The Freemans Journal - Cooperstowns Newspaper Since 1808

Friday, July 25, 2008

CHARLIE VASCELLARO

HOF INDUCTION NOTEBOOK

Gooooooose, Gooooooooooose,” patrons at Cooley’s Stone House Tavern were yelling at the top of their lungs so often throughout the afternoon, that I had become almost oblivious to it while working a busy shift behind the bar on Induction Day evening.
The chant rose again at almost midnight: The Goose was in the house; making his way through the crowd he bellied up to the bar and ordered, what else, a Grey Goose and soda.
Still beaming from the weekend’s activities, which he described as being “like an out-of-body experience,” a glazed Goose looked a little out-of-body himself after a long celebratory day, but was completely congenial with his admiring throngs. He took time to pose for pictures, sign scraps of paper and engage in irreverent banter with the fortunate few (or many, depending on your perspective) who happened to be in the tavern at the time of his impromptu arrival.

Goose had become enamored of Cooley’s during last year’s Induction weekend, when he was still on the outside of the Hall looking in, using the tavern as his campaign headquarters and meeting place with former teammates like Graig Nettles. Since owner Timmy Gould bought and remodeled the old Bold Dragoon in the summer of 2004, Cooley’s has become popular with many visiting ballplayers, but none seem quite so comfortable there as the Goose, a photo of him pouring beer from the tap hangs prominently centered on the paneled wall above the booths.
“I think it’s cool that he’s so down to earth and hanging with the people,” says Gould.
•
While Gossage was the only former player elected on this year’s ballot, he shared the Induction ceremony with Veteran’s Committee selections: Managers Dick Williams and Billy Southworth, respective Pittsburgh Pirates and Brooklyn/Los Angeles owners Barney Dreyfuss and Walter O’Malley and former Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn.
Genuine great guy Buck O’Neil, legendary Negro Leagues oral historian, ambassador, co-founder as well as volunteer board chairman of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, was also honored posthumously with the creation of the John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award.
A relatively sparse smattering, generously estimated at 14,000 by the Hall of Fame, sweated out a lengthy four-hour ceremony with occasional relief from the heat provided by passing cloud coverage. Of course, Induction Day crowds will always pale in comparison to last year’s record of approximately 75,000, which may never be exceeded.
•
Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark presented the “Buck” O’Neil Award, with a commentary delivered by Hall of Famer and board member Joe Morgan.
“Buck’s contributions to baseball are unsurpassed and spanned seven decades. He touched every facet of the game and his influence was among the greatest baseball has ever known,” said Morgan.
The award will be presented not more frequently than once every three years, to individuals whose extraordinary efforts enhanced baseball’s positive impact on society, has broadened the game’s appeal and whose character, integrity and dignity are comparable to the qualities exhibited by O’Neil.
It was created perhaps in response to O’Neil’s omission from a group of 17 former members of Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues professional baseball players and executives elected to the Hall by a special research committee two years ago.
“The Hall of fame has been looking for a way to honor individuals whose significant contributions to our national pastime could not be measured simply by wins and losses, hits and strikeouts, championships and other statistics,” said Morgan.
•
After an awkward introduction by Hall of Fame pitcher and occasional broadcaster Tom Seaver, who read rather than spoke in a flat monotone and oddly interjected his own USC alumni status into biographical information on long-time Seattle Mariners broadcaster Dave Niehaus, the one and only voice of the Mariners for 32 years stepped to the microphone.
A large and vocal contingent of Mariners fans made the 3,000-mile trek from Seattle to Cooperstown and made their presence known when their man took the stage.
The recipient of this year’s Ford Frick Award, presented annually to chosen radio broadcasters honoring their contributions to the game, Niehaus was perhaps the day’s most eloquent speaker.
“To quote (former Commissioner of Baseball) A. Bartlett Giamatti, ‘The real work was done with the radio, not the seeing all falsifying television, and was the playing of the game in the only place where it will last, the enclosed green field of the mind.’ Radio plays with the mind, it gives you a mental workout and delusions of grandeur, that’s what Harry Caray did to me. My dad took me to my first big league game at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis... and quite frankly I was never so disappointed in my life. Caray had put these guys on such a pedestal, I just knew it was the Parthenon that I was going to, not a ballpark,” said Niehaus.
•
The first African American member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to have a Hall of Fame vote, Larry Whiteside was posthumously honored with the J.G Taylor Spink Award presented annually to a sportswriter for “meritorious contributions to baseball writing.” Whiteside covered the Milwaukee Braves for the Milwaukee Journal for three seasons until the team moved to Atlanta in 1966. He later covered the expansion Milwaukee Brewers in 1970 and moved to the Boston Globe in 1973 where he remained until the time of his 2004 retirement, covering the Red Sox and basketball Celtics as well as reporting on issues of race, labor relations and baseball’s broadening international horizons.
But perhaps Whiteside’s most significant contribution to journalism is his 1971 creation of “The Black List,” of African-American reporters and copy editors, developed to assist sports editors in helping to hire black journalists.
Accepting the award on behalf of Whiteside was his son Tony, who presenter, Secretary-Treasurer of the BBWAA Jack O’Connell incidentally noted, was a high school classmate of Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson.
“While it is tempting to view my father’s career strictly through the prism of race, he didn’t see things that way. He was a hard working journalist and a baseball man above all else, and he earned the respect of others as a talented writer, colleague and friend,” said Tony Whiteside.
•
This year’s ceremony brought the largest group of returning Hall of Famer’s (54) but most notably absent was Stan Musial, unable to attend while suffering in poor health. An Induction Day tradition for many years, Musial’s playing of Take Me Out to the Ball Game on harmonica, was sung instead this year by Johnny Bench impersonating broadcaster Harry Caray, assisted by “Mr. Cub” Ernie Banks. Another tradition, which remains intact, is the booing of commissioner Bud Selig at just about every mention of his name or his appearance at the podium. The first plaque presentation made by Selig was to former Pittsburgh Pirates long deceased owner Barney Dreyfuss.
Accepting the plaque was Dreyfuss’ great-grandson Andrew, who delivered a polished speech. Obviously doing his homework, he acknowledged Goose Gossage’s great 1977 season in Pittsburgh and Bill Mazeroski’s 1960 World Series winning home run which he said exacted a measure of revenge for his great grandfather’s Pirates 1927 loss to the Yankees.
As commissioner Selig read the lengthy inscription on former commissioner Bowie Kuhn’s plaque, (is it just me or does the text on the plaques seem to be getting longer ever year? Four-and- a- half lines for Babe Ruth; 11 for Bowie Kuhn?) someone from the gallery hollered “You’ll never get one of those Bud!”
Kuhn’s commissionership was also mired in controversy and many have viewed his election to the hall by the veterans committee with cynical curiosity.
Accepting the plaque was Kuhn’s stepson Paul Degener, whose mother Kuhn married when he was just six months old. Degner’s speech was combination homage to a stepfather he obviously adored and defense for his place in Cooperstown.
“He [Kuhn] was once called racially insensitive when he wasn’t there for home run number 714 [sic 715, Hank Aaron’s record breaking blast] despite working for more than two years to open the Hall of Fame gates to the many stars from the Negro Leagues,” said Degener, getting it wrong on the first account and stating a partial truth in the second, as Kuhn’s proposal was actually for a separate space for Negro Leaguers in the Hall.
Former Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley’s election, while well earned, was also viewed with skepticism if only for the fact that many Brooklynites have yet to forgive him for moving their beloved “Bums” to California. His son Peter O’Malley delivered a soft-spoken speech succinctly touching all the bases, stating what he thought his father would have said.
The Hall of Fame’s own board member Bill Dewitt delivered a quick biographical acceptance speech for former St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Braves manager Billy Southworth.
Dick Williams, who captained six clubs including four pennant and two World Series winners during his 21-year managerial career rambled on in a grandfatherly fashion making reference to but far exceeding his nine-minute limit. Williams fondly recalled his “Impossible Dream” American League champion 1967 Red Sox in his rookie season as a manager and his back-to-back (1972-73) World Series champion Oakland A’s teams. He joked about owner Charlie Finley’s ongoing feud with commissioner Kuhn. He said, “managers don’t make players, players make managers.”
Sharing the stage with Gossage who pitched for him in San Diego where Williams said “it was a pleasure to manage and we were fortunate to have guys like Goose and Graig Nettles and Gary Templeton. These were three veteran ball players that would stay after the game, maybe have a beer and they’d talk baseball to all our young players.” Williams also was the first to bring up the Hall of Fame candidacy of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. “I’d like to be on that voting committee because I would vote right away for George,” he said, which met with a round of applause from the crowd as well as Jeff Idelson and Jane Clark.
Finally, Gossage stepped to the microphone, first holding his plaque aloft above his head. “This is really an out-of-body experience. I’d just like to first of thank the Yankee contingent for coming to Cooperstown and sharing in this great moment to with me today,” said Gossage.
In a booming voice he delivered a well-organized chronological reminiscence.
“Starting back when I was playing little league, my parents, Sue and Jake Gossage, were my biggest supporters. They never missed a game. At times the whole team would pile into my dad’s old International Harvester, it was a beat up old truck but we loved it. Some of my greatest memories of Little League rival any of those I experienced as a big leaguer, believe it or not,” said Gossage, crediting his older brother’s heckling with helping to create his wild hard-throwing delivery.
He grew emotional and choked up when recalling deceased pitching coach Larry Sherry who worked with him during his spectacular 1977 season in Pittsburgh as well as other since passed teammates: Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Thurman Munson, Jim Spencer, Aurelio Rodriguez and Bobby Murcer.
He continued to campaign for George Steinbrenner calling him the “Greatest owner of all-time,” and closed by thanking his family and the fans. “I would like to extend my appreciation to all the wonderful baseball fans who are present today or are watching this ceremony on TV. You are the reason baseball is the great game it is today. Thank you very much.” Little did we know we’d be catching up with him again around midnight.

Charlie Vascellaro, a Baltimore-based freelance baseball and travel writer, is spending the summer in Cooperstown, and is an occasional contributor to
The Freeman’s Journal.

Labels: 08-01-08, Baseball Hall of Fame, Goose Gossage, Induction Weekend, Sports

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Bound Volumes

175 YEARS AGO

Advertisement – Eagle Tavern, Cooperstown – Isaac Lewis, having returned to Cooperstown, will be happy to accommodate the public at the “Bold Dragoon” stand formerly kept by Major Griffin. There have been some alterations in the establishment which will tend to contribute to the comfort of the citizen and traveler. All the subscriber asks, is that the public will try, before they censure him – “All is not gold that shines” – “The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof.” Isaac Lewis.
August 5, 1833

150 YEARS AGO

That bridge (over the Susquehanna River at Cooperstown) has finally been erected (replacing an older dilapidated span) – and it is unanimously voted a disgrace to the two towns – for which the Commissioners are responsible. It is not only a mean looking structure, but we are assured by those competent to judge, that it is built of poor timber, which can last only a few years. It would have been about as well to have re-planked the old bridge.
July 30, 1858

125 YEARS AGO

With its present issue, the Freeman’s Journal completes its seventy-fifth volume, and our Junior has dubbed it the “diamond edition.” It has outlived most of its early contemporaries, and has attained what must be regarded as a “good old age” for a weekly newspaper. Probably of no other paper ever published in this country can it be said that two persons have conducted it for within a few months of 73 years. Col. Prentiss was its editor for nearly 41 years; he was succeeded by Daniel Shaw for something over two years; and in August 1851 it was purchased and has since been conducted by its present editor. If wisely conducted, it should be a “hale and hearty” county paper when a century old.
August 4, 1883

100 YEARS AGO

With its next issue, the Freeman’s Journal will complete its one hundredth year. A century of life! What an experience the Journal has had! When it was born, Thomas Jefferson was the President, and there were only 17 states – the original 13 and Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. The only way of getting about the country was by walking, rowing and horse-power. Fulton had just invented his first steamboat a few months before. There were no steamships, no railroads and hardly any canals. The Journal has lived through four big wars – the War of 1812 with England, the Mexican War, the Civil War and the War with Spain. What wonders will it witness in its second century? Nobody can venture to predict, in view of the enormous strides of civilization in the recent past. Probably the North and South Poles will be discovered, ballooning be made more practicable, and other modes of traveling much safer, speedier and more comfortable. It is hoped that medical science may make still further advances in the diminution of pain and the cure of “incurable” diseases. Very likely Cuba and Canada may be annexed to the United States. May The Freeman’s Journal be on hand to chronicle it, as usual!
July 30, 1908

75 YEARS AGO

The motion picture reels showing the Grand National steeplechase won in England last spring by Kellsboro Jack, owned by Mrs. F. Ambrose Clark, were shown at the home of Mr. Edward Severin Clark Sunday afternoon on which occasion Mr. F. Ambrose Clark gave a most interesting description while, with a pointer, he carried each one of the prominent starters through the race.
August 2, 1933

50 YEARS AGO

Joe Dovi, an 18-year-old apprentice at the Duke’s Oak Theatre, lost his glasses case the other day. So Henry Beckman and Cheryl Maxwell, operators of the theatre, loaned him one from the theatre’s lost articles department – one which had been lost in the theatre last season. Joe opened the new case, and much to his surprise found inside it a note indicating that it belonged to a Luigi Zaffiro of New York City. Zaffiro happens to be a friend of Joe’s. In fact, both were born in the same village in Sicily. Joe came to this country when he was nine years old. Mr. Beckman said that Zaffiro had no connection with the theatre, and apparently was a patron last season when he left his glasses case behind.
July 30, 1958

25 YEARS AGO

Nine people joined the Cooperstown Presbyterian Church on Palm Sunday according to pastor Robert Herst. They include Beth Kerr, Beth Hager, Kathy Marx, Sally Goodwin, Dorothy and Romayn Heyler, Adele and David Lott, and Walter Nagel. Miss Hager is the fourth generation of her family to be a member of the congregation. Her mother, Margaret McGown, her maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred H. McGown, and her great-grandmother, Mrs. F. Hamilton McGown are also members of the congregation.
April 27, 1983

10 YEARS AGO

Letter to the Editor: The July 24 Freeman’s Journal included an editorial naming Cooperstown as baseball’s “birthplace,” and General Abner Doubleday as its inventor, among other misinformation. It is well known and documented that the Doubleday story is a myth, and that Cooperstown has no verifiable claim to being the birthplace of baseball. The so-call “Doubleday Baseball,” found in Fly Creek in 1935, had supposedly belonged not to Doubleday but to Abner Graves, the man who claimed to have been a school-chum of Doubleday’s when he invented the game in 1839. Doubleday, 15 years Graves’ senior, was actually at West Point in 1839 and couldn’t have been in Cooperstown unless he was AWOL. Bill Deane.
July 31, 1998

Bound Volumes is compiled from resources provided courtesy of the New York State Historical Association Library. Tom Heitz is the Town of Otsego historian.

Labels: 08-01-08, Bound Volumes, Columns

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Editorial

Give Everyone Chance To Support Library The Way It Ought To Be

We are more interconnected then we often think.
For instance, it surfaced the other day that half of the Town of Otsego’s assessment is in the Village of Cooperstown. No village resident serves on the town board, and the town provides no services to the Cooperstown residents who pay half the bill.
If Cooperstown were to become a city, Otsego’s town taxes would double overnight.
We need each other. And that’s OK. That’s as it should be. We’re neighbors.
It’s essential that as Cooperstown moves toward becoming a city, that city should be crafted in an optimum way to create the maximum benefit for all and minimize any pain.
•
Yes, in many ways we think we’re independent. But we actually aren’t.
For instance, the Village Library of Cooperstown is a department of village government, but it serves a constituency well beyond the village.
Amy Stack, a Friends of the Library board member, did a survey last year and discovered, yes, the biggest segment of cardholders are from the village (1,372), but many more come from outside the village (2,407). More people use the library from Otsego (720), Milford (618) and Hartwick (324) – a total of 1,662 – than from Cooperstown alone.
The village is pretty close to broke, so it’s unlikely it will budget much more than the $80,000 or so it spends now on the library, (plus $30,000 in utilities).
Under the leadership of Rebecca Weil, who announced the other day she is stepping aside as president, the Friends of the Library has contributed more than $40,000 in the past two years to upgrades, and the improvements are manifest – the library’s brighter, more comfortable, more user-friendly.
But that’s taken a significant personal investment of time and energy on Rebecca’s part, more than a volunteer can be expected to make ongoing.
In effect, the way matters are structured now limits the library’s future.
•
Happily, it doesn’t have to be. There are some positive synergies and ready changes that offer opportunities for all the players.
One is the 22 Main Restoration initiative. The chair of that effort, Veronica Seaver, has stressed “restoration” of that stone, be-pillared landmark over “renovation”; the hope is to return the building – commission by Elizabeth Scriven Clark in 1898 as a YMCA; Robert Sterling Clark gave it to the village in 1932 – to its original splendor, complete with balustrade around the cornice.
When state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, announced a $100,000 state grant for the effort a month ago, Mayor Carol B. Waller, in her remarks from the 22 Main porch, envisioned the library/municipal building/art association/police headquarters continuing to evolve as a center of community life.
The bad news is that $100,000 is hardly a drop in the bucket. Simply repairing the roof will cost $600,000. (Incidentally, it’s been discovered the roof of the former squash court was actually never attached to the building; it just sat there.) The whole restoration will cost millions.
The good news is the village doesn’t have to go it alone.
•
The library doesn’t have to continue as a village department.
In fact, the state Regents are recommending local libraries reorganize as “school district libraries,” with the library budget put up for a vote annually along with the school budget. Because of the affection for libraries, and because of the relative pittance it takes to run a library compared to running a school district, no library budget has ever been defeated, not a single one.
In fact, Milford and Worcester, so-called “association libraries,” are already doing a version of this.
As a school district library, the people who mostly use the Library of the Village of Cooperstown would pay for it, probably happily.
The village could lease the building to the library for $1 a year, saving $110,000 a year and ensuring a more muscular facility for the benefit of village residents and their neighbors.
The Four County Library System has a pool of $400,000 annually for construction grants, which could further help the restoration.
Meanwhile, the municipalilty and police department could continue to evolve their facilities at the building’s lower level. (Is money for capital improvements available through law-enforcement entities as well?)
•
Another big plus is the Cooperstown Art Association, which hosts lively – but periodic – openings and events throughout the year in the squash court and the ballroom upstairs. (That fashion show organized by the CCS art department in April was a delight.)
The association leases its space six months a year, and much of the time it’s lightly used. But imagine if the art association and library worked side by side?
The association’s space could be more fully used by library patrons, who could pause from their readings to reflect on a changing cavalcade of works of art. The openings and events, fun in themselves, could also serve to reintroduce a segment of the public to the library at large.
Everybody wins.
•
Looking at the numbers and at the village’s financial plight, it’s clear the 22 Main Restoration project will not be complete without a major fundraiser, in the millions.
So ganging constituencies – the library, the art association, the preservation community, citizens of multiple municipalities – will only make success a lot more assured. Likewise, establishing a structure that will ensure an income flow would reassure the contributing public of the library’s viability into the future.
Amanda May, the fundraiser par excellence, is lending her experience to the 22 Main committee. She spoke to the village board last month, suggesting Seward’s $100,000 be used, not to repair the porch, but to lay the groundwork for the full-bore campaign that’s going to be needed.
Regrettably, she received a bit of a cold shoulder. The money, Mayor Waller told her, was earmarked for the porch, period. That’s not really sensible, given the scope of the challenge. Perhaps Seward can weigh in and adjust the allocation’s target. It not, the seed money will simply be found elsewhere.
•
That said, it should be encouraging to every public-spirited undertaking that the Otsego County Conservation Association, which timidly sought to raise $30,000, was encouraged to bump it up to $300,000 over three years, only to see that goal surpassed in nine months. (More good news: Amanda May crafted that campaign, too.)
There’s money out there from contributors big and small for things that matter. And what matters to a community more than its library?

Labels: 08-01-08, Editorial, Opinion

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Round, Round, Get Around

JOHN KOSMER

JUST A THOUGHT

Ah, The Beach Boys. Memories. Who would have thought that they could serve as an inspiration for getting around Cooperstown and Dreams Park in the summer? I don’t know about you, but I change my driving habits over the summer.
Cooperstown’s Main and Chestnut street traffic sometimes remind me of the backups in Bar Harbor, Maine, and the Hamptons. Rainy days are especially difficult when the Dreams Park games are delayed and attendees are driving around, looking for some way to spend their idle time.
During the Dreams Park season I will try not to go to Main Street after 9:30 a.m. or before 5 p.m.. When I am in Cooperstown, I will often take Lake Street to bypass the Main Street congestion.
During most of the year, I will come down Route 28 South and make a left onto Chestnut Street, if I am going to Main Street, or turn right if I am going to the Great American. But when Dreams Park opens for business, it’ a mad house.
The increased volume of traffic alone at that intersection would be bad enough. It’s that increase coupled with people trying to make a left from Route 28 South onto Chestnut to get to Main Street that really causes the backup.
The backup is aggravated by those on Chestnut Street heading in the Main Street direction trying to make a left onto Route 28 North. They back up traffic behind them so there is little chance for those coming down Route 28 South to make a left heading to Main Street.
Coming down Route 28 South I instead make a left onto Grove Street, travel one block to its end, and then make a right onto Main Street.
If I want to go to the Great American, I make a right on Grove, travel two blocks and make a left onto West Beaver. When I reach Chestnut, I make a right to go to the Great American or I can then make a left onto Beaver Street and get into Cooperstown using local streets.
I also will not pass the Dreams Park entrance on Route 28, if at all possible.
If I want to go to Oneonta from Cooperstown, I will take Route 33 past Brewery Ommegang to into Milford and make a left onto Route 28 South.
If I am in Fly Creek, I will take County Route 26 and make a right onto Route 28 South, then make a left onto County Route 11. When Route 11 ends, I will make a right onto River Road and go to Milford.
Mostly though, when I am in Fly Creek, I take Wileytown Road to its end and make a left onto Route 205 to go to Oneonta.
Route 205 is great to take even from Cooperstown. It is a wonderfully relaxing scenic road that will take you into Oneonta. It avoids the hectic summer traffic on Route 28. It may take a few minutes longer to get to Oneonta on Route 205, but it is well worth the little extra time.
From Cooperstown, make a right onto County Route 11, off of Route 28 South, to Hartwick. Route 11 will take you to Route 205 in Hartwick where you can make a left to get you to Oneonta.
You probably have your own summer short cut strategies for getting around. E-mail them to Editor Jim Kevlin (jkevlin@thefreemansjournal.com) and he will put them on The Freeman’s Journal Web site.

John Kosmer wanders the Otsego County region from his perch in Fly Creek.

Labels: 08-01-08, John Kosmer, Just a Thought

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Inductions, By The Book

DAVE KENT

BOOKENDS

Induction weekend has passed and there is a collective sigh of relief that we survived another one. It wasn’t the same as last year when the worst-case scenario occurred and 75,000 people showed up.
This year’s crowd was closer to 10,000. But with baseball, baseball everywhere I feel I can’t ignore it this week. I’ll offer my 2 cents worth on this year’s inductees, and a few recommendations on some worthwhile baseball titles.
I’m one of those people who believes that some players have gotten in the Hall that don’t exactly deserve it. (Usually it’s due to the Veteran’s Committee, but that has changed). Sometimes a player who doesn’t get in on the first few ballots shouldn’t get in at all. But that is not the case this year.
Rich “Goose” Gossage was simply the best reliever in baseball in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Every team wanted him. The Yankees and Padres were the lucky ones during his prime. And he wasn’t a “wimp” in that he often pitched more than one inning, unlike today’s closers.
He also had a trait that every fan would appreciate. He didn’t waste time between pitches. One of his catchers even said that he “quick pitched” him sometimes. Gossage is a true Hall of Famer.
Dick Williams managed the Boston Red Sox and guided the “Impossible Dream” team to the pennant in 1967 on the last day of the season. He later led the Oakland A’s to World Series titles in 1972 and 1973.
He deserved Hall of Fame consideration just by lasting for than one year with Charlie Finley, the owner of the A’s. Finley was notorious for firing his managers after one season (a quicker hook at times than even George Steinbrenner).
One thing I remember about Williams is his tendency to over-manage. Major League Baseball has a rule that limits a coach or manager to two visits to the mound before having to remove a pitcher.
It used to waive the rule during the World Series. Williams abused it to such an extent when he was with the A’s that I assume baseball eliminated the waiver because of him.
Still, it’s hard to argue with the results. Managers usually don’t make a difference, but Williams clearly did.
My book recommendations (I hope I’ve avoided duplication) are a celebration of baseball’s past and present.
In this age of steroids, inflated ticket prices, and loss of tradition, there are still some very positive people and characteristics in the game. “The Oldest Rookie,” by Jim Morris, is the true story of a 35-year-old high school baseball coach who is encouraged by his players to pursue his life-long dream of being a major league pitcher. It’s almost too unbelievable to be true.
“The Teammates,” by David Halberstam, portrays the life-long friendship of four Red Sox players, including Ted Williams, after Williams becomes ill late in life. Even Yankee fans will enjoy this book.
“Clemente,” by David Maraniss, looks at the career and personality of one of baseball’s all-time greats, and a true hero in life and death.

Labels: 08-01-08, Bookends, Dave Kent

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Locals

FOR THE CAUSE: Hartwick Seminary Fire Department volunteers are fundraising Friday evenings at the P&C Market in Cooperstown Commons, seeking to buy a command vehicle/personnel carrier for the company. Fire Chief Mike Basile is at right. From left are Mike’s wife Claudia, Laura Bryant, Chris Qua with his two daughters, Cassidy and Isabella (in his arms.) Right now, the chief said, the company’s trucks can only carry 7-8 volunteers to fires, even though 20 respond to most calls. The vehicle would allow another 6-7 volunteers to be transported, saving their personal vehicles and reducing the department’s insurance liability. If it raises enough, the company may buy a new vehicle; otherwise, a used one will have to do.

Local 4-Hers Win Livestock Ribbons

COOPERSTOWN

Two Otsego County handlers claimed Dairy Cattle Grand Champion ribbons at the 61st annual Farmers’ Museum Junior Livestock Show, which ended Tuesday, July 15.
Other Otsego County ribbon-winners were:
• In the Brown Swiss division, Morgan VanAlstine, who showed Carpsdale Dallas Honey
• In the Holstein division, Sean Galley, who showed Silver Spoon Roy Maggy
In the Best Bred and Owned division, the award in the Jersey category went to Kyle Kraham, with Lentsville Kays Top Korley
In other dairy award divisions:
• Supreme Junior Dairy – Reserve Senior Champion: Nicholas Lasher, with Butternut Farms Ada
• Brown Swiss – Senior Champion: Morgan VanAlstine, with Carpsdale Dallas Honey
• Ayrshire – Reserve Senior Champion: Nicholas Lasher, with Butternut Farms Ada
• Brown Swiss – Senior Champion: Morgan VanAlstine, with Carpsdale Dallas Honey; Reserve Grand Champion: Sarah Rathbun, with Roseledge SS Banker
• Holstein – Senior Champion: Sean Galley, with Silver Spoon Roy Maggy
Jersey – Reserve Junior Champion: Mariah Goodwin, with SRF Taylor Jolly Java
In the Dairy Goat Division:
• Best Junior Doe – Katelyn Baker, with Kiddin U Not Sarina.
• LaMancha – Reserve Junior Champion: Daniel Card, with JD’s Homestead Comet
• Saanen – Reserve JuniorChampion: Kimberly Hribar, with Kiddin U Not Feba
• Oberhasli – Junior Champion and Grand Champion: Katelyn Baker, with Kiddin U Not Janea
• Recorded Grade – Junior Champion: Katelyn Baker, with Kiddin’ U Not Sarina
Other Livestock awards were presented in the following categories:
• Beef – Belted Galloway, Andrew Watson; Simmental, Nathan Truax; White Park, Ashton Wheeldon
• Sheep – Cheviot, Melody Youngs; Hampshire, Joan Attanasio; Natural Color, Dayle Dutcher; Tunis, Dayle cher; Best Fleece, Dayle Dutcher
• Swine – Yorkshire, Frank Murray
Local winners in the Sunday, July 13, Dairy Judging Contest included:
• Junior Individual – First, Courtney Baker; third, Nathan Truax; fourth, Andrew Baker; ninth, Sarah Baker, and 10th, Kaylyn Oliver.Cherry Valley 4x10

Erik Miller Featured In National Magazine

COOPERSTOWN

Erik Miller, Otsego County Conservation Association executive director, is featured in the summer 2008 edition of Outdoor America, published by The Izaak Walton League.
In March, Miller took part in a league-sponsored study tour of the Philippines to study if efforts to balance growth and conservation there provided lessons for sustainable development in the U.S.
He and other members of the league visited urban, rural and coastal development projects.
March 5-7, he participated in the Third National Conference on Population, Health, and Environment in Tagaytay City, leading a presentation on the impact of development, tourism and agriculture on water quality locally.

National Award Recognizes Bassett’s Academic Officer

COOPERSTOWN

Dr. Laura Schweitzer, Bassett Healthcare’s chief academic officer and Albany Medical College’s regional campus dean for Albany Medical College, has won the Women in Medicine Leadership Development Award winner for 2008 from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Formerly vice president of academic affairs at SUNY Upstate and vice provost at Syracuse University, Schweitzer came to Bassett in 2007 to help develop a medical school program and campus.
Schweitzer successfully launched the program and, in June, Bassett announced its partnership with Albany Medical College in establishing a regional campus at Cooperstown for third-year medical students. The first six students are due to arrive Monday, Aug. 11.

HONOREE: Hartwick College has presented the Deborah M. Allen Brennan Award to Rebekah Searles, daughter of Greg and Linda Searles, East Springfield. The award is given by Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Allen in memory of their daughter to an outstanding junior biology student interested in research. At Hartwick, Rebekah, a graduate of Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School, has participated in the Student2Student Peer Mentoring Program and the honors program. She was recently named to the Dean’s List for the spring semester.

NEW POSITION: Jeanne L. Smith Struck, of Pearl River and Cooperstown, and previously proprietor and president of the JS Group, Inc., has joined the Epilepsy Society of Southern New York and Capabilities Partnership, Inc., in West Nyack as chief development officer. JS Group worked with municipalities on downtown revitalization plans, as well as with non-profits.

20TH REUNION: Jenny (Spencer) Victory, CCS Class of 1988, is seeking to alert classmates to their 20th reunion, planned noon-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23, at Three Mile Point Park. For more information, check www.ccs1988.myevent.com or call Jenny at 547-1929.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Three generations of Glimmerglass Opera Guild members, Gail Baden, Sarah Baden and Carol Robbins, are together at the final Glimmerglass Opera cast party following the opening performance of Bellini’s “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” on Saturday, July 26. Sarah Baden currently serves as co-chair of the Guild’s Hospitality Committee, following in the footsteps of both her mother and grandmother.

THREE HONORED: State Sen. James L. Seward, R-Milford, and the late Robert S. Kingsley and Rev. Canon George F. French, will be honored at Hyde Hall’s third annual gala, “A Night in Old Cuba,” from 7 p.m. to midnight Saturday, Aug. 16. For tickets, call 547-5098 or visit hydehall.org

Labels: 08-01-08, Locals

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Labels: 08-01-08, Baseball, Baseball Hall of Fame, Dave Neihaus, Dick Williams, Front Page, Goose Gossage, Induction Weekend

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Cooperstown and Around

Fire Police Capt. Joe Carentz and firefighter Mike DeSimone lead the Cooperstown Fire Department in the Fire Service & School Band Parade that opened the 2008 Otesgo County Fair Tuesday, July 29 in Morris.

FLOWERS GONE: Flowers planted in memory of Andrew Ellis at the Day/Johnstons road intersection with Route 28 were stomped Monday afternoon, July 28, and a cross of artificial flowers taken from the scene. Andrew died in a motorcycle crash Monday, July 7, at the intersection. Anyone with information should call Sheriff Rich Devliln at 547-4271.

BRASS TAPPED: MLB President Bob Dupuy, former Major League pitcher Phil Niekro and Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s board of directors at its annual meeting Saturday, July 26. One of the vacancies was caused by Tim Russert’s passing.

CASH ON HAND: Mayor Carol B. Waller said the Pay & Display machines in the Doubleday Field parking lot are generating $1,000 a day.

HELPING HAND: “Miss Mary Day,” to benefit Mary Turi, the Cooperstown Preschool teacher who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, is planned from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9, at the Barnyard Swing, Route 28, Hartwick Seminary. All proceeds from mini-golf, laser-tag and food sales will go to help Miss Mary.

LEND A TRUCK: The Cooperstown Food Bank needs volunteers with pickup trucks to help bring supplies up from Oneonta once a month. To make up a shortfall, Bruce Hall Corp. has provided a larger truck several times this year, according to Fred St. John, a food bank organizer. If you can help, call the Murray sisters at 547-8089.

Labels: 08-01-08, Cooperstown and Around, Front Page

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One Village, 2 HoF Presidents

While Jeff Idelson Can Now Relax, Steve Baumann Gears Up

By JIM KEVLIN

COOPERSTOWN

Playing against Babe Ruth, or Magic Johnson, or Donovan McNabb, or Pele – that can get a sport under your skin.
As a Miami Toro, Steve Baumann did get to play Pele, a Cosmo, in 1976.
But equally captivating was that famous college game in 1971. Steve was in the Penn squad, ranked third, on the field against Harvard, ranked second. There were 17,000 fans at Franklin Field, Philadelphia, a crowd that wouldn’t be surpassed for decades.
And Penn beat Harvard, 5-2.
“It was one of those moments where you get to feel what it’s like,” said Baumann, who is completing his first year as president of the Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta.
When he and wife Karen moved to Otsego County – son Keith, 29, is a lawyer in New York City, and daughter Amy, 26, is a fair-housing advocate in Philadelphia – they bought a house on Nelson Avenue. Jeff Idelson, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, lives on Pioneer Street.
So Baumann’s arrival made Cooperstown unique in yet another way: As the only community in the nation – prove otherwise! – that is home to the top executives of two major sports halls of fame.
Idelson can relax just a bit right now. His 2008 Induction Weekend ended Sunday, July 27, when Rich “Goose” Gossage entered the baseball hall. (The other night, when he stopped by to pose for a photo with his soccer counterpart, he was on his way to an evening boat ride on Otsego Lake – and perhaps a sip of wine or two.)
Steve Baumann wasn’t quite there yet. His peak weekend of the year is Friday through Sunday, Aug. 1-3, when Anson Dorrance, pioneering head coach of the University of North Carolina’s women’s soccer program, and Hugo Perez, the Salvador-born mid fielder who was 1991 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year, are entered into the Oneonta hall.
When you chat with Baumann and look at his vita, the top job at the Soccer Hall of Fame seems like a perfect fit.
He was raised in Westport, Conn., at a time when Staples High was one of the few schools in the country that took soccer seriously. He played basketball and baseball, but it was soccer that got him in the end.
“The game itself” is what did it. The “free floating” nature of it. “Players are in control of the game, not coaches,” he continued. The coaching happens in advance; once the whistle blows, it’s teamwork and individual determination that make the difference.
Baumann’s stats at Penn reflected both those qualities. He chalked up 30 career goals, but also 39 assists, records that still stand, and records that got him into professional soccer.
He had received a B.A. in elementary education at Penn, and during his half-dozen years in pro soccer obtained a M.S. in science education at the University of Virginia. He taught in Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and also at the college level, at George Mason in Fairfax and Rosemont in Philadelphia.
He then shifted to museum work, with the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, before joining the Kidspace Children’s Museum in Pasadena, Calif., as executive director. It was from there that he came to Otsego County, the choice of a national search effort chaired by SUNY Oneonta’s then-president Alan Donovan.
The interview naturally came around to the similar and different challenges faced by the two Halls of Fame.
Baumann is adulatory about Cooperstown’s hall: “The finest sports and sports history museum on the planet,” he calls 25 Main.
But he’s also bullish about soccer – the only youth-participation sport that’s actually growing, “year after year, more than baseball, football and basketball.”
It’s further fueled by the nation’s demographic changes. Not just Hispanics, but eastern Europeans – virtually every immigrant, for that matter – come from countries where soccer rules. “Now, more than ever, there are soccer fans in this country,” he said.
Whereas the Baseball Hall of Fame seems to be looking ever more beyond Otsego County – the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium was a Hall-of-Famer celebration; three vacancies on the HoF board were filled the other day by MLB President Bob Dupuy and two former players, no locals – Baumann is asking this question:
“What do we need to do to have a bigger impact in the local and regional community?” He adds, “How do we create value so people in the region” – from Albany, Binghamton, Utica, Syracuse – “come to visit us on a regular basis?”
Second, where the Cooperstown hall excells, the Oneonta hall has to as well: “How do we create larger image in the soccer world?”
If anything, Steve Baumann said, the proximity of the two halls can and should be a plus.
“What I hope we can do,” he said, “is aspire to an equal but different destination. I think that would make both of us stronger.”

Labels: 08-01-08, Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, Front Page, Hall of Fame, Oneonta, Soccer Hall of Fame

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Letters to the Editor

Parking, Doubleday-Field Changes Costing Thousands

To the Editor:
It has come to my attention that our parking machines have broken down several times and the village has even run out of paper for these machines. Our trustees and their leader, the mayor, who constantly stands behind the so-called business practices that are being initiated but not followed through on, are destroying our village.
We have just gone through one of the worst Hall of Fame weekends in my memory, and that goes back 18 years in business on Main Street. The visitors were more than angry about the parking tickets handed out in Doubleday Field.
All of Main Street has been striped off, with more than 50 parking spaces being taken off of Main Street. The new rules of parking in the spaces that are available limit each driver to only two hours on the whole street.
Tires are no longer being marked. Are you, the citizens of Cooperstown, aware that your license plate number is now being written down, so that – believe it or not – your car can be fined for exceeding the two-hour limit no matter where in the village you move it? The idea is to force you into the new paid parking.
If you think these antics are for the sake of the village residents, guess again. Council members will tell you that all of this business is about you, the residents who voted them into office. Is that true?
By the way, if you are interested in how much money we have lost on Doubleday Field this year due to the arrogance of Mr. Katz, go to your village office, get a list of the games and count the open spots compared to last year. It looks like the village could lose somewhere around $20,000 in the month of August.
If you think I am blowing smoke, give me a call and I will be glad to explain it to you. Also, I think the village should publish in this paper every week exactly how much parking-ticket money has been paid each week. Not how many parking tickets they write, but how many have been paid. We have a right to know.
TED HARGROVE
Cooperstown

All Ages Would Enjoy MSG Musical Festival

To the Editor:
As culture enthusiasts, it would be great if the Town of Springfield could support the currently proposed MSG music event. I think the event will be exciting and enjoyable to people of any generation. It will become a fantastic three-day event if more people could participate in and collaborate with the process.
It will give the members of the local community the opportunity to be involved in the entire process of the world-class music event. It will also create opportunities for people in the area of Springfield to get many seasonal jobs and possibly some permanent positions at the facility.
It may not be easy for some people who would like to maintain their current life styles to accept change, but I think it is important to develop and improve our way of life and to have open minds. We should give our younger generation a chance to appreciate the culture as well as a chance to grow financially.
We will be able to participate in an unusual, wonderful experience and play host to some of the best music in the world.
AKIRA & YUKO NITTSU
East Springfield

Thanks For Support

To the Editor:
The family of Phyllis M. Selan would like to express their gratitude for the cards, phone calls, and food at the time of her death. Special thanks go to my brother “Randy” for being there. Also to Connell, Dow & Deysenroth and the Rev. Betsy Jay for their support.
Jerry Selan
Fly Creek

Many Made Book Sale A Success

To the Editor:
This past year the Friends of the Village Library of Cooperstown held its annual Fourth of July Book Sale from June 28 to July 13. The response from our local community was amazing!
Thousands of books were donated to the library for the Friends yearly fund raiser. All proceeds from this sale are used through out the year to support children’s and adult programs and improvements to the library.
THANKS go out to so many people who made this book sale so successful. Thank you for all of you who donated books.
Thank you to all of the volunteers who gave countless hours to collect, transport, organize, box, sort and sell books.
Thank you to everyone who came out to buy books.
Special thanks to Giles Russell and Hugh MacDougall, who have spent so much time during the collection days and during the two weeks of the sale making the day-to-day operation so successful. The success of the sale would not be possible without their involvement!
Also, THANK YOU to the David Kent and the library staff, Janet and the art association, the maintenance staff, Dottie Hudson for all the wonderful posters, Rebecca Weil and the Friends of The Village Library, Tom Selover, Frank Farmer, Kay and Keith Additon, Jean and John Finch, Mary and Herb Marx, Amy Stack, Drew Kotalic, Jane Russell, Martha Clarvoe and her recycle team, Dick Kelly.
Also, Leigh Connor Leo, Joe Siracusa, Steve Elliot and The Farmers’ Museum for use of its tables, the Cooperstown PTO for the use of its tents, Alice Stiles, Jeannine Bohler, Barb Havlik. Hilda Wilcox, Suzanne Stack, Karen Schlather, Pat Duncan, Grace Hull, the Fanion Family, Catherine Russell, Doris Stein, Meg Tillapaugh, Mary Harmon and her daughter, Nancy Irving, Ivy Bishop, Doug Gable and Ireland.
Also, Anne Leonard, Mike Toulson, Sandy de Rosa, Victoria Annania, Shya Miller, the Brown Family, Diane Greenblatt, Doug Walker, Anna Weber, Tom Craig, Pat Thorpe and Karen Katz .
And to the many more volunteers who have given your time to the Friends of the Library and their book sale this year, Thank you! Happy Reading!
LYNDA SELOVER
& AMY BROWN
Co-Chairs
Book Sale Committee
Friends of The Village Library

Natural-Drilling Makes Windmills Look Good By Comparison

To the Editor:
Our elected officials take an oath to protect the economy of the United States.
They must stop thinking in the 1970s and 1980s and start thinking of the future! Nothing can be done about the past. Population has increased 400 percent; energy consumption increased 600 percent, and food demand up 800 percent.
Our government thinks the solution is to import food. This will cause a food crises, like the energy crises we are in now. When you have more demand and less supply, COSTS RISE. That is why fuel bills will be outrageous this winter. Foreign energy suppliers realize we are not willing to take steps for other sources of energy.
A huge question I have is: Why did Senator Jim Seward introduce two bills, S3073 and S3074? They are solely directed at the Jordanville Wind Farm. We need industry to come to our area.
The wind mills would bring jobs and help alleviate our energy crises. Wind turbines do not affect the environment or water. All studies were done.
It appears Senator Seward is encouraging drilling thousands of feet and pumping water to extract natural gas from the ground in the Springfield vicinity. Forcing water into the ground will put aqua furrows and water supplies in great danger.
I agree with Don Barber, “Studies need to be done,” and they should be contracted to private companies, NOT done by the state Department of Environmental Conservation or the U.S. Environmental Protect Agency.
Wind turbines in Cherry Valley could be up and running NOW and the Jordanville Wind Farm could have been 90 percent finished. Cut the political games and special-interest groups and think of everyone’s future.
I was disgusted by the ruling made by Judge Donald Greenwood in Onondaga County on the wind turbines. In my opinion, he infringed on our Bill of Rights and took away citizens’ rights to “not be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”
I believe this decision was based on special-interest groups, by Martha Frey of Otsego 2000 backing a handful of local people on Article 78, which consisted of many questionable statements.
BIG QUESTION: Why Onondaga County Supreme Court and not Otsego or Herkimer county courts, needs investigating! Much was based on tourism and a red glow on Otsego Reservoir, which is impossible. This “Glimmerglass District” is based on a 150-year legend! James Fennimore Cooper was a writer of FICTION. If you believe in all his stories, then you must believe in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”!
LYLE PHETTERPLACE
Van Hornesville

Get Answers Before Drilling For Natural Gas

To the Editor:
We should extract the natural gas under us because it burns cleaner than oil and coal and it can be part of our New York State energy independence strategy. But it must be extracted in an environmentally responsible way and under contracts that protect our land and our private property rights.
However, as Elmira lawyer Chris Denton said, gas company contracts are “designed to help them in every way possible and to make your life miserable.” The state must provide minimum contract language requirements that protect the landowner.
The 2005 Federal Energy Act exempted gas drillers from the Clean Water, Clean Air & Safe Drinking Water acts. Now it’s up to New York State to keep our water pure.
On July 22, The Albany Times Union published a front page story entitled, “Toxic Gas Drilling Technique.” It cites numerous experts from around the country who explain the hydraulic fracturing technique gas drillers intend to use and how these techniques have spoiled ground and surface water.
According to The Times Union, “In New Mexico, oil and gas drilling projects that use waste pits like those proposed for New York have leached toxic chemicals into the water table some 800 times. In Colorado, more than 300 spills have affected water.” In fact, “The U.S. Department of Energy lists produced water from gas drilling as among the most toxic of any oil industry byproduct.”
Hydraulic fracturing requires millions of gallons per well. “There are tremendous amounts of water used for this process – where are they going to get it and what are you going to do with that?” said William Kappel, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
That is why I’m calling for an immediate moratorium by New York State on lease agreements and drilling permits until we have answered the following questions and have protections in place to preserve our pure water.
• What will our communities be like with a gas well every mile?
• What does the drilling process entail?
• Where will the millions of gallons of water required for each well come from and will the withdrawal process be monitored?
• What chemicals are drillers mixing in the water?
• What will happen to this water mixture after drawing it from wells? No treatment facilities have been identified yet.
• Since there is no guarantee that aquifers won’t be affected, what recourse is available for property owners?
• Will local taxpayers have to pay for roads damaged by the drilling process?
• Will gas lines be buried on our properties?
• Will these leases hurt our ability to sell our property?
Environmentally safe extraction can deal with these problems, but the state legislature has left it up to us to protect ourselves and our land. We also need to know where natural gas extraction fits into our long-term energy independence plan.
Unfortunately, our representatives haven’t made informed decisions that protect our interests; instead, they’ve decided in favor of the gas companies. As your next state senator, I will do better.
DON BARBER
Supervisor, Town of Caroline
Candidate, State Senate, 51st District

11th Hour Here On Browdy Mountain Subdivision

To the Editor:
There have been new developments regarding the proposed Walker subdivision off of Browdy Mountain Road, on the west side of Otsego Lake, and opposition is increasing.
Mr. Walker’s original plan for the subdivision was rejected by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, but a revised plan will be submitted to the Otsego County Planning Board at its meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 5. The revised plan still calls for division of the property into several lots for the purpose of eventually building three new houses on the mountainside above the lakeside houses and cottages just south of Five Mile Point.
The housing development will have a negative impact on the lake, both environmentally and aesthetically. For example, it would involve the clearing of acres of trees, and greatly increase run-off on the steep shale slope.
I urge all those who are concerned about this to take action by writing a letter to the Planning Board and, if possible, attending the Planning Board meeting.
It is the 11th hour in this subdivision application process. The board will soon vote.Mr. Walker’s neighbors and the residents of the Cooperstown/Otsego Lake community have two opportunities to make their feelings known and present their opposition to this development.
1) Write to the Town of Otsego Planning Board immediately, before the Aug. 5 Planning Board meeting: Town Hall, 811 County Highway 26 in Fly Creek.
Better yet, take your letter in person to the Planning Board meeting on at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 5 at the Town Hall.
2) Come to the final Public Hearing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2, and voice your disapproval. Let the Board members know the community doesn’t want steep slope development on the faces of the mountains immediately surrounding the lake. Make your feelings known, before the Planning Board votes.
Background on the Walker application and some of the issues and concerns have been documented in the minutes of the Planning Board meetings held in April, May and June, which are accessible online at http://townofotsego.com/planningminutes.htm.
If anyone wishes more information or has any questions, you may email me at:savethe-
mountainside@gmail.com.
Join us in our effort to defeat Otsego Lake steep slope development!
CAROL B. AKIN
Cooperstown

What About New York?

To the Editor:
A radical idea – but one whose time has come – in fact, already came, but has had to wait for over 200 years to be implemented: a government for the people and by the people.
What has been blocking it? Well, obviously, people’s natural desire for money and power. How do you get them besides working for them? Well, you could try getting the people into office who will look after your interests.
But you shouldn’t think these office holders have it easy. Not only do they have to attend all those meetings and read all those documents: They also have to spend countless hours phoning for dollars.
Whom do they phone? The clerk earning minimum wage? No, she can’t pay for all those ads. But the corporation executive can and he will; however, not out of the goodness of his heart, but because he wants what the official can deliver – such as big tax breaks and freedom from costly regulations.
A large percentage of his day has to be spent earning his keep this way, time better spent looking after the needs of his constituents. But he needs money to get into office and stay there. He is not a free man.
How can we free him to listen to all of us who voted him into office? In other words, to get that government for the people and by the people?
Only through publicly financed elections. Connecticut will soon have them. Maine has had them since 1995. Arizona even elected a governor that way.
What about New York?
HILDA WILCOX
Cooperstown

Labels: 08-01-08, Letters to the Editor, Opinion

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Obituaries

Helen Wilbur, Cooperstown, Dies At 106

COOPERSTOWN – Helen Wilbur, a long-time resident of Cooperstown, died Friday morning, July 11, 2008, at Otsego Manor with her loving family in attendance. She was 106.
Born June 7, 1902, in Newark, N.J., Helen was a daughter of August and Anna (Englehardt) Riegelman.
Helen married Walter Otis Wilbur on Sept. 1, 1931, in Poland, N.Y. Mr. Wilbur died Aug. 30, 1957.
Raised in Remsen, she later lived and worked in the Utica area. During her years in Cooperstown, she held many positions, concentrating mainly on raising her family.
Helen led a quiet life-style, and her 106 years of life on this earth were realized through gardening and love of animals, especially her loving dogs, Buffie and Shasta.
Helen is survived by four daughters, Betty Ditchfield and her husband Jim, of Rochester, Dawn Chapman and her husband Perry, of Belmont, Mass., Lois Augenstein and her husband Paul, of Rochester, and Joan Wilbur and her companion Leslie Day, of Cooperstown; one son, Herbert W. Wilbur and his wife Rose (“Tobie”), of Voorheesville; nine grandchildren, Lisa Augenstein and Lynne Reeves, Anne Doran, Susan Houy and Jennifer Chapman, Shirley Ditchfield, Kathryn Peterson, David Wilbur and Sean Wilbur; four great grandchildren, Natalie Reeves, Sam Doran, Lee Doran, and Axel Houy; one sister, Ruth DeGroat of Johnson City, and several nieces and nephews.
In addition to her husband, she was predeceased by four brothers, Herman, Albert, Herbert and Edward, and three sisters, Marian, Ella and Tessie.
Graveside services were private in the Fly Creek Valley Cemetery, with the Rev. Paul R. Messner, pastor of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hartwick Seminary, officiating.
In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy in the form of memorial gifts may be made to Susquehanna SPCA, 4841 State Highway 28, Cooperstown, NY 13326.
Funeral arrangements were by the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.

Labels: 08-01-08, Helen Wilbur, Obituaries

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Galas Aplenty During August

August is shaping up as a month for galas and good times.
•
On Saturday, Aug. 16, you’ll be able to take a trip eight miles up Otsego Lake to Havana, in the form of Hyde Hall’s third annual fundraising gala on the theme, “We’re Gonna Turn Up The Year, Cuban Style,” featuring romance, games of chance, hand-rolled cigars, ‘Floridita’ bars, “and mucho more.”
Dance from 7 to midnight to the 10-piece band of Jose Conde’s 10-piece band. For reservations, call 547-5098, or check www.hydehall.org.
Proceeds benefit the restoration of Hyde Hall, the 1817 National Historic Landmark mansion on Hyde Bay.
•
To warm up for that gala, you can attend “A Gala Evening at The Otesaga,” honoring the Glimmerglass Opera Guild and hosted by Otesaga General Manager John Irvin.
The evening will begin at 6 with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres on the veranda, with attendees participating in a silent auction. A four-course gourmet meal, especially prepared by Executive Chef David Lockwood, will be served at 7. The opera’s Young American Artists Program will provide entertainment during dessert.
Tickets for the gala are $85 for guild members or $100 for nonmembers. Call Dennis Banks for reservations at 432-5652, or e-mail him at banksdn@oneonta.edu
•
Soprano Cindy Donaldson will sing popular hits at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3, at the Barrymore Café, part of the Cooperstown Theatre Festival on Route 80 south of Glimmerglass Opera.
•
The Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival has two more offerings in the next few days. The Daedalus Quartet with David Shifrin performs at at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3, at Christ Episcopal Church/ At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, a free “Flute Fest at The Otesaga” is planned.
Meanwhile, don’t forget to join The 200 Club, which is helping raise funds this year for the festival. Check Page 3 for details.

Labels: 08-01-08, Cooperstown Area Events, Glimmerglass

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2 Ways To Fill A Barn

SAM GOODYEAR

ART BEAT

This week we are considering two barns: The Windfall Dutch Barn, a pre-revolutionary restored structure in Salt Springville about eight miles north of Route 20 from East Springfield, and Glimmerglass Opera, hard to miss on Route 80 eight miles north of Cooperstown.
The Windfall Dutch Barn was used as a resting and feeding place during General Clinton’s wagon march to the Susquehanna River.
Noted architect Hugh Hardy used the barn structure and aesthetic as the starting point for his ingenious and moving Glimmerglass Opera house, which has taken to its rustic setting with increasing familiarity over its 21-year existence.
The Windfall Barn offers an annual summer concert series that is varied, pure, seriously stimulating, and criminally inexpensive. Ticket prices never exceed $8 and $3 (or even non-existent).
And yet on Thursday, July 24, there were far too many empty seats for a genial concert by the Leonata String Quartet and guest flutist Kyle Yacobucci.
I wouldn’t have minded if it had been amateurish and cacophonic
(which it was not), for the seductive structure itself invites reflection on how good life can be.
The second of Bach’s orchestral suites, a Mozart divertimento, Gershwin’s Lullaby, and Dvorak’s Humoreske satisfied the ear and the heart. There are several events left this summer. GO.
(518-993-2239/dalter@adelphia.net)
•
Why is it that at vastly more costly tickets, the barn at Glimmerglass is usually teeming with hundreds of patrons? Is increased expense the way to go? It beats me.
I do know, however, that you get your money’s worth there, too.
The fourth Shakespeare production of this season opened Saturday, July 26, with Vicenzo Bellini’s telling of the Romeo and Juliet story, “I Capuleti e i Montecchi.”
Attending any version of Romeo and Juliet is a bit like going to a retelling of the Titanic catastrophe. Both are so well known, there is no suspense.
But the powerful melodies and vocal lines of Bellini make up for any flagging interest in the plot.
One hears his operas (“Norma,” “La Sonnambula,” “I Puritani”...) but rarely, because they are almost unsingable. Rare are the voices that can do justice to this master of bel canto.
Well, you’ll be rewarded and enriched by the performances in general, but assaulted by pleasure and wonder by Sandra Piques Eddy (Romeo) and Sarah Coburn (Giulietta).
The vocal pyrotechnics for which Bellini is famous are a potential crowd-pleasing trap, successful and worthy of note only if they serve the emotion of the moment.
When it’s a “look at me” undertaking, it betrays art, and insults the public. In this production, there is integrity, honesty and purity, real Bellini.
Grumblers deriding the “modernist” and rock approach to some of Glimmerglass’s productions, need have no trepidation in this case.
Nineteenth Century traditions are reverently observed, and the music, deceptively simple but exaltingly lofty, will carry you with it, even if you loathe opera.
It is a joy to be able to hear Bellini in the Alice Busch Theater at last!

Sam Goodyear’s column on the arts in and around Otsego County appears weekly.

Labels: 08-01-08, Art Beat, Columns, Glimmerglass, Sam Goodyear

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At SweetTooth Cafe, Harriet Does What She Likes

By JIM KEVLIN

RICHFIELD SPRINGS

When Harriet was a 6-year-old in Middlebury, Vt., her mother bought her an Easy-Bake Oven.
“All I wanted to do was to bake,” she remembered the other day. “I’ve been doing it all my life. And I love it.”
When she retired from teaching in Utica public schools in 2004, she told her husband, Dick: “I want to do a bakery.”
In looking for a location, she heard about the one-room Hallsville schoolhouse in Pleasant Brook, east of Roseboom.
“Since I was a little girl,” she continued, “I always wanted a one-room schoolhouse: And there it was.”
It was meant to be.

Before long, she and Dick, a former B-52 bomber pilot who had retired as director of the Utica Refugee Center, were in the midst of renovations.
The schoolhouse was converted into a two-bedroom home, and the 1846 Methodist Protestant Church next door into the bakery.
Because of the location – Pleasant Brook, though delightful, is tiny – the Sesslers soon found a bakery could not fly on its own.
They added lunch.
Then they added what became one of the SweetTooth Schoolhouse’s signature features: Ethnic dinners, every two weeks.
The first was German – Dick is of German heritage and knew how to make sauerbrauten – but soon their offerings were ranging several continents.
Then Harriet remembered something else she loved.
Her memory was brought to the fore when she was in North Carolina visiting her daughter, who had a friend working at a place called La Teada’s, featuring afternoon tea and dress-up parties.
“I remember from my childhood how much I loved to dress up with my mother,” said Harriet.
Done.

“Dressing up brings out the little child, the little girl,” she continued. And, occasionally, also the little boy: She bought a couple of tuxedos and men’s hats when she discovered male patrons felt left out.
Last year, as the price of gasoline continued to rise, customers were less likely to hop into their cars and drive to Pleasant Brook.
Also, the Sesslers were driving back and forth daily from their home in Richfield Springs, 15 miles each way. It just seemed to make sense to look for something near home.
As it happened, Harriet had just the thing in mind, a former monument-company building on Lake Street, a high-peaked building made out of an unusual light-brown brick.
Harriet had heard it was tied up in an estate, but her Realtor made an inquiry, and within 24 hours they had an agreement to buy it.
At some point, someone had intended to turn the building into an Italian restaurant, and the fancy chandelier from a New York City hotel was already hanging in the middle of the room.
In the course of renovations, the Sesslers discovered the building’s foundation was made of stone from Belgium.
(Their mason told them ships used it as ballast, then the ballast was dumped at ports in the New York City area. Upstate folks would salvage it.)
If you’d driven along Lake Street over the winter, you would have seen Number 42 all boarded up. Little by little, the building brightened and brightened until, in early July, a bright pink sign went up by the road.
The Sesslers were back in business.

They’re serving lunch from 11 to 2, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There’s a lot of custom baking going on; lately, quite a few rhubard pies. Also, scones.
The private lunches and dinners are on the increase, birthday parties, showers. The Red Hats frequent the place.
There are dress-up teas and dress-up luncheons, just as Harriet envisioned.
And the ethnic nights are back. Friday, Aug. 1, French cuisine was featured. (The application is in for a liquor license, expected to be issued by fall.)
Friday, Aug. 16, there will be a Riggie Night, featuring that Italian-by-way-of-Utica specialty: breast of chicken in Alfredo sauce, with roasted red peppers, black olives, mushrooms, lots of Parmesan cheese, and “a few jalapenos.”
“Veeeeeeeeeery rich,” said Harriet.
Mini-strombolis, minestrone, antipasto and, for dessert, that crowd-pleaser, cannoli.
Saturday, Aug. 9, the Pleasant Brook era will officially end, as Lambrecht Auctions of Walton will be on the scene, selling off the two buildings and many of the antiques inside.
For now, Harriet and Dick are having a little too much fun to think too far ahead.
One thing’s for sure.
“We don’t want to get really huge,” said Harriet. “I don’t want to be mass-producing stuff. I want it to be small, cozy, so that people know us and we get to know our customers.”

Labels: 08-01-08, Features, Glimmerglass, Local Businesses

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:08 AM 0 comments

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