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founded in 1808
memorial day parades and ceremonies, page 12 VISIT www.ALLOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER/ONLINE
Volume 217, No. 21
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, May 22, 2025
Newsstand Price $1
Photos courtesy of Andy Lavine, head of sales, Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley
President Donald J. Trump (right) autographs a baseball for Pete Rose (shown at left). Rose was recently removed from Major League Baseball’s permanently ineligible list, making it possible for him to be inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously.
Posthumous Reinstatement Resurrects Rose’s HoF Candidacy By CHARLIE VASCELLARO
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COOPERSTOWN ven in death, controversy still swirls around Major League Baseball’s all-time hit king, Pete Rose. On May 13, the office of Major League Baseball announced that Rose and other deceased players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson and seven of his teammates on the infamous 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” team, had been removed from its permanently ineligible list. The Hall of Fame responded to MLB’s announcement with a statement from Chairman of the Board Jane Forbes Clark on Tuesday, May 13 acknowledging that the “Hall of Fame INSIDE
has always maintained that anyone removed from baseball’s permanently ineligible list will become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration.” The candidacy of Rose, Jackson and the others will be considered by the Hall of Fame’s Historical Overview Committee, which has been tasked with compiling the eight names to be included on the Classic Baseball Era Committee ballot. The committee votes on candidates who made their most significant contributions to the game before 1980 and meets again in December of 2027. The campaigning, lobbying and debate on Rose’s candidacy will continue for at least two years.
MLB thought it had closed the book on Pete Rose when he was permanently banned from the game in 1989 for breaking Rule 21, prohibiting players and managers from betting on games. Rose signed an agreement with the Commissioner of Baseball, A. Bartlett Giamatti, placing him on the ineligible list. At a press conference on August 24, 1989, Giamatti made the following statement: “The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is the sad end of a sorry episode. One of the game’s greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts… The matter of Mr. Rose
is now closed. It will be debated and discussed. Let no one think that it did not hurt baseball. That hurt will pass, however, as the great glory of the game asserts itself and a resilient institution goes forward. Let it also be clear that no individual is superior to the game.” Over the ensuing decades, Rose made several attempts at applying for reinstatement, appealing to Commissioners Fay Vincent, Bud Selig and current Commissioner Rob Manfred, who denied Rose’s two previous applications in 2015 and 2022, but three weeks after meeting with President Trump at the White House on April 17, Manfred lifted the ban and reinstated Rose. Continued on page 11
Look But Don’t Eat
► devin sailer: making america healthy again, page 2
Faux Food Now on Permanent Display at Hyde Hall
► otsego county project highlighted at summit, page 3
By TERESA WINCHESTER
► concert will honor t’nette kuzminski, page 3 ► where are you getting your news? page 4 ► occa forms community science teams, page 5 ► show features fashion, helps animals in need, page 6 Follow Breaking News On
M
SPRINGFIELD ight your palate be tempted by a hedgehog? For upper class diners of the early19th century, hedgehogs were common table fare, not as a meat dish, but as a dessert. Lifelike forms of the prickly erinaceid were made from almond paste, with almond slices stuck into the sides to resemble its spines. The edible hedgehog, along with menu items for breakfast, a formal tea and a formal dinner have been created by artist Carrie Mae Smith in collaboration with
Hyde Hall personnel. The public will be able to see all of these settings when Hyde Hall opens for its 2025 season on Saturday, May 24. The summer breakfast, displayed in the Hyde Hall family dining room, features fried sausages and apples, boiled eggs, fried ham, toast and butter, quince jelly, and fresh strawberries. The drawing room replicates a formal tea menu, serving up rich seed cake, fruit tarts, thinly sliced ham, orange chip and cherry sweetmeats, and Photo provided the distinctive hedgehog. The Almond paste hedgehogs, such as the plaster of Paris replica on display at Hyde Hall as of May 24, were commonly served at tea during the early bill of fare for dinner, served in Continued on page 7 19th century.
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S AWARD-WINNING WEEKLIES 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD
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