The Oneonta Outlaws will be opening another season soon with a home opener on Friday, June 8. Oneonta will be participating in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League. It will be a pretty short season, as regular-season play ends on Wednesday, Aug. 1.
Oneonta's baseball season in 1912 was much shorter than this, and even by mid-July there was still some uncertainty whether we'd have a team at all.
The Oneonta Star reported on Tuesday, July 16 that, "Negotiations for a summer ball team of college players now representing an Adirondack resort, where it is handicapped to secure teams with which to play, to come to Oneonta and represent this city on the diamond are now underway and it is expected that a definite decision will be reached today, with the indications quite encouraging for a favorable outcome of negotiations. The fans appear quite united in favor of engaging the team and there is believed to be no doubt that games can be secured with Stamford, Sidney, Norwich and the Typewriters at Ilion, combined with the Cuban and Royal Giants to assure the city three games weekly until Labor day."
The Ilion Typewriters team was from the Remington factory in that Mohawk Valley village.
Oneonta's hopeful team was coming from the resort town of Saranac Lake.
The hopeful team became assured for Oneonta, as reported the next day.
The baseball field of 1912 was very rustic in comparison to what we know today as Damaschke Field, and getting it into better shape was on the minds of many Oneontans before the season started, in less than a week.
"In order to secure the grounds and improve the same at Neahwah park (Elm park)," the Star reported, "an athletic association will be formed and a meeting will be held for that purpose this evening, at the Municipal building, at 8 o'clock."
That is today's 242 Main St.
"It is hoped that all willing to contribute to the fund for improving the grounds permanently and maintaining the team during the summer will be present and unite in the organization of the club," the report continued.
The Oneonta Athletic Association was formed, and Judge Abraham L. Kellogg served as its first president.
"The association hopes to be in a position next spring to erect a substantial new grandstand upon the grounds and have them in excellent condition for the opening of the regular summer season on July 1."
In the meantime, the 1912 season had to be dealt with and it was reported on Saturday, July 20, that work was progressing "favorably" on the grounds for the home opener on July 23.
The team arrived from Saranac Lake on July 20. The team was set to stay in rooms in the Myrtle Avenue area, and have meals at the home of Cassius and Mary Parshall, prior to the years that Mary opened the Parshall Hospital, which is today's Parshall Apartments.
Oneonta kept its three-games-per-week schedule until Labor Day, finishing the season with 18 wins, eight losses and one tie.
The season summary was reported on Saturday, Sept. 7, and told that the best overall competitive teams to be matched for the season were Oneonta and Stamford. There were no playoffs or a league championship.
Team manager Daniel Sullivan was given high praise in bringing the team to Oneonta and working with them.
Sullivan returned to his job in the autumn at Dean Academy in Franklin, Mass., where he was physical director and athletic coach. Several of the players were also reported to return to study that fall at Dean Academy.
On Monday: A new form of transportation is introduced during the tourist season in Cooperstown, 25 years ago.
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 email him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Columns
A short but influential baseball season for Oneonta in 1912
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
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My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
Ask any hospital administrators if they've ever heard of a closed hospital in New York state that has ever been re-opened. They will say, "Impossible." In a half century of going through records you can't find any.
Continued ... - Catching a whiff of 'Vermont Vapor'
- Selections from the virtual mailbag
- Recalling days of 'Doughnut King'
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My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
- Cary Brunswick
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We've become our own worst enemies
The past month has been marked by a seeming unprecedented number of man-made tragedies, as distinct from those caused by violent outbursts of the natural world, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
Continued ... - Plenty of blame to go around for Bangladesh horror
- Obama is going against his word on Social Security
- Reflecting on a Florida trip
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We've become our own worst enemies
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
Continued ... - The evangelical view of same-sex marriage
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- Use fracking to fill budget gaps
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
- Lisa Miller
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A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
Continued ... - Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
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- Mark Simonson
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Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
Continued ... - Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
- Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
- Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
- Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
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- Rick Brockway
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
When I was in my teens, old Bill Naatz told me about a stream north of Lake George where a man had panned out enough gold to make his wife a wedding band. It was all rumors, but to his grandson and myself, it sounded like the makings of a great adventure.
- People make the outdoors even better
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- Spring air isn't always the freshest
- Adriondacks keep growing and growing
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
- Sam Pollak
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Using time off in the worst way possible
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Continued ... - Terror lives on, and there's no end in sight
- Remembering the glory of their times
- Column on guns led to a barrage of (mostly) jeers
- No one is coming to take your guns
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Using time off in the worst way possible
- William Masters
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
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Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
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Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
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Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
