties Field Trustee Slates If “change” is the buzzword for national candidates this political season, “listen” is the watchword in Cooperstown leading up to the Tuesday, March 18, village elections. Following the Republican caucus Monday, Jan. 28, where they were nominated for village trustee, both Neil Weiller, 17-year downtown merchant and former CFO for Wedgewood China, and Doug Walker, a former Marine who once ran three downtown businesses simultaneously, used the “L word.” And the following night, after a Democratic caucus nominated incumbent Jeff Katz and political newcomer Jim Vrooman, co-founder and co-chair – with his wife, Charlene – of the Pride Committee and a B&B operator, used the word too. “Your customers tell you what merchandise to carry,” is how Weiller got at it. “You don’t tell your customers what you’re going to carry.” Katz, a former stock-market floor trader and published author, said being decisive doesn’t mean acting in a vacuum: “I do listen to it all, and process it all.” Mayor Carol B. Waller was nominated by the Republicans for a fourth term, and it appears she will be running unopposed. The elephant in the room – or, the next night, donkey – was parking. This year’s village election follows one of the stormiest public debates in village memory, perhaps ever, over whether to install parking meters in the Doubleday Field Parking Lot and the downtown sections of Main and Pioneer streets. At first, the mayor and all the trustees favored the idea, estimating it would raise $600,000 that could be applied to $6 million in sewerage, water lines, sidewalks and repavings planned over the next three years on the south-side and Irish Hill neighborhoods. An 11th-hour petition drive, however – led by Weiller and Rod Torrance, another merchant – resulting in a wave of opposition that washed over the trustees at a public hearing 300 citizens attended Monday, Nov. 19, at CCS’ Sterling Auditorium. By a 4-3 vote – the mayor and two trustees spilt with the majority – the village board approved paid parking nonetheless, but decided to try out a plan limited to the Doubleday lot, at least this summer. That set up this political season. Deputy Mayor Paul Kuhn, a Republican and chairman of the Police Committee that developed the parking plan, decided not to run again. So Weiller and Vrooman will be vying for that vacancy. Katz will be going toe-to-toe with Walker, who at the packed hearing spoke in strong opposition to the paid parking plan. Weiller is a native Californian, but whose family moved to Cooperstown in the first wave of settlers Judge William Cooper attracted to the region. He’s related to Wycoffs, Hokes, Rathbun and Thayers, and spent his boyhood summers on Lake Otsego. After studying accountancy, he moved to Manhattan, where he worked his way up to key financial position at Wedgewood and other large companies, before retiring to Cooperstown, where he’s operated Muskrat Hill, specializing in the “Life is Good” line. He has served on the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce board and as president of the Glimmerglass Opera Guild. Walker is a 1963 CCS graduate, who spent four years in the Marines, including one in Vietnam, before returning to a degree at St. Lawrence University. He spent two years with the Peace Corps in Nepal, then taught school in Lake Placid, Boulder, Colo., and the American School of Tangiers before going into business. After a stint in the corporate world, he returned to town and started Danny’s Market, the Walker Gallery frame shop and National Pastime – at one point he was running all three. He also has deep family roots locally. He is president of The Native Sons, adjutant of the VFW, and is a member of the Wedocandoors Hunting Club in the Town of Ohio, Herkimer County, founded in 1927 by Michaelses, McEwens, Lippitts and other local families. He and his former wife, the artist Deborah Guertze, have a grown daughter, Hanne, a lawyer in Binghamton. Katz was born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island. He attended SUNY Binghamton, then moved to Chicago, where he was a floor trader for 20 years, before moving to Cooperstown in 2003 with wife Karen and sons Nate, Robbie and Joey, who are now 17, 15 and 12 respectively. While here, he founded a music booking business; he is currently co-chairman of the Cooperstown Concert Series. He also wrote a book, “The Kansas City A’s and the Wrong Half of the Yankees,” which he researched in the National Baseball Hall of Fame library and was published last year. He was elected to the village board two years ago. Vrooman was born in Kingston, R.I., and raised in Everett, Mass. He went through the PLC Program at Rockwell University, and worked for Polaroid and PressTech for several years as he and wife Charlene began a family in Derry, N.H. They moved to Cooperstown on acquiring the 1805 Phinney House B&B on Elm Street. Son Bryan is 15 and daughter Emily, 9. He and Charlene founded the Beautification Committee after they noticed while walking their dog that the downtown looks “a little worn, a little shabby,” and were encouraged to do so by former Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Polly Renckens and Kuhn. Reassessment Ups Value On Waterfront Property  A lot in Lakeland Shores was valued at $33,000 in 1988, the last time the Village of Cooperstown went through a reassessment.A couple of years ago, it sold for $700,000. Land and property values around here have skyrocketed since 1988, everyone knows. But nowhere has the increase been faster and farther than on the shores of James Fenimore Cooper’s Glimmerglass. That will be reflected in the new values Village Assessor Al Keck, recently with the help of the Town of Otsego’s Maxwell Appraisal Services, has been laboring to arrive at by the April 1 deadline to have the new assessment rolls in place. In the past few days, 900 property owners in the part of Cooperstown that’s in the Town of Otsego – west of the Susquehanna River – have been receiving notices of “preliminary assessments,” which include an approximation of what their tax bills might be if all remains equal under the new rolls. The 120 property owners on the Town of Middlefield side – east of the Susquehanna – should be receiving the same within the next few days. Curiously, as Keck was being interviewed in his second-floor office at 22 Main the other day – he looks out on Leatherstocking Corp.’s stately building – the phone wasn’t ringing. A meticulous man, Keck had prepared schedule sheets for people wanting “information valuation reviews,” but few had called. The village trustees, as required by state law, will convene as a Board of Assessment Review from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, Grievance Day. If these and other reviews fail to satisfy property owners, they have the option of taking court action to contest their assessments. Overall, total assessed value has more than doubled, from $171 million to $412 million. Exempt properties have gone up about half, from $70 million to $96 million. The value of taxable property has risen most: It has tripled, from $100 million to $314 million. This is the final stage of a process that has been going on in the village since 2004. And while the rolls – the grand list, as it is grandly called in New England – are not complete, Keck is far enough along to allow himself a few generalizations. For instance, if lakeshore property, relatively, is going up the most, two- and three-family properties are going up the least, proportionately. He – and his Maxwell advisers – have divided the properties into five general categories. The second category likely to see the least relative increase is commercial. “We treated them more conservatively” because of what happened with the Key Bank building, he said. In 1988, Key Bank had been assessed at $1,020,700. Fieldview Development bought the building in 2005. The new owner, Shane Newell, appealed the assessment in 2006 and, in 2007, it was reduced to $325,000. In the final two categories – ordinary neighborhoods and high-end neighborhoods – the outcomes, Keck found, often depended on what individual property owners did with their houses and lots. If a couple of homes on a block were completely redone, the values in the whole neighborhood might rise more than a similar other neighborhood. UP FOR THE SHOT...More sports RECORD BROKEN TWICE: Two CCS volleyball players broke school records during the home game against Waterville Monday, Jan. 28: Kim Armstrong with 117 and Katie Horrigan with 120 topped the record for aces held by Julia Drysdale,who graduated in 2006. CCS’s record is 11-5, 5-4 in their division. They play Friday, Feb. 1, at Little Falls, Saturday at home vs. Sherburne Earlville, and Monday at Dolgeville, for a possible third place in the league. CV-S HEARTBREAKER: MCS Girls Basketball stunned CV-S in Cherry Valley Tuesday, Jan. 29, despite facing a 13-point deficit at the end of the first quarter. CV-S girls retained a two-game lead in the Tri-Valley East but surrendered its perfect record. MCS Wildcats play at home Friday, Feb. 1 – Senior Recognition Night – against Worcester, while CV-S hosts Schenevus. CV-S Senior Recognition Night is Monday, Feb. 4, when it hosts Morris. In the Milford-CV-S matchup, MCS sophomore Chandler Prouty had 19 points, and 16 rebounds. CV-S’s Courtney VanBrink had 6 points and 20 rebounds; Laura Kroon 14 points, 13 rebounds, and Morgan VanAlstine 10 points, 13 rebounds. STILL PERFECT: CCS Girls Basketball is currently 17-0, 7-0 in the league and ranked 8th in the state. They may have clinch a first-place tie if they beat Waterville Thursday, Jan. 31. They will play at home against Sherburne Earlville on Monday, Feb. 4, which is also Senior Recognition Night. In recent play on the road, the girls beat Sherburne, 65-56, Monday, Jan. 28, where Sam Fox had 23 points and 13 rebounds; Kaitlin Cring, 16 points, 5 assists; Jen Wehner, 14 points, 22 rebounds, and Rowley, 9 points. The girls beat Herkimer the Thursday before, 65-35. DIVISION IN BALANCE: CCS Boys Basketball was 7-1 in league play and leads Division II of the CSC with two games remaining. They can clinch at least a tie for the division title by winning against Sauquoit on Friday, Feb. 1, or Sherburne Earlville Tuesday, Feb. 5, both home games. Tuesday is Senior Recognition Night. The Redskins beat Canastota 65-33 on Jan. 25, but lost a tense game at home to Richfield Springs 64-57 the following Tuesday. Quinn Snyder scored 16 points, Brad Ashford and Luke Tirrell, 13 each. MILFORD VICTORIOUS: Milford Boys’ Basketball strengthened its position in the Tri-Valley League Wednesday, Jan. 30, going to Cherry Valley and defeating the CV-S Patriots by a decisive 61-43. Top Milford scorers were Scott Seeley with 19 points and Brian Edelstein with 12. CV-S’ top scorer was Nate Herringshaw, with 10 points. Milford is 7-2. SWIMMING SECTIONALS: Ten CCS Boys Swim Team members have qualified for the sectionals: David Bonderoff, Josh Brigham, Peter Edmonds, Robert Harmon, Andrew Hughes (diving), Austin Lewis, Sean Levandowski, Todd Mayton, Robert Mayton and Will Reis. The MAC Championships are Friday, Feb. 1, at Greene. Diving begins at 2:40 p.m., swimming at 5. The team hosted Holland Patent Monday Jan. 28, winning the meet 97-80; Will Reis swam for his personal best in the 200 Freestyle, Josh Brigham in the 100 Free, and Peter Edmonds in the 100 Fly. ALESSI, BERGENE TOPS: CCS Varsity bowlers were looking for their first team win when they met New York Mills at the Clark Sports Center Thursday, Jan. 31. The team narrowly lost to Canastota at the Clark Monday, Jan. 28. Coach Lampo says he sees strides in individual bowlers from week to week. So far, Dante Alessi has the high score for the boys, 569, and Hanna Bergene for the girls, 340. GRAPPLERS VIE: CCS Varsity wrestlers will grapple in the Sectionals Saturday, Feb. 9, and again the following Saturday, both times in Canastota, after ending their season 4-2 against Richfield Springs. The team includes five seniors; Brock Bell, Robert Busse, Mike Croft, Doug Kline and Sara Ruggiero. Underclassmen are Rachel Ruggiero, Pat Claudy, George Landon, Chris Michaels and Conner Boyle. TOP BOWLERS: Ed Cotton chalked up a three-game total of 637, the top score in the Monday Night Bowling League Jan. 28 at the Clark Sports Center, with 258, 172 and 207. Also topping 600 were Jim Wilsey with 630 (254, 186, 190), and Ozzie Bunt with 624 (225, 174, 225.) Labels: Archives
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