Believe it or not, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will be celebrating the "Big 7-0" next week, on Friday, June 12. All are welcome to attend the birthday party in Cooperstown, and you can check www.baseballhalloffame.org for the details.
The Hall's 50th anniversary was pretty special as it got in the national spotlight ahead of time, being featured on NBC's "Today" show.
While this may not sound impressive these days, the event was big as satellite remote programming was still new and popular, making this Cooperstown program a cinch to produce for NBC.
NBC production crews arrived in Cooperstown a few days ahead of the Friday, June 2, 1989, morning show. They got a couple of places set up in the village, inside Doubleday Field and with the Hall of Fame entrance as a set backdrop.
The show opened Friday morning with a live shot of baseball's forerunner, "town ball," being played at Doubleday Field. About 100 spectators were seated curbside in front of the Hall of Fame as host Bryant Gumbel did an opening segment. Co-host Jane Pauley was in New York, and weatherman Willard Scott was in Washington, all linked by the new satellite technology.
Gumbel later led interviews with William Guilfoile, Hall associate director, and Ted Spencer, museum curator, who explained the selection of memorabilia for display at the Hall.
After a break with news and weather, it was back to Gumble inside the Hall for interviews with Hall of Fame pitchers Warren Spahn and Bob Gibson.
After a few TV breaks, the crew and Gumbel moved over to Doubleday Field. The number of spectators had grown to about 200 by this time, and continued to grow.
Another break had a move to along the third-base line, and Gumble, surrounded by onlookers, broke out the umbrellas as a light rain began to fall.
"We came to see the museum," said one Mets fan with a friend, who was a Yankees fan. "We didn't know about this."
The show concluded with Gumble thanking Ed Stack, Hall of Fame president.
That was just the start of the day's activities on June 2. Hours after the "Today" show signed off, Otsego County tourism promoters called a news conference to give the official kickoff to Summer Festival 1989, focused on Cooperstown, and a tour of Otsego Lake aboard the Chief Uncas of the classic boat tours offered May through October.
Summer Festival opened officially on Saturday, June 10, with a parade, dedication and afternoon baseball to celebrate the Hall of Fame's 50th anniversary, which opened to the public in 1939.
The festival continued throughout the summer to the weekend of Sept. 15-17, which was set aside to recognize the 200th anniversary of the birthday of novelist James Fenimore Cooper.
The "Today" show's national exposure was only the beginning of publicity for Summer Festival. Public-service announcements for radio and television were being distributed across the country.
While the statewide announcements focused on children having fun in Cooperstown with boating tours, batting practice and visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame, the nationwide announcements featured former Boston Red Sox hitter Carl Yastrzemski narrating a piece about baseball and Cooperstown. Yastrzemski was set be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in July.
The local tourism effort was big in 1989, however this was just about ten years before the current baseball camps began opening in Cooperstown and Oneonta.
This weekend: Big and sudden changes came for Oneonta professional baseball in 1924.
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City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.
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