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elcome, Mr. President! National Baseball Hall of Fame May 22, 2014, Cooperstown NY
HOMETOWN ONEONTA E!
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& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch COMMEMORATIVE EDITION
Volume 6, No. 35
Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, May 23, 2014
Complimentary
COMMEMORATIVE EDITION
OBAMA’S VISIT HoF HOME RUN First Fan Throws ‘First Pitch’ On 75th Fete Brand USA Giving Lift To Tourism
By JIM KEVLIN & LIBBY CUDMORE COOPERSTOWN
J
eff Idelson, National Baseball Hall of Fame president, isn’t taking any credit for the First Fan’s planned Thursday, May 22, visit to 25 Main. “As far as I understand it, with White House events, you get a little bit of notice and you go from there,” said Idelson. The phone rang the Thursday before. It was Ken Meifert, the Hall’s VP for development. He had just gotten a call, out of the blue, advising him President Barack Obama would be paying a visit. “It originated out of the White House,” said Idelson. “It was the White House’s idea. And I can’t think of a better one.” As for the Hall’s 75th anniversary season – it seems to be just a coincidence, he said, that it starts just two days after the president’s visit with the annual Hall of Fame Classic game. News that President Obama would be visiting Cooperstown – the first sitting president since Martin Van Buren got lost in Woodside Hall’s garden after a reception in 1839 – was an AP story out of Washington Friday afternoon the 16th. The next morning in his weekly radio address, about bringing jobs homes from overseas, the president declared, “I’ll be heading to Cooperstown, New York – home of the Baseball Hall of Fame – to talk about tourism. “Because believe it or not, tourism is an export. And if we make it easier for more foreign visitors to visit and spend money at America’s attractions and unparalleled national parks, that helps local businesses and grows the economy for everyone,” he said, before Please See PRESIDENT, A6
JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
Y
ou’ve probably never heard of Brand USA. Or the National Travel & Tourism Strategy. Or the Travel Promotion Act of 2010, which created them both. Or that the Commerce Department and the U.S. Travel Promotion Association, which lobbies for the tourism industry, aim to attract 100 million tourists a year from other Please See TOURISM, A6
CCS WELCOMES PRESIDENT
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Art by Waylon Cassell
or portraits of President Obama by Mrs. Righi’s first-graders and all the news first on his Thursday, May 22, to Cooperstown, visit to the National Baseball Hall of Fame GO TO THE RELAUNCHED Official White House photo
Barack Obama, 44th President of The United States
www.
AllOTSEGO.com
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD