‘Sons of Baseball’ Author To Speak

By WRILeY neLSOn COOPeRSTOWn

Mark Braff, author of the newlypublished “Sons of Baseball: Growing Up With a Major League Dad,” will visit the Baseball Hall of Fame for a Q&A and book signing at 1 p.m. on Father’s Day, June 18. The book features a foreword by Ken Griffey Jr. and interviews with the sons of 18 former major-league players, including Yogi Berra, Mariano Rivera, Roger Maris and Larry Doby. It explores the unique parenting experience of professional athletes through the eyes of their children.

“Sons of Baseball” examines the perks, pressures and frustrations of growing up just outside the spotlight. The stories run the gamut from humor to family drama, from the enlightening to the tragic. One major-league son stole the Cleveland groundskeeper’s cart and drove it into the upper deck of Municipal Stadium, only to have the battery die; another adult son revealed that his famous father has never accepted his sexuality. Braff adds his own meditations and draws out common threads across the interviews and biographies.

Braff was a highly-regarded public relations professional for more than 40 years before he retired in november 2020.

the Springfield 4th of July Parade and Celebration Facebook page.

Parade prizes will be awarded for floats, fire departments, veterans’ organizations, school bands, junior marching organizations, musical performing groups, antique vehicles, horses and equine units. Judging will be based partly on use of the theme, “Salute to Lady Liberty,” which participants are free to interpret in any way.

Children are encouraged to register to ride their decorated bicycles in the parade, and each registered bike rider will receive a $10.00 prize, with trophies awarded for the best decorated. Helmets are required while riding in the parade.

For more information, email the Springfield Fourth of July Parade Committee at springfield.july4@gmail. com or contact Committee Chair Debra Miller at (315) 858-0304.

The Springfield Fourth of July Parade and Celebration is sponsored in part by the Otsego County events Grant Program.

Homer Folks Hospital to Receive Historical Marker

OneOnTA—The Greater Oneonta Historical Society and Oneonta Job Corps Academy will unveil a historical marker commemorating the Homer Folks Tuberculosis Hospital on the corner of West Street and Homer Folks Drive at 9 a.m. on Thursday, June 29. It will be the first historical marker in the Town of Oneonta. The Homer Folks Hospital was a state institution that treated thousands of TB patients between 1935 and 1973. Its grounds are now occupied by the Oneonta Job Corp Academy and other organizations. The public is invited to the marker unveiling. Parking will be available on the Job Corps campus.

State Police Issue 13K Tickets Over Holiday Weekend

neW YORK STATe—The new York State Police issued a total of 13,471 tickets statewide during the Memorial Day Weekend enforcement campaign. The special enforcement period ran Friday, May 26 through Tuesday, May 30 and utilized sobriety checkpoints and increased DWI and distracted driving patrols. According to a press release, troopers made 194 DWI arrests and investigated 839 crashes. Troop C, centered on the Southern Tier and including Otsego and Delaware counties, issued more than 1,100 tickets overall. no fatal crashes were reported. For the full report, visit https://www.nyspnews.com/state-police-issue-more-than13400-tickets-during-memorial-day-weekend-enforcement-period.htm.

BCBS Recognized by American Heart Association

UTICA—The American Heart Association awarded excellus BlueCross BlueShield national silver level recognition on its 2022 employee health and wellbeing scorecard. For more information or a full list of recognized organizations, visit heart.org/workforce.

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Continued from page 4 addressing: hunger, homelessness, human and child trafficking. These issues, and more, are a calling upon the church and other faith communities to address. We will. But before we could go any further, we needed to answer the question of “When will enough be enough?” with our answer of no more.” no more school shootings. no more grocery store shootings. no more rampant or wanton death. no more families and communities destroyed because someone had access to an AR-15 and decided that was their best option. no more. This resolution is one step we’ve taken to ensure that enough is enough; and we know that we are not alone.

The Presbytery of Utica continues to engage these efforts, inviting neighboring presbyteries and other faith communities. We know this won’t solve everything. But it will mitigate the capacity of death. In this, we choose life. What step will you take with us?

Continued from page 1 titles in track (2022) and basketball (2022-2023).

“We had a really great team this year,” Jensen said.

“My relay team in particular had several younger students coming up… The track teams always have good personalities and a lot of energy, so that makes it fun.”

“I first had the idea for this book 20 or 25 years ago,” he recalled. “Long enough that I don’t remember specifically when it first came to me. I had been thinking about the link that baseball provides between parents and children, especially between fathers and sons for my generation, and suddenly wondered what it was like for children of major-league players.”

Braff was unable to write the book while working full time, but returned to it as a retirement project. He began setting up interviews in January 2021.

“What really struck me is that most of these guys grew up with the same issues as everybody else,” he said. “It was the same mix of family happiness, divorces, success, failure, comedy and tragedy as you’d get with other groups of people. What was different was the setting, especially if the kids were younger when their dads were playing. A lot of them grew up with major league stadiums as their personal playgrounds and with other famous players as extended family. They grew up with access that most people hardly dream of, and it was nothing to them.”

There were serious downsides to this kind of childhood, of course. Many of the fathers were away from home for half the year. Others found it difficult to make time for their children. Autograph seekers, journalists and other forms of unwanted attention made it difficult to live a normal life in public. Braff said he was particularly disturbed by Gil Hodges Jr.’s report that he learned of his father’s death over the radio. Many of the interview participants said that they felt undue pressure, attention and comparison in their own childhood athletic pursuits.

The book is a balanced, emotionally enlightening new perspective on Major League Baseball. The public is invited to attend Braff’s event at the Hall of Fame on Sunday, June 18. Copies will be available for purchase and signing.

“The book will make a great Father’s Day gift for procrastinators,” Braff said.

“Sons of Baseball” was published on May 10 and is available wherever books are sold. The publisher, Rowman & Littlefield, has also released e-book and audio editions.

Book Fair Returns

COOPeRSTOWn—The 29th Cooperstown Antiquarian Book Fair will be held at the Clark Sports Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 24. The fair will feature more than 25 dealers from the northeast U.S. and beyond, and will host local authors for signings. There will be thousands of books, maps and ephemera of all sorts. There is a $5.00 cover charge to benefit the Cooperstown Foundation for excellence in education. For more information, call (607) 547-8363.

Jensen reflected on a season of success in sprint and middledistance events and with a dominant relay team.

“The sectional championship is usually my favorite meet,” she said. “There are, of course, some very motivated runners and the strong competition gives it a different feeling… my 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams did great.”

Jensen will attend Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and will run for the indoor and outdoor track programs. Williams is an opencurriculum liberal arts school and students do not declare a major until their sophomore spring; Jensen said she intends to explore several departments and is particularly interested in visual arts classes.