Gov. Hochul helps open renovated Doubleday Field

Jul. 17—Gov, Kathy Hochul visited Cooperstown Monday afternoon, July 17, to help cut the ribbon for the renovated Doubleday Field.

The ceremony was moved inside the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum because of poor air quality from Canadian wildfires, Hochul said.

"Literally since I arrived here, the air quality in Cooperstown went from 71 to 136, and anything above 50 is considered unhealthy," she said. The range of 100 to 150 is the category where people with chronic conditions, such as asthma, should stay indoors.

"If it goes above 200, I'm telling you right now, your cellphone is going to go off," she said "I directed this to give people that jolt to realize you should not be outdoors, especially with senior citizens and children, and again, those who have health conditions already. That's what we're looking at, and that's why we're not at the field that we waited so long for."

Hochul said she first heard about the renovations to Doubleday Field in 2017 from then-mayor Jeff Katz. Current Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh said the village realized in 2017 major renovations were needed to be completed on the field. The village received $5 million in grants for the $7.3 million project. The project was bid out in August 2019 with the intention to have the renovations complete by the Hall of Fame Induction ceremony of Derek Jeter in 2020.

Tillapaugh gave a history lesson about Doubleday Field. She said in 1920, the Finney cow pasture was turned into a baseball diamond. Village residents originally voted down a proposal to buy the property, but then approved the proposal in 1923. "Sixteen years before the construction of the Baseball Hall of Fame residents realized tourism would benefit the Central New York region," she said.

The first phases of the project started — renovating the 1939 grandstand and redesigning the entrance from Main Street to the stadium and making it ADA compliant — and was finished by July 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the induction ceremony, she said. "We were ready for the party that couldn't be held," she said.

Hochul said she came to Cooperstown in 2020 to talk with village officials about how the COVID-19 pandemic affected tourism. "I'm so glad to see that we've rebounded in a way that's extraordinary," she said. "People missed coming here, delayed vacations brought them in subsequent years. It's great to see that you're roaring back here."

The museum was busy Monday afternoon with several families and young baseball teams from nearby baseball camps touring the facility.

Tillapaugh said the next phase of the renovations — replacing the 1950 concrete bleachers and constructing an ADA-compliant pavilion on the third-base side — hit a snag when soil boring samples revealed the soil was not adequate to support a building structure. The pavilion, which was finished last year, was named the Bud Fowler Pavilion in honor of Cooperstown's own Hall of Famer, John "Bud Fowler" Jackson Jr., who was inducted posthumously in 2022.

Tillapaugh said the third base bleachers were completed last month. The field is the home field for the Cooperstown High School baseball team.

"As a former ballplayer, I had the honor of playing on Doubleday Field," against Cooperstown, State Sen. Peter Oberacker, R-Schenevus, said.

The field also was home to a Major League Baseball game for many years. "The first time I got to watch a professional baseball game in person was at Doubleday Field," Assemblyman Chris Tague, R-Schoharie, said. "It was the New York Mets against the Detroit Tigers." He said he wished MLB would return to Cooperstown.

Baseball Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch said of the 342 Hall of Famers, 220 played baseball on Doubleday Field. "That's 64%," he said. "Four-fifths of the first class played on the field. Babe Ruth pinch hit after attending the ceremony."

Hochul said her son played in Cooperstown for a week. "He was one of those glorious 12-year-old teams and still talks about now, even in his 30s, that was a glorious time," she said.

"It brings greatness to this community, and it is a huge sense of pride to all of us," Hochul said. "So, I'm simply going to say: I think this is great. I'm sorry we couldn't be there in person, but I'm going to go see it."

Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221.