INSIDE: WHERE THE STARS ARE SIGNING/a7
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Volume 208, No. 29
Cooperstown’s Newspaper
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SOUVENIR
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INDUCTION 2016
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For 208 Years
Newsstand Price $1
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, July 21, 2016
Amid Wreckage Of Twin Towers, Baseball Gave Glimmer Of Hope FDNY Battalion Chief Mavaro To Speak This Weekend On Memento By LIBBY CUDMORE COOPERSTOWN
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he work was grim. It was nearing the end of September 2011, and FDNY Battalion Chief Vin Mavaro was digging through the rubble of the World
The Freeman’s Journal
Cooperstown Brewing Co.’s Sarah Haight of Davenport holds up a bottle of Induction Ale, a rye beer with a touch of orange the Milford brewery has created for a second year. The souvenir label bears Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza’s jersey numbers.
54 Immortals Due On Stand At Ceremony
IF YOU GO: 4:30 p.m. Saturday, July 23, FDNY’s Vin Mavaro at Doubleday Field awards ceremony.
Trade Center. “We knew it was no longer a rescue mis-
sion,” he said. “It was recovery. Everything was pulverized. You didn’t see desks or phones, just concrete chunks and twisted metal.” And then, hope. “I saw this round object and dusted it off,” he said. “It was a baseball. That FDNY Battalion Chief Vin Mavaro pauses at the baseball came out of the scene of the Twin Towers clean-up, where he Please See MAVARO, B7 spent many weeks after 9/11.
Piazza Ties Griffey At Hall Finish Line
Lowest, Highest Draft Picks Share Induction Dais By LIBBY CUDMORE
COOPERSTOWN
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ifty-four Hall of Famers, from A to Y – Aaron to Yount – are expected to attend the Sunday, July 24, Baseball Hall of Fame Induction of Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza. The Induction begins at 1:30 p.m. in the field to the east of the Clark Sports Center, at the end of Susquehanna Avenue. Other immortals attending include Johnny Bench, Rollie Fingers, Carlton Fisk, Reggie Jackson, Randy Johnson, Tony Perez, Cal Ripken, Brooks Robinson and Joe Torre. ROSE SIGNS: Pete Rose planned to be in the village Wednesday through Induction Day, signing autographs mornings at Safe At Home, 91 Main St. NEW SPIKES: The spikes worn by the Marlins’ Ichiro Suzuki when he stole his 500th career base on April 29 against the Brewers is among the latest additions to Hall of Fame exhibits.
COOPERSTOWN
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arly on in his career with the LA Dodgers, Mike Piazza almost walked away from baseball entirely. “I wasn’t having any fun,” he said. “I was struggling to learn catching as a position, and I tried to quit.” Dodgers owner Tommy Lasorda, a friend of Piazza’s father, had selected the young player in the 62nd round of the 1988 Major League Amateur draft, and convinced him to stay. “I apologized,” Piazza said. “And I was glad they convinced me to come back.” At the other end of the scale was his fellow 2016 Hall of Fame inductee, Ken Griffey Jr., who was a first-round draft pick by the Seattle Mariners in 1987. “My dad taught me that things are not just handed to you,” he said. “I know my name got me another look, but I had to do what everybody else did.” After four tries on the Hall of Fame ballot, Piazza received 83 percent of the vote, making him Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal the lowest-drafted player ever to enter the Hall. Jessica Cannata, daughter of Shoeless Joe’s Hall of Shame proprietors Joe and Griffey, elected to the Hall his first time on the ballot, will be the only number-one draft pick in Laura Cannata, shows off some of the Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza offerings, hot the Hall; Reggie Jackson – a second-round draft sellers this weekend at the 66 Main St. shop and all the downtown baseball stores. pick – was closest. pitcher Tom Seaver’s 98.84 percent in 1992. he said. “I discovered I really enjoyed becoming Before Piazza, John Smoltz, a 22nd-round Griffey and Piazza were interviewed in sepaa student of catching.” pick and a 2015 inductee, was the lowest-draft rate conference calls Friday, July 15. And although Griffey’s father, Ken Griffey pick to enter the Hall. As he remembers it, nearly quitting only drove Sr., played for the Cincinnati Reds – including as Griffey received 99.32 percent of the vote, Piazza harder. “I had to prove my worth, prove part of the 1975 and ’76 World Series wins breaking a record previously held by Mets’ that I was serious about doing the best I could,” Please See INDUCTEES, B6
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