It was the Summer of ’98, the weather was oh, so great,

Sally, Jon, and I hit the road, and stumbled upon something gold

We were on the road to Cooperstown, but on the way, oh what we found

A baseball lover’s paradise, so we stopped to explore this surprise,

That was a great time in our life.

With apologies to Bryan Adams, for pilfering and using the melody of his hit song, Summer of ’69, today’s narrative is based on a discovery we made as we were headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

On the last leg of our trip, as we traveled Route 28 South, I looked to the right and saw a huge baseball complex with ten baseball diamonds, all with lights, and hundreds of players in uniforms, half in blue, half in red, all wearing white pants, and the same hats.

Without warning I spiked my brakes, causing Sally to mildly panic, but she forgave me when she looked up and saw the same thing I saw. We’d stumbled onto the Cooperstown Dreams Park, and I had to stop in, walk around, and find out everything I could about this place.

After inquiring to some people wearing name tag badges, I was directed to the administrative offices of the CDP. As a youth baseball coach, I wanted to know what this was all about. I got brochures, flyers, cost sheets, and all other information I could accumulate as my first thought was, what do I have to do to get a group of kids to experience this? After reading all these materials between sights/events we planned to see/do on this vacation, I turned to Sally and told her that next summer, I wanted to bring a team to this amazing complex.

Upon arriving home post-trip, I called a couple friends with whom I coached and told them about this baseball nirvana, where at that time (today’s enrollment and number of fields has more than doubled) 48 teams of 10-12 year-olds/per week, would go and participate in a six day baseball schedule, resulting in all teams then being seeded in a single elimination tournament. The Dreams Park had Camp-like Barracks (including one for any girls participating) with bunks, a giant meal tent, showers, batting cages, and more, set up in a Baseball Village where only players, coaches, umpires, and Park Personnel could enter. Parents could go to a gate if there was a problem with a player (ill, injury, forgotten medication, etc.) but could not enter the baseball village unless there was an emergency. The expense was steep ($450.00 per player and coach then), but it covered lodging, meals, two jerseys (blue if you were the scheduled visiting team, red if home team), hats, coaches received a pullover jacket, teams got team/individual pictures, and for another $500.00/team (optional), you could receive laundry services guaranteeing uniforms would be ready for the teams’ next games no matter what. At the end of the week each player and coach would be presented an American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Ring. My fellow coaches didn’t hesitate to jump on board.

I quickly put out the word, advertising for anyone interested, which resulted in nine more families who agreed to make the commitment to join the team. Within a month we had a team set and we started practicing wherever/whenever we could. It was time to let the FUN-draising begin! We let everyone know our budget, and came up with fundraisers to cover some of the costs. We knew families would have to cover whatever we couldn’t raise, but all were okay regarding that. As it turned out, recalling back then, each family only had to come up with about $150.00 to send us to the Home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

We also needed sponsorship. Because I coached High School back then, and did much business with the Jock Shop, I approached Denny Lundberg, and two of his best guys, Gary and Randy, and they helped us get uniforms we could use for practice/practice games leading up to our week. They also helped us get the required white pants needed for Cooperstown tournament. With their help, we officially became the Jamestown Jock Shop Cooperstown Kids.

In preparation for games, we worked extra with players on stealing, pickoffs, and other components of the game they didn’t experience in LL/BR leagues. That was the best part of coaching, teaching new elements of the game, then seeing players’ excitement as they learned them. We also scheduled practice games against local county all-star teams, and league teams too. (We used fundraising money to purchase team insurance and cover umpires’ fees for exhibition games.)

So, the third Friday of August, 1999, (25 years ago this week), Mike DeStevens, Tom Foster, Corey Kane, Jon Lombardo, Partick Maloney, Jordan Moran, Mike Prinzi, Matt Raines, Mike Rizzo, Joel Rowe, Jason Scott, and Brendon Sudol, joined Coaches Dave DeStevens, Dave Rizzo, and me on a journey to Cooperstown, to participate in this amazing experience.

After our week in Cooperstown was done, our team was 0-7, but you wouldn’t know it. The friendships made, the kids/coaches we met from all over this country and Canada, playing in the Home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the pride with which they showed off their rings was absolutely priceless.

Oh yeah, our week ended two days before MLB’s Induction Ceremonies at the HOF, so I contacted a school who let us sleep in their gym (we brought Sleeping Bags), they set up a TV/VCR, opened the locker room for shower use, and we ate pizza for two days, so on Sunday we could attend and watch the induction of George Brett, Nolan Ryan, Robin Yount, Orlando Cepeda, Nestor Chylak, Frank Selee, and Smokey Joe Williams into the Halls of Baseball Immortality. This was supposed to be a one-year thing for us, but my wonderful bride saw the experiences Jon and I were having (she had a lot of fun, too), so we ended up returning in ’00, and ’01 (I’ll probably re-live those years as they reach 25 years too. Just a heads up.)

Thanks to/for those first 12 young men, my fellow coaches, the support from parents/family members, our community, the Jock Shop (especially Denny, Gary, and Randy), Jim Riggs, Scott Kindberg and all at the PJ, for an amazing experience which I’ll never forget. (BTW, I’m usually wearing my AYBHOF ring, so check out my ring finger if/when we run into each other.)