SPRINGFIELD PARADE – 11 a.m. One of the oldest 4th of July parades in the country returns from a two-year hiatus. Parade will feature floats, marching bands, equestrian and much more to honor veterans groups, fire departments, and community organizations from all over the region. Will be followed by music, Brooks BBQ, historical displays, a quilt show, raffles, and much more at the Springfield Community Center and then a concert at 7:30 at Glimmerglass State Park, followed by fireworks. Parade will proceed down Rt 20 and Rt 80 to The Springfield Community Center, 129 Co. Hwy. 29A, Springfield Center. 315-858-0304 or visit www.facebook.com/SpringfieldParade/
HOMETOWN 4TH – 1 p.m. Kick off the 4th of July celebrations with a parade down Main Street Oneonta finishing at Neahwa Park where there will be live music, dance, kids activities, food, arts & crafts, and much more. Continues to 9:30 with Fireworks and then a fireworks afterparty featuring Cosmic Karma Fire Spinners and Hanzolo from 10 – 11 p.m. Neahwa Park, Oneonta. Visit www.hometown4th.com
CONCERT & FIREWORKS – 7:30 p.m. After parades and festivities head down to the beach for an Independence Day concert featuring the Council Rock Band. Followed by Fireworks at dusk. Glimmerglass State Park, 1527 Co. Rd., 31, Cooperstown. Visit www.facebook.com/SpringfieldParade
Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch (photo courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame)
Take a look at National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum President Josh Rawitch’s Twitter account and you’ll meet a person not just embracing his profession, but also serving as a de facto ambassador for the Village of Cooperstown. He and his family – wife Erin and children Emily and Braden – relocated to the village nearly one year ago from the sprawling Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, Arizona, and they’ve welcomed their new lives in a much smaller town in the northeast.
“It’s been exactly what we thought it was going to be,” Mr. Rawitch said in a discussion with The Freeman’s Journal / Hometown Oneonta marking one year since the Hall announced his appointment as its eighth president. “We dove head-first into life in Cooperstown, everything from our kids getting into school activities, my wife getting involved with non-profits, starting to make friends with people who live here. All of that is like we thought it would be.”
He shares with his on-line followers pictures of scenes like the small bridge arching over Willow Brook near Lake Street or a stop at the Cooperstown Diner on Main Street.
“I’m trying to give people a little slice of what life is like with my Twitter account,” he said. “Not everybody can come here, so I try to give them a little bit of the flavor.”
“You can’t really know until you live it what small-town life is going to be like,” Mr. Rawitch said. “There are so many unique things to this town that we love, from the mom-and-pop shops to the walkability of it all to the grade schools to life on the lake. It’s such a special place. On top of it all it happens to have this unbelievable baseball mecca in the middle of it. It’s just an awesome place.”
As he did one year ago upon his appointment, Mr. Rawitch spoke of his deep appreciation for his baseball career, which began at age 18 as an intern for the Los Angeles Dodgers – there for 15 years before a decade with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Those jobs, he said, prepared him well for the leadership role at the Hall of Fame.
WRITING GROUP – 6:30 p.m. Bring your notebooks, pens/pencils and be ready to share your writing in a supportive writing group. Springfield Library, 129 Co. Rd. 29A, Springfield. 315-858-5802 or visit libraries.4cls.org/springfield/
All five out of a possible five stars to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and its expert staff for kick-starting Cooperstown’s first learning-how-to-deal-with-COVID summer with the return of its joyous “Hall of Fame Classic,” a holiday weekend gathering that brought some 4,000 fans to Doubleday Field last Saturday and brought the village to near-summer-strength life almost overnight. Visitors crowded Main Street until everyone seemingly decamped to Brewery Ommegang for the Avett Brothers and Lake Street Dive show on Saturday night and left Main Street oddly quiet – but that was temporary. Sunday was another busy day.
CANOE REGATTA – 5:30 p.m. The General Clinton Canoe Regatta returns this year with a weekend of races and events. Friday includes the Youth races for teens 11-18 and the generation gap races starting from the Sydney Fishing Access. The park will feature the rides, craft fair, and flee market with the Taste of the Regatta event including local food, entertainment, more. The 70 mile endurance race will be Sunday, May 20 and will start from Brookwood Point, Cooperstown. Public events will be held at General Clinton Park, 2520 NYS Hwy. 7, Bainbridge. Visit www.facebook.com/2022GCCR/
BASEBALL AUTHOR – 2 p.m. Major League umpire Dale Scott will be on hand to discuss his new book ‘The Umpire Is Out: Calling the Game and Living My True Self’ about his career in professional baseball as the only umpire to come out as Gay. Bullpen Theater, Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown. 607-547-7200 or visit baseballhall.org/events/author-series-dale-scott?date=0
The National Baseball Hall of Fame welcomed David Ortiz, a member of the Class of 2022 Hall of Fame Inductees, to the museum this week. “Only one percent of all the men who ever played Major League Baseball is honored in this Hall,” said Jane Forbes Clark, Chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. “Congratulations and welcome, Mr. Ortiz.” “This is my first time ever being here, and I have goosebumps. I’m so honored,” Mr. Ortiz said. “As a kid you dream of this, to be among the greatest players of the game. And here I am!” Left to right: Josh Rawitch, President of the Hall of Fame; Ms. Jane Forbes Clark and David Ortiz.
OPENING GALA – 5:30 – 7 p.m. Celebrate the opening of the exhibit of the works entered in the Leaf Art & Poetry Contest. Will feature refreshments, live music, & poets reading their works. Free, open to the public. Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown. 607-432-0090 or visit www.facebook.com/LEAFArtContest
PLANETARIUM – 7 – 8 p.m. Hop online for virtual deep dive into space and its wonders. This month take a deep dive into the science behind nebulae and galaxies. Free, registration REQUIRED. Presented by The A.J. Read Science Discovery Center, SUNY Oneonta. Visit www.eventbrite.com/o/science-discovery-center-and-planetarium-14332374215
Hall of Famer and Detroit Tiger great Alan Trammel has a high-five for Milwaukee Brewers’ star Trevor Hoffman at the 2019 Hall of Fame Classic. Photo courtesy of Milo V. Stewart, Jr.
Hall of Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins told his Twitter following that he “can’t wait!” for Memorial Day Weekend when the Hall of Fame Classic returns to Cooperstown’s Doubleday Field after a two-year pandemic absence.
Tickets for the Saturday, May 28 game are on sale now for fans who want to see Mr. Jenkins, along with Hall of Famers Wade Boggs, Jack Morris, Tim Raines, and Ted Simmons play a seven-inning
Coming up in this week’s print edition of The Freeman’s Journal / Hometown Oneonta (available this afternoon!) … the Baseball Hall of Fame brings back its popular ‘Classic’ festivities for Memorial Day Weekend … Cooperstown honors its very own Grace Kull … Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek deputizes some very eager kids … Ommegang has concerts coming this summer … Richard DeRosa reflects on coming home … Babe Ruth’s grandson has some thoughts on uniform numbers … we take the short drive to Richfield Springs for a mighty lunch at the Co-op … Merl Reagle‘s crossword puzzle … and more!
U.S. Small Business Administration chief Isabella Casillas Guzman, right, chats at the Baseball Hall of Fame with, from left, Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch, Vice President Eric Strohl, and Congressman Antonio Delgado during a March 4 tour of small businesses in Cooperstown.
SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, a member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet, stopped first with the Congressman at Cooperstown Distillery, joined there by village Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, Otsego County Treasurer Allen Ruffles, and regional SBA officials. Distillery owner Gene Marra hosted the tour.
“We believe in local small businesses,” Mr. Marra told the delegation. “We use local grains from our farm in Canajoharie and from Rochester, we get our barrels from Remsen. It’s a complete New York thing.”
He pointed to assistance from the Village and the SBA in his work to expand his Railroad Avenue business from 3,000 to 12,000 square feet; Rep. Delgado noted the expansion of the craft beverage marketplace as important to upstate New York’s economy.
“Agritourism is big business in this part of the country,” Mr. Marra agreed. As he displayed the Distillery’s exclusive baseball, football, and golf club-shaped bottles, he noted, “The Wall Street Journal is calling New York the ‘Kentucky of the North’ because we’re distilling so much world-class bourbon. There are 90 distilleries here now, of course, ours is the best of them!”
Rep. Delgado and Administrator Guzman next visited Cooperstown Bat, a manufacturer of game-ready baseball bats for players of all ages and the third-oldest bat company in the United States.
FILM SCREENING – 7 p.m. Join the Cooperstown Film Society for screening of ‘Bonnie & Clyde.’ Village Library of Cooperstown. Visit www.facebook.com/FilmSocCoop
The head of President Joe Biden’s Small Business Administration, Isabella Casillas Guzman, spent the afternoon of Friday, March 4 in Cooperstown with Congressman Antonio Delgado hosting a tour of some of the Village’s best-known small businesses. Along with Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh and Otsego County Treasurer Allen Ruffles, the group discussed the president’s key infrastructure initiative, SBA outreach, pandemic relief and recovery, and other issues before convening a small business forum at Cooperstown Village Hall. Here, from left to right, Rep. Delgado, Mayor Tillapaugh, Baseball Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch, and Administrator Casillas Guzman listen as Eric Strohl, Vice President of Exhibits and Collections at the Hall of Fame, shares details of the ‘women in baseball’ exhibit on permanent display at the Hall. Earlier in the afternoon, the group visited Cooperstown Distillery on Railroad Avenue and Cooperstown Bat Company on Main Street. We’ll have a full story on the afternoon coming up in the March 10 print and on-line editions of The Freeman’s Journal / Hometown Oneonta / allotsego.com.
FENIMORE QUILT SHOW – 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. View this years creations from the Fenimore Quilt Club. On show through 2/26. Cooperstown Art Association, 22 Main St., Cooperstown. 607-547-9777 or visit www.cooperstownart.com
