Baseball Seminar Returns for 35th Year

By TERESA WINCHESTER
COOPERSTOWN

Baseball is about more than home run records, batting averages and runs batted in. Just ask Bill Simons, SUNY Oneonta Professor Emeritus, former chair of its history department and co-director of the 35th Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture.

“Baseball is a mirror of the American culture,” said Simons in a May 19 telephone interview. “A lot of American history can be reflected through baseball—race relations, military history, women’s history. Baseball developed at a time when America was moving to the city, yet it evokes a rural nostalgia,” he said.

The conference is co-sponsored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and SUNY Oneonta. Co-director for the Hall of Fame is Cassidy Lent, director of Reference Services at its Giamatti Research Center.

“I’m looking forward to the folks who come to the conference—the energy and the atmosphere they bring with them and all the camaraderie,” Lent said.

Lent also enjoys the way newcomers and “frequent fliers” come together at the conference.

“It’s gratifying to see every year,” she said.

Simons is the only individual to have played some role in the symposium since its inception.

“It (the symposium) was supposed to be a ‘one-and-done’ for the 50th anniversary of the Hall of Fame, but we’re not going anywhere. It’s been going on since 1989 and it’s the preeminent baseball scholarly conference,” Simons explained.

Each year, approximately 150 people attend the conference. This year’s program features 24 two-hour sessions, running concurrently, with two presentations per session. Each presentation lasts 25 minutes, followed by a question-and-answer session. This year’s presentations feature “Dodgers and Giants Move West,” “Diamond Sutras: A Survey of Baseball and/as Buddhism,” and “Lefty O’Doul’s 1949 Goodwill Tour of Japan,” to cherry-pick just a few. The full program is available online at https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/education/symposium.

Program selection is rigorous, Simons said. Abstracts for presentations are solicited via a “massive list serve,” resulting in a “significant number” of proposals. The selection committee makes its decisions for inviting presenters according to a checklist. Names of those proposing are blocked out to ensure “blind judgment,” Simons also said, adding that, in the spirit of inclusivity, those not chosen to present are invited to be session moderators.

The symposium has proven to be a catalyst for baseball scholarship and publications.

“At times we have brought out anthologies based on the conference, and well over 100 books have had their genesis through presentations at the symposium,” Simons said.

A major feature of the symposium is its keynote speaker, usually someone well-known in the sports world. Past keynoters have included Frank DeFord, George Plimpton, and Roger Kahan, author of “The Boys of Summer.” This year, Howard Bryant will speak on May 29 at 1 p.m. in the BHoF’s Grandstand Theater.

Bryant, a Boston native, is a sports journalist and radio and television personality, writing weekly columns for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. He appears regularly on ESPN Radio and is a frequent panelist on The Sports Reporters. Since 2006, Bryant has been sports correspondent for Weekend Edition with Scott Simon on National Public Radio.

Bryant’s 2002 book, “Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston,” won the CASEY Award for the best baseball book of that year. In 2005, he published “Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball,” which was New York Times Notable Book of 2005. “The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron,” published in 2010, also won the CASEY Award and was likewise New York Times Notable Book of 2010. Also in that year, Bryant appeared in “The Tenth Inning,” Ken Burns’ extension of his 1994 documentary, “Baseball.”

An entertaining feature of the three-day conference is the re-creation of a game of Town Ball—a precursor to modern baseball. Local historian Peter Young, dressed in 19th-century attire, will serve as host, instructor and umpire for the game.

As Simons explained Town Ball, “The key purpose is to put the ball in play. Skill level precludes enthusiastic participation in our game. We have had former major league players and non-athletes share the same Town Ball experience. There is no such thing as a strike-out. There are no foul lines and any ball hit is in play. It uses a much softer ball than today’s game. You can hit someone with the ball to get them out.”

Following the Town Ball game, a dinner, hosted by Lent and served by Sunrise Catering, will be held in the Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery.

“It’s the most hallowed place in the museum. It’s usually as quiet as a cathedral there. At the dinner, there is a tremendous spirit of fraternity and Casey always makes an appearance,” Lent said.

“Casey,” of course, refers to the protagonist of “Casey at the Bat,” the 1888 poem by Ernest Lawrence Thayer. In past years, the poem was recited by Tim Wiles, but this year’s recitation will be performed by Ernest Found, who will throw a change-up by reciting “Casey’s Revenge,” written in 1907 by Grantland Rice.

Simons feels that baseball is a special sport due to its accessibility to all body types.

“Something about the game reflects the hurly-burly of American democracy and the American character. It allows accessibility that other sports don’t. For instance, there are not too many NBA players who are not way over 6 feet. But just look at Jose Altuve, the Venezuelan who, at 5 feet 6 inches, has three American League batting titles. Anyone can aspire to play baseball at the highest levels,” Simons said.

A lifelong baseball devotee, Simons speaks of the sport with deep appreciation.

“Although recent rule changes set time limits between pitches, baseball is still the only major team sport where the length of the game is not dictated by a clock. It’s both a team and an individual sport, Baseball is the game with the most history. The best part of baseball is its past. There is no sport that connects the past to the present like baseball,” he said.