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.
Mark Simonson
A short but influential baseball season for Oneonta in 1912
- 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.
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Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
Area residents mulled over the idea of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as their next President of the United States. New fitness opportunities emerged for all ages. One area landmark was saved while another was razed. It was only a part of our life and times in May 1968.
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Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
In the economy that was the Great Depression, there were times people would do what it took to try to earn some money.
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Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
I realize I've got the wrong month in mind when I say "May came in like a lion." However, that's what happened in 1983 as a number of twisters moved through our region, leaving plenty of damage behind in their trails. Add some melting snow and heavy rain, and scenes of cleanups were widespread 30 years ago this month.
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Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
- Monday, April 29, 2013
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Job opportunities abounded in area 45 years ago
If you were looking for a job in April 1968 in our area, or perhaps looking to change your employment situation in the near future, opportunities were pointing in your favor.
- Saturday, April 27, 2013
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Oneonta greeted an aviation giant in 1928
An early aviation superstar came to Oneonta in 1928.
- Monday, April 22, 2013
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Area saw its own armed standoffs 30 years ago
This past Friday, we watched how the Boston area went into a lockdown during a tense search for the last suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Had I still been living and working in that area, as I was in the early 1990s, I would have had a day off from work Friday, as police scoured the city of Waltham.
- Saturday, April 20, 2013
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U.S.S. Maine explosion, war drew much local sentiment
For most people in our area in early 1898, a growing conflict between two distant nations probably didn't get much attention, other than some glances at the newspaper. When a young Oneonta man was one of many injured or killed in an explosion of a battleship he was aboard, the local attention increased markedly to what was soon to become the Spanish-American War.
- Monday, April 15, 2013
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Oneonta river walking path came from a surveyor's daydream
Leon Kalmus of Oneonta spent a lot of time surveying land near the Susquehanna River in the early 1970s around the time Interstate 88 was being planned and built in this area. What he saw along the shores of the river, he called “pristine,� and soon had an idea for some kind of walking or hiking pathway along the shores of the river in the town of Oneonta.
- Saturday, April 13, 2013
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Decline of Prohibition led to return of beer in April 1933
“I think this would be a good time for a beer,� remarked President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933. This marked the beginning of the end for Prohibition that year.
- Monday, April 8, 2013
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Dietz Street shifted from residential to commercial through the years
By taking a walk along Dietz Street today, heading north to Walnut Street, one can see a lot of businesses and the recently refurbished parking lot on the east side of the street. It would take some imagination to see this street lined with houses and a church, but prior to the late 1940s, that’s what was there.
- Saturday, April 6, 2013
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Oneontans voted for a 'dry' city in 1918
- Monday, April 1, 2013
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Future city historian kept family busy for Easter and April 1958
- Saturday, March 30, 2013
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Colliscroft became new Oneonta landmark in 1902
If the Oneonta building trade sector of the economy could have awarded a plaque to a most valuable individual customer of 1902, it would have nearly been a shoo-in. That was Edward H. Pardee, who was listed in the Oneonta Directory around that time as a farmer, on Southside.
- Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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Historic Cooperstown cottage got a new address in 1988
To unknowing tourists seeking information from the tourism information center at 31 Chestnut St. in Cooperstown, they would probably believe that the mid-19th century cottage had always been on that site. It blends in well with some of the grand old houses along that street, and the same tourists might think it has an interesting history behind it.
- Saturday, March 23, 2013
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Free mail delivery began in Oneonta 125 years ago
- Monday, March 18, 2013
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Oneonta enacted first building code 60 years ago
There will be no parade, fireworks display or commemorative coins minted for the occasion.
- Saturday, March 16, 2013
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Area isolated during historic March 1888 snowstorm
Earlier in the week, we recalled the "Blizzard of 1993," which was one containing historic snowfall that fell on our region on Saturday, March 13. It was the largest recorded in a single local snowfall in the 20th century, and ever since another storm dating back 105 years. The latter snowfall was worse than the 1993 storm, falling overnight into Tuesday, March 13, 1888. It was commonly referred to as the "Blizzard of 1888."
- Monday, March 11, 2013
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Blizzard of 1993 was a local memory maker
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