Roses to 13-year-old Chelsea Baker, the Florida native who donated her baseball jersey to the Hall of Fame last week.
Baker, a pitcher and third baseman, learned the knuckleball from former Major League pitcher Joe Niekro, who coached her when she was younger.
Baker threw a pair of perfect games during Little League this season, and was in Cooperstown last week playing on an all-girls team at the Cooperstown Dreams Park. Baker won her only start during the week at the Dreams Park, and also hit a grand slam home run.
Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson said Baker’s jersey was requested to continue the story of the important roles women are playing in baseball.
We applaud Baker for not only being a pioneer and role model for other girls wanting to play baseball, but also for continuing the legacy of the knuckleball. Joe Niekro, who died two years ago, and his brother Phil, a Hall of Famer, both learned the knuckleball from their father in the family backyard.
One of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s stated missions is Connecting Generations, and by teaching Chelsea the family pitch Joe Niekro has done just that.
Roses to Cooperstown senior David Bonderoff and Amy Hage Delli-Coli for successfully swimming the length of Otsego Lake on Sunday.
Bonderoff is a captain of the boys swim team at CCS, and finished the nine-mile swim in just over five hours. Emily Kerr of New Hamphsire also swam with Bonderoff and Delli-Coli, and did finish, but had to stop and board a boat for a while because of a shoulder injury.
Roses to Bassett Medical Center for joining forces with Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P & S) to create a new model of medical training for the future. The program is designed to address the severe shortage of rural physicians and train a new generation of doctors capable of leading health systems that promote both quality of practice and cost-effective delivery of care.
Hopefully the four-year program is a success. We wish the 10 students, which include Cooperstown native Allan Guiney, success and hope they enjoy their time in the village.
A total of 758 men and women applied for the program’s 10 slots - a ratio of applicants to positions that is more than double the ratio recorded last year at Columbia P & S. According to Bassett spokeswoman Karen Huxtable, applicants came from more than 200 colleges and the 10 students accepted have MCAT scores and grade point averages comparable to those of students at top medical schools in the country. In fact, she said, their GPAs and MCAT scores are higher than the mean of last year’s enrolled class at Columbia P & S.
Our Opinion
Our Opinion: Roses
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Our Opinion: Enjoy the carnival
It does not look like there will be much snow, if any at all for this year’s Cooperstown Winter Carnival. Although many events are weather-dependent, that will not spoil all the festivities. As far as getting out your hats and mittens, you might want to dig them out. At least it does not look like the weather will be as abnormally warm as it has been so far this winter.
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Our Opinion: Roses
Roses to Cooperstown sixth-grader Tom Knight, who once again might have the chance to compete in the state level geography bee. He won his school district’s competition for the second year in a row this year and will be taking a written test to see if he qualifies. One could wish him luck, but Tom said he feels more confident taking the test this time around the now knows what to expect. He also said he feels more comfortable answering questions on paper that out loud in front of an audience.
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Our Opinion: Buying locally is right
We are happy to report this week that buying locally made products appears to be on the upswing in the Cooperstown area. We have long been a proponent of shopping locally. It stimulates the local economy, returns more sales tax to the county and is more environmentally sound. Buying locally made or grown products takes it one step further.
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Our Opinion: Confused much?
As if figuring out one’s tax bill isn’t mind boggling enough. Now, with a two percent limit on property tax increases, there will be more brains flustered. It is not a simple calculation at all. In fact, the tax cap will affect each school district’s levy in various ways. So don’t think you will be able to take your bill from last year and just increase it by two percent. The process uses a much more complex formula eight steps, as a matter of fact.
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Our Opinion: We’ll miss Nicols
Cooperstown Police Chief Diana Nicols will be leaving her job shortly and will be missed by the community. She is being retired by the New York State and Local Retirement System that notified her last week that she is “permanently incapacitated for the performance of duties.” The incapacitation is the result of a knee injury she received in 2008 during a training class.
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Our Opinion: Roses and Raspberries
Roses to Cooperstown Central School graduate Molly Pearlman for putting off her college plans for a year to serve a 10-month term of service in the National Civilian Community Corps, an AmeriCorps program. She said her inspiration to participate in the program came from her father and brother.
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Our Opinion: Looking forward
While many will spend the next few days reminiscing about 2011, we at the Crier are looking forward to next year. We are ready to ring in a new year and look forward to the events to come. Of course there are those events that happen annually such as the Cooperstown Winter Carnival,The Goodyear Polar Bear Jump, the Farmers’ Museum’s Junior Livestock Show, The National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Father’s Day Classic and Induction weekend, the Pumpkin Festival and Regatta and many more.
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Our Opinion: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
At this holiday season, we take great pleasure in reprinting one of the classic newspaper editorials of all time − perhaps the best Christmas editorial ever written. It has survived the test of time and seems particularly fitting and poignant this year.
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DEC should not dismiss findings
Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the findings in a draft of a new federal report that links hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Wyoming with groundwater pollution. Hydraulic fracturing is a process that pumps millions of gallons of chemically treated water into gas wells to fracture the rock and release the gas.
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Our Opinion: Who would have guessed?
Much has been revealed during the baseball winter meeting in Dallas this past week. The Miami Marlins seem to be in hot pursuit of all the big name players to fill their new stadium, Manny Ramirez announced he would like to return to Major League Basbeall, Pedro Martínez announced he plans to officially retire, elections have been held and it appears former Red Sox manager Terry Francona is swapping places with the franchise’s new manager Bobby Valentine.
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Our Opinion: Enjoy the carnival
