Cooperstown’s Chris Ubner swept a series of baseball award announced last week.
Ubner shared the Most Valuable Player Award from the Center State Conference Division II, with teammate Kendall Haney.
Ubner also won Player of the Year Awards from two Upstate newspapers, the Utica Observer-Dispatch and the Syracuse Herald.
Haney was named to the Syracuse All-Star team as well.
Ubner’s Utica announcement carried the biggest surprise as the Mohawk Valley Award was announced by Atlanta Braves Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, in a video presentation.
Both players played multiple positions for Cooperstown, including pitcher and around the infield, leading the Hawkeyes to two section titles and a spot in the 2019 Class C championship game. Both will play college baseball, Ubner at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill and Haney at Herkimer County Community College.
HOME GAME – 7 p.m. Local PGCBL baseball team, the Oneonta Outlaws will host the Albany Dutchman for the team’s home opener at Damaschke Field in Oneonta. 607-432-6326 or visit www.facebook.com/oneontaoutlawsbaseball/.
Cooperstown Dreams Park is set to open Friday, July 23, without masks or any guidelines on social distancing, according to the park’s website.
However, a vaccine will be required for participating children and adults.
The opening will include no restrictions on high fiving or other physical contact, as well as face-to-face pin and baseball card training.
The 2021 baseball camp is set to go through August.
Dreams Park gives participants a chance to play in tournaments, visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and watch baseball games at Doubleday Field.
According to their website, Dreams Park gets approximately 500,000 visitors per year, hosting teams for 13 weeks of tournaments. However, it was closed last year because of the coronavirus pandemic and had earlier in the year put its season in doubt when it issued guidelines for campers requiring vaccinations.
For more information, call 704-630-0050 or email baseballoperations@cooperstowndreampark.com.
By CHARLIE VASCELLARO • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
It came as a surprise to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the baseball community at large when Tim Mead stepped down from his position as President of the Hall of Fame after less than two years on the job.
What would seem to be the dream job for almost anyone who works in the baseball industry was never fully realized for Mead whose brief tenure coincided with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and was marred by the unprecedented passing of 10 members of the Hall of Fame in about a year.
“What Dale and Jeff (former presidents Petrosky and Idelson, respectively) had been able to accomplish in terms of the travel and all, obviously we had 10 Hall of Famers pass away and we weren’t able to attend those services, the only one I was able to go to was Whitey Ford’s mass and Jeff was able to fly in from San Francisco for that one,” Mead said in an interview before his departure from the Hall on May 15.
Former National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum President Tim Mead, left, poses with his predecessor and successor, Jeff Idelson, in this 2019 photo.
With the 2021 baseball season underway and the Hall of Fame announcing its decision to hold this year’s induction ceremony indoors in a custom-made television studio*, and without fans in attendance, Mead announced his decision to step down from his post on April 16.
“It’s particularly tough with family being back (in California),” he said. “I have a grandson that is 30 months old and a granddaughter coming in September. That aspect of things has been a bit more challenging than perhaps I allowed myself to believe it would be.
Mead was hired to replace Idelson in June of 2019, presiding over the Hall of Fame’s 2019 Induction and represented the Hall of Fame at the Major League All-Star game in Cleveland.
Cooperstown won two blowouts and a tight conference game with a controversial ending in a four-day stretch to stay undefeated in baseball.
The Hawkeyes started the weekend by honoring their seniors at Doubleday Field on Friday, May 14, before a 14-1 win over Frankfort-Schuyler in a Center State Conference game.
Chris Ubner hit a grand slam home run and pitched four scoreless innings for the win.
Cooperstown senior Chris Ubner, center, tips his helmet following a grand slam to left center field at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown on Friday, May 14. Ubner had five RBIs on the day and was the winning pitcher. (Greg Klein/Allotsego)
Cooperstown led 11-0 before F-S got on the scoreboard off reliever Derek Moore in the sixth inning.
Treston Emerick relieved Moore and got out of a bases loaded, one-out jam, getting two outs on four pitches. Emerick finished the game with a scoreless seventh inning.
Ubner went 2-for-4 with 5 RBIs and two runs scored. He faced just 12 batters in four innings, although his defense helped him with two double plays. He got five strikeouts and gave up one walk and one hit.
Kendall Haney also had a home run, to almost the same spot in left center field where Ubner cleared the wall, and went 1-for-2 with two runs. Moore went 3-for-4 and scored two runs and Alex Poulson went 1-for-3 and scored three runs.
Milford’s Leeanna West slides safely into second with a stolen base as Franklin shortstop Patricia Rodriguez catches a late throw from her catcher Friday, May 7, in Milford. (Cheryl Clough/AllOTSEGO.com)
Four Cooperstown pitchers combined for a no-hitter in a 10-0 win at Herkimer in a Center State Conference baseball game Monday, May 10.
Starter Alex Poulson got the win for Cooperstown, pitching four innings, striking out eight batters, walking two.
Kendall Haney, Liam Ford and Alex Hage each pitched one inning in relief, each facing just three Herkimer batters.
Hage, Derek Moore and Tristan Emerick each scored twice. Brady Hascup had two RBI and scored a run and stole three bases. Cooperstown scored six runs in the fifth inning to break the game open.
Cooperstown (4-0, 1-0) plays Adirondack at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 12, in Boonville.
Cooperstown junior pitcher Marley Lippitt winds up during the Hawkeyes’ 12-5 win over visiting Oneonta on Thursday, May 6.
Junior Marley Lippett and Sophomore Dani Seamon combined for 16 strike outs as the Hawkeyes improved to 3-0 with a 12-5 softball win over visiting Oneonta on Thursday, May 6, at Cooperstown Central School.
Lippett went four innings in her debut game of the year, after missing a doubleheader at Canastota on Saturday, May 2, because of COVID protocol. She gave up four hits and five runs.
Lippett struck out eight batters, including pitching out of a first inning jam. After striking out the first batter of the game, she walked two batters and let them get to second and third with one one.
However, she got Jenna Gaisford on a fly ball out and struck out Makenzie Pierce to end the inning.
COOPERSTOWN– Cooperstown’s softball players organized a 2.5 mile walk around the village Wednesday, April 28, to raise money and awareness for autism.
About 30 softball players, including modified, junior varsity and varsity players, walked from Cooperstown’s middle/high school to Main Street and back. They were joined by teachers, coaches, parents and one of their classmates who is on the autism spectrum, junior Kai Boulet, who led the walk.
From left, senior softball players Ellie Hotaling, Abby Miller and Carly Erway lead a group of teammates and younger players on a walk for autism awareness Wednesday, April 28, in Cooperstown.
The event was sponsored by the school’s Leadership Training for Athletes program, with support from LTA sponsor Monica Wolfe, who coaches the modified softball team, and special education teacher Stephanie Nelen and Boulet’s aide, Dawn Chase.
The teams raised $1,400 for the Kelberman Center, with seventh graders Arya Patel and Kayleigh Butler raising the most money individually, $665 and $415, respectively.
Contributed/Coker University Sports Information Department Former Cooperstown Central School standout Reilly Hall is having a great senior season at Coker College in South Carolina.
At the beginning of the 2021 baseball season, Coker University senior outfielder Riley Hall had five career collegiate home runs. He matched that total Saturday, April 3, during a doubleheader at the University of Virginia-Wise.
Hall, a 2017 graduate of Cooperstown Central School and former Oneonta Outlaw, hit two home runs in the first game and three more in the second game to pace the Cobras, who combined for ten homers in the sweep, an 18-1 victory that was shortened to five innings by run rule and an 11-5 win, respectively.
Hall also hit a solo home run in the top of the seventh of an 8-4 loss in the seven-inning opening game of the series Friday, April 2. Coker beat the Cavaliers, 10-4, in the nine-inning second game.
With the series win, the Cobras improved their overall record to 13-16 and 12-11 in conference play and moved into seventh place in the 13 team South Atlantic Conference.
Coker University is an NCAA Division II school in Hartsville, South Carolina.
Lori Paparteys and her dog, Bailey, pose during their Otsego Octet Ultra Challenge. Paparteys and Bailey completed the trail challenge in one day.
With tourism dealt another pandemic-related blow last week, Otsego County’s leaders are increasingly turning to outdoor adventures to lure visitors.
“We’re actually in the process right now of trying to launch a massive campaign to tout our outdoor adventure,” said Cassandra Harrington, executive director of Destination Marketing Corporation, which promotes tourism in Otsego and Schoharie counties.
Harrington said the tourism news has been mostly dismal in the week since Cooperstown Dreams Park announced it would require all teams playing at the park’s summer tournaments to be vaccinated for the coronavirus pandemic. The uncertainty of getting vaccinations for children and a hard refund deadline has left dozens of teams in a catch-22, leading to hundreds of reported cancellations.
23 fifth grade students from Milford Central School also completed the Otsego Octet Challenge from Otsego Outdoors.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s winter announcement that it was moving its postponed 2020 Induction Weekend to a virtual event, had already crushed pre-pandemic hopes for a record sized crowd for Derek Jeter’s induction.
However, the reopening of the baseball parks, Dreams Park in Hartwick Seminary and Cooperstown All-Star Village in West Oneonta, was a big pillar of the county’s hopes for a renewed summer of tourism. All-Star Village has not announced similar vaccination requirements for its teams, but the Dreams Park changes make its June opening unlikely, Harrington said.
“Now that the bottom fell out with Dreams Park, our accommodations are dealing with a flood of cancellations,” she said. “So, we really need those outdoor visitors more than ever.”
The Nader family chose this photo of their patriarch, Sam Nader, with Damaschke Field, home of his Oneonta Yankees, in the background.
Editor’s Note: Here is the obituary prepared by Sam Nader’s family.
Albert S. “Sam” Nader passed away on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021, at his home as he wished, surrounded by members of his family.
He was born on July 8, 1919, in Oneonta, the son of Elias Andrew Nader and Rose Rajah Nader (Nassar). He was one of six Nader children. Sam Nader spent nearly his entire life in Oneonta. He was a proud lifelong resident of the 6th Ward and became an integral member of the community.
He graduated from Oneonta High School in 1938, where he excelled as a lefthanded pitcher. Mr. Nader attended Bates College and later Hartwick College and played baseball at both institutions.
As World War II approached, Mr. Nader began working for the Scintilla Magneto division of the Bendix Corp. in Sidney.
ASK THE EXPERT – 2 p.m. Learn the process curators use to evaluate artifacts for use in baseball exhibits. Includes Q&A session in Zoom chat function. Free, registration required. Presented by The Baseball Hall of Fame. 607-547-7200 or visit baseballhall.org/events/virtual-ask-the-expert-artifacts?date=0
WRITERS SALON – 7:30 p.m. First virtual writers salon by CANO. Features presentation by local author Jennifer Donohue with opportunity for Q&A. Presented by Community Arts Network of Oneonta. Visit www.facebook.com/CANOneonta for info.
BASEBALL DISCUSSION – 11 a.m. Join Baseball Hall of Fame for conversation with former Major Leaguer Al Oliver on his career including playing at world cup with the Pittsburgh Pirates, then his post baseball career as a motivational speaker. Free, registration required. Visit baseballhall.org/events/geography-baseball-to-coast-20?date=0 for info.
