08/12/2024
To the City, Town and People of Oneonta,
25 Years ago, I was hired by the late, Mr. Eddie Einhorn, to work for Cooperstown Baseball World. After several long court battles, he was denied permission to build the tournament complex he envisioned in the town of Cooperstown. However, Mr. Einhorn was then contacted by both the Mayor of Oneonta at that time, Kim Muller, and the President of SUNY-Oneonta. They thought that maybe Oneonta could be a good place for Cooperstown Baseball World to call home.
On a very snowy day in March of 2000, Mr. Einhorn made the trip to SUNY Oneonta to meet with Mayor Muller and President Donovan. At the time, only the varsity baseball field existed on their campus. They suggested that maybe the mountain could be “blown out” and baseball fields could be built, cascading up the mountain. While it seemed like an impossible undertaking, I remember saying to Mr. Einhorn, we needed to give it a try, as we already had over 100 teams booked for the inaugural season.
So, the project began and after months of planning and nail biting about whether the fields would be built in time, Cooperstown Baseball World opened on June 24, 2000. We had built two 12u sized fields on the SUNY Oneonta Campus. We hosted 12u teams there and used the college varsity field and rented Damaschke Field, to use for our older age groups, which went up to 16u. It was an amazing first season, so the following year we built a third field on the SUNY Oneonta campus, which was an intermediate field of 56/80, used for the 13u age division. We also built a field in Neahwa Park, which the town knows as Field 6. We built that field with the understanding that Cooperstown Baseball World would use it during the summer, and the city could rent it out to teams during the remainder of the year. It was a wonderful partnership with both the city and the school.
Over our 25 years, the town of Oneonta, it’s changing Mayors, and its people were wonderful to the families traveling to Cooperstown Baseball World, as well as to our staff, welcoming us back each summer. You housed our families in your rentals and hotels. Our guests enjoyed the various restaurants throughout town, enjoyed catching Oneonta Tigers games in the beginning and then Oneonta Outlaws games afterwards. We employed hundreds of people from Oneonta and the surrounding towns each summer to umpire, work the fields, the gift shop, the concession stands, the infirmary and so many other jobs. We worked directly with OPT, then Hale transportation to help our teams move throughout the campus and to our off-campus fields, as well. Ryan Brooks and Brooks BBQ were always strong and loyal supporters, treating our customers with smiles and first-class service, during our CBW BBQ's.
Throughout our 25 years at SUNY Oneonta, we worked with many people and built such amazing relationships. There were people in residence life, the custodians, the carpenters, grounds crew, telecommunications, and numerous college students who worked with us in the dormitories. The staff of Sodexho were always top notch and treated our campers so well! Whether it was their managers, cafeteria staff on the floor or dishwashers, they went out of their way to show us how much they enjoyed having our coaches and players with them on campus.
However, this year, as we prepared for our 25th Anniversary Season, we were told that the current President of SUNY Oneonta, and his staff, a group of individuals we never actually met, or even spoke to, had decided that this would be our final season and that SUNY Oneonta would be severing all ties with Cooperstown Baseball World, thus putting us out of business. While I asked for an in person meeting to discuss why this was happening, I was never given a seat at the table. We were simply told that this is the decision they had come to.
This decision results not only in our losing our business but ending the thousands of people coming to Oneonta each summer, placing their money into the local economy, as well.
It was bittersweet to host our teams this summer, celebrating 25 wonderful years of Cooperstown Baseball World in Oneonta. We hosted 47 different states and 9 different countries on the SUNY Oneonta campus, over the 25 years. We had so many SUNY Oneonta staff members themselves ask us “Why are they doing this to you”? We had no real answers for them. We still have no real answers for our teams, who are devastated for us and for their future players.
In a world where every business, especially small businesses, struggled to survive post covid, we had made it back, only to now have a single decision put us out of business. It is a very difficult time for us and those we had to now tell they will no longer have a job each summer either, many who were with us for over 20 seasons!
For every Cooperstown Baseball World employee, umpire, groundskeeper, medical staff member, gift shop host, cafeteria worker, SUNY Oneonta custodian, SUNY Oneonta dormitory desk worker, SUNY Oneonta grounds worker, SUNY Oneonta carpentry worker, and all of those we may have simply come to watch our games at the fields, we “Thank You and will miss you all.”
After 25 years, we, at Cooperstown Baseball World, also want to thank the city and the townspeople of Oneonta. You did so much for us and for our customers and made us feel welcome each and every summer. Please know that we are heartbroken not to be returning and to not continue to support the town and its people, as you did for us. We wanted you all to know, you were a huge part of our success, and it didn’t go unnoticed. Cooperstown Baseball World sincerely thanks the town of Oneonta for letting us call you home for 25 years. We will miss you and will always appreciate you all!
