INSIDE: details on the 4 inductees/a6
O M C O PE
Cooperstown’s Newspaper
L
EDITION
•F
OUNDED
IA
SOUVENIR
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1808 BY
Volume 207, No. 29
INDUCTION 2015 IN
O ANDY J MOLTZ R , O I G BIG NS CRAIG ARTINEZ, JOH ly 26 M , Ju PEDRO p.m., Sunday nter 1:30 k Spor ts Ce NY Clar stown, r e p o o C
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seball a B l a nationll of Fame , Ha HNSON
For 207 Years
Newsstand Price $1
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, July 23, 2015
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
DG
INDUC
JU
015 TION 2
HIZZONER!
The Freeman’s Journal
Matt Birch, a member of the Clark Foundation team preparing the sports center field for the Sunday, July 25, Induction, examines securing barricades being set up Tuesday, July 21.
Be On Watch For 53 Greats 0f The Game COOPERSTOWN
I
ncluding the four nominees, 53 Hall of Famers are expected to be in Cooperstown this weekend. Keep your eyes open for such greats of the game as Hank Aaron, Carlton Fisk, Sandy Koufax, Cal Ripken Jr., Brooks Robinson, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Joe Torre. For a schedule of MLB players who will be signing autographs on Main Street over Induction Weekend, see page A2. FOLLOW ACTION: For updates, photos and video of the action in Cooperstown through the weekend, visit WWW.ALLOTSEGO.COM INSTANT IMAGES: Inductee Randy Johnson, an avid photographer, will be distributing photos of his experiences this weekend via Instagram. ON MLB.COM: The Induction Ceremony will be transmitted live on the MLB Network to 70 million homes nationwide.
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
When they find out Jeff Katz is Cooperstown mayor, Dreams Park teams thrill at the chance to pose with him.
Cooperstown Mayor Jeff Katz 1st Fan Of National Pastime AND Of Village heartbroken,” said Katz. “I realized I loved Tom Seaver much more than I did the COOPERSTOWN Mets. That broke the spell of rooting for a team. eff Katz, the first “I became very much mayor in a while on the side of the players who is both a fan of – because of Seaver. People Cooperstown and of basetend to blame everybody ball, spent his equally” – the first few years in players, the ownBrooklyn, where ers. “That’s not it was all about exactly true when the Mets. “In you get into the 1969, when they weeds.” won the World That sympathy Series, I was 7. informs “Split It was huge,” he Season: 1981: remembers. Fernandomania, He adored the Bronx Zoo, Tom Seaver, and the Strike that who led their Saved Baseball,” team to the pinpublished in May. Jeff Katz is fan, nacle. “When Kirkus called it a they traded him mayor and basePlease See ball writer. in 1977, I was KATZ, A7 By JIM KEVLIN
Howard Talbot, 1925-2015
J
Director Witnessed Hall’s 1st Induction By LIBBY CUDMORE COOPERSTOWN
W Howard C. Talbot, Jr. HoF Director, 1976-93
hen Cooperstown Mayor Jeff Katz was 14, he sent a letter to the Baseball Hall of Fame, demanding the induction of Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges. Hodges still isn’t in the hallowed halls, but Katz did get a letter back. “I saw Howard Talbot’s name on the masthead, and that name stuck with me,” he said. “Thirty years later, I’m on the village’s Doubleday Field Committee, and there he was, Howard Talbot from my Hall of Fame letter!” Please See TALBOT, A7
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