Merchants: Weekend Crowd Smaller, Personable, Enthusiastic as Always

By CASPAR EWIG
COOPERSTOWN

Cooperstown survived another Induction Weekend, and although the crowd was much smaller than in past years, the general consensus was that it was nevertheless a successful event. For the Hall of Fame staff responsible for organizing the housing at The Otesaga Resort Hotel, the golf outing, and the various ceremonies, the close of the weekend meant relief from four consecutive 15-hour days, but represented the start of organizing next year’s event.

Zack Vreeland from Baseballism summed up the feeling of many baseball-oriented stores.

“The crowd was smaller than in other years, but just as enthusiastic. We didn’t expect a huge weekend and had prepared ourselves accordingly.”

This was accented by Ron Brown, who has been operating the Factory Store Outlet at Doubleday for 33 years.

“It’s the names that makes the difference and determines the volume of inventory we order. But we’re not worried because all those extra items we’ll sell in the coming year.”

None of the operators interviewed expressed any concern that lower numbers represented a general downturn in baseball business.

The store best able to assess the spirits of the crowd was, of course, the Cooperstown Beverage Exchange. Clara Marra, general manager of the beverage exchange for the last eight years, noted that both this year’s “Induction Ale” and the “Captain’s Ale”—originally brewed by The Cooperstown Brewing Company in connection with Derek Jeter’s induction—sold well, although a mark off last year’s total sales.

“Quite apart from the issue of size, I can only accent that this year’s attendees were among the most personable and respectful.” Marra said.

Among the restaurants, Jenn Eckler, operator of the Cooperstown Diner, confirmed that the small 30-seat diner had a solid weekend.

“The only real difference was that the line out the door wasn’t as long,” Eckler observed. “The seats inside were always filled.”

Doubleday Café owner Barbara D’Ambrosio agreed.

“We always had a good crowd, and many of our Induction Weekend customers are repeaters. They love the fact that we really haven’t changed in all these years,” D’Ambrosio explained.

Her favorite moment this year came when a customer—there with his wife and children—recognized her as his waitress from the time when he was a 12-year-old accompanying his father for the induction festivities.

The one store most directly connected with the well-being of the event was Matt Piam’s pop-up store that dealt in facilitating autographs of Hall of Famers and other baseball notables.

“I’ve been in this business since I was 16 years old, with the last two as owner of HallofFameSignatures.com,” he said, “and I saw this year’s crowd equally as excited as those weekends involving larger crowds. We had some 40 Hall of Famers and notable baseball players as well as six actors from the movie ‘Sandlot,’ and the fans, collectors, and enthusiasts were not disappointed. When inductees are from teams further from New York, we generally see lower attendance, but not lower enthusiasm.”

However, the lack of a substantial crowd at the Induction Ceremony resulted in a lackluster turnover at the concession stand, the income from which historically funds a large portion of the Senior Class activities at the Cooperstown High School.

“We were able to save a lot of the unsold food, and return the unopened soda cartons to Coca Cola,” said Dennis Hascup, who organizes the annual event, “and we expect to make up part of the loss at the concession stand the class will operate at the Savannah Banana baseball game in September. But the seniors will definitely have to look to additional fundraisers to make up for the shortfall.”

Other notable victims of the slimmed down attendance were the annual improvised capitalists who turn their driveways and front lawns into cash cows. One could see prices slashed on the “Park Here” signs, down from $30.00 or $40.00 depending on location to $20.00, and then to $10.00 in rapid succession, with lots remaining unfilled. Traditional prime parking locations such as NBT Bank on Pioneer Street and both the First Baptist Church and St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church on Elm Street had only a handful of cars parked in each of their lots Saturday afternoon as the parade stepped off.

Now that Main Street is reopened, the “No Parking Saturday and Sunday” signs are removed and local lawns resume their decorative as opposed to temporary parking space function, the Village of Cooperstown can collectively take a deep sigh and celebrate another successful event.