Editorial
For Good Of All,
Hope Marty Patton Right
It may turn out Marty Patton made the right call, delaying opening of his Cooperstown All Star Village, the youth baseball tournament camp in West Oneonta, in hopes of salvaging at least some of the 2020 season.
Things are happening so quickly.
With this week’s Glimmerglass Fest cancellation, pretty much all of the major summer activities have been cancelled or delayed – mostly notably, of course, Derek Jeter’s July 26 Induction and the 2020 season of Patton’s competitor, Cooperstown Dreams Park.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus threat seems to be easing day to day, from New York City to Otsego County where, for now, there’s almost nothing left.
Patton’s strategy – cancelling the first week in June during the first week in May, etc. – may allow him to salvage two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, maybe more. He is emphatic, as every sensible person should be, that safety will guide any final decision.
Given where were are, it’s possible COVID-19 may be just an unhappy memory locally in a few weeks.
The pacing factor for Patton is where his teams are coming from: Detroit and Houston and Tucson and wherever the disease’s arrival came later.
When and where are questions Patton’s struggling with, as he should be. Let’s hope facts break his way, for the benefit of all of us.
If people come in from others states , they should have to be tested on arriving . Any that test positive, should be kept in 2weeks of quarantine at the baseball camp ( isolated ) before venturing out .
For the safety of all.
From Day One, I have agreed with Marty Patton’s measured approach to responding to the COVID. His wait-and-see approach is in sharp contrast to that of the other youth baseball operation in the area which decided in (possibly) March (I do not recall exactly when the closure was announced) not to conduct baseball games in July and August. Even if Marty Patton eventually decides that it is not safe to hold camps in August (or it is not worthwhile, or even feasible or practical) to conduct only a couple of weeks of camps, at least he made the attempt to open a business which is vital to our local economy.
I wouldn’t know Marty Patton if he ran me over, but I appreciate his willingness to keep his business open under safe circumstances.
Knowing the state’s reopening plan, how can this be good measure. At best, phase 4 might be reached on June 26th with the mandatory 14 days between each phase. Add on another 14 days after the start of phase 4 for monitoring. Notice in the state’s reopening plan the statement “Additionally, when phasing-in reopening, regions must not open attractions or businesses that would draw a large number of visitors from outside the local area. …. While people should be able to have fun, facilities or events that attract hundreds of people from outside the region pose a significant public health danger as we try to carefully reopen. These places should be closed and events should continue to be postponed or cancelled until the threat of COVID-19 has subsided.” Now explain why ASV is reasonable in cancelling one week at a time when they clearly know that they will not be able to open before July 1 and realistically not before July 15th, but more likely not at all given the fact that their tournaments bring in 70+ teams (2,000+ people) from all across the United States where the virus is still on the rise. It feels very dishonest for ASV to hold out cancelling the weeks that they know with certainty they cannot open.