Open seven days a week the year round, with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day, the Hall of Fame is open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. after Labor Day until Memorial Day Weekend. Summer hours are from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. daily.  Ticket prices are $14.50 for adults (13 and over), $9 for seniors (65 and over) and for those holding current memberships in the VFW, Disabled American Veterans, American Legion and AMVets organizations, and $5 for juniors (ages 7-12). Members are always admitted free of charge and there is no charge for children six years of age or younger, active and retired card-carrying military personnel. For more information, visit our Web site at Baseballhall.org or call 888-HALL-OF-FAME (888-425-5633) or 607-547-7200.

Three Elected to National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Board of Directors

DuPuy, Niekro and Reinsdorf Join Board
 
(COOPERSTOWN, NY)   At the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s annual Board of Directors meeting on July 26, Bob DuPuy, Phil Niekro and Jerry Reinsdorf were elected to the Board, bringing the total number of directors to 18 for the non-profit educational institution. 
 
“With this election of these three individuals, we have added great enthusiasm, experience and passion for the game and its history to the Board,” said Jane Forbes Clark, Chairman of the Board of Directors. “From diverse backgrounds, Bob, Phil and Jerry share a common love for the game and a deep appreciation and respect for our role as an educational institution. Their vision and dedication will strengthen our institution.”
 
Bob DuPuy is President and Chief Operating Officer of Major League Baseball, a position he has held since March 2002. DuPuy is responsible for all phases of baseball’s Central Offices, including licensing, sponsorship, international, broadcasting, publishing, marketing, public relations, government relations, baseball operations, legal affairs, finance, baseball’s internet operations and the labor relations committee.
 
Phil Niekro was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997, following a 24-year career as a major league pitcher, spent mostly with the Atlanta Braves. Named for his prowess with the knuckleball pitch, “Knucksie” recorded 318 wins and 3,342 strikeouts, pitching for the Milwaukee Braves (1964-’65), Atlanta Braves (1966-’83, 1987), New York Yankees (1984-’85), Cleveland Indians (1986-’87) and Toronto Blue Jays (1987).
 
Jerry Reinsdorf is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Chicago White Sox. Since heading the limited partnership that purchased the White Sox in January 1981, Reinsdorf has been involved in Major League Baseball initiatives at an industry-wide level, as a member of the Executive Council, a past chairman of baseball’s Ownership Committee and as a former member of the Player Relations Committee. Reinsdorf also serves as Chairman of the Chicago Bulls.
 
In addition to Board Chairman Jane Forbes Clark, whose grandfather, Stephen C. Clark, founded the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors includes: Vice Chairman Joe Morgan, along with four other Hall of Fame players including Robin Roberts, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and Tom Seaver.  Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. “Bud” Selig, major league owners Bill DeWitt Jr. (St. Louis), David Glass (Kansas City) and George Steinbrenner, former American League President and Hall of Fame executive Lee MacPhail, former MLB President Paul Beeston, minor league owner Bill Gladstone (Tri-City Valley Cats), Kevin Moore, president of the Clark Estates, Inc. and former Hall of Fame Chairman Ed Stack round out the list of Directors.
 
Located on Main Street in the heart of picturesque Cooperstown, New York, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is one of the country's major tourist destinations and is surely the best-known sports shrine in the world.  Opening its doors for the first time on June 12, 1939, the Hall of Fame has stood as the definitive repository of the game's treasures and as a symbol of the most profound individual honor bestowed on an athlete.  It is every fan's "Field of Dreams" with its stories, legends and magic to be passed on from generation to generation.
 

Fan Balloting for Ford C. Frick Award Begins Sept. 1,
Continues Through  Sept. 30 
 
--Top Three Fan Vote-Getters Will Be Included On Final Ballot For 2009 Award--
 
 
(COOPERSTOWN, NY): Online voting for fan selections for the 2009 Ford C. Frick Award ballot begins Monday, Sept. 1, as fan  selections will determine three of the 10 names on the final ballot, to be announced on  Oct. 6, for the fifth straight year. Fans can cast votes once per day through September for up to three baseball broadcasters, exclusively at baseballhall.org.
 
Fans will have the opportunity to select three of the 210 broadcasters eligible for consideration for the 2009 Ford C. Frick Award. Bios of each candidate appear at baseballhall.org. Results will be announced when voting concludes, though updates will not be provided during the voting.
 
The final ballot will be comprised of the three fan selections, along with seven other candidates, determined by a Hall of Fame staff research team. The Frick ballot will then be considered by the Frick electorate, which includes all living Award-winners and five historians appointed by the Hall of Fame.
 
Presented annually since 1978 for excellence in baseball broadcasting, the Ford C. Frick Award is given to an active or retired broadcaster with a minimum of 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service with a ball club, network, or a combination of the two.   The 2009 Ford C. Frick Award winner will be announced Dec. 9 at baseball's winter meetings in Las Vegas.
 
The voting electorate consists of  20 members, featuring 2008 Ford C. Frick Award winner Dave Niehaus and the other 14 living Frick Award winners: Marty Brennaman, Jerry Coleman, Gene Elston, Joe Garagiola, Ernie Harwell, Jaime Jarrin, Milo Hamilton, Harry Kalas, Denny Matthews, Felo Ramirez, Vin Scully, Lon Simmons, Bob Uecker and Bob Wolff. Five historians and veteran media members are also part of the electorate, including Bob Costas (NBC), Barry Horn (Dallas Morning News), Stan Isaacs (formerly of New York Newsday), Ted Patterson (historian) and Curt Smith (historian).
 
More than 470,000 votes were cast during the first five years of online balloting. 2004 Frick Award winner Lon Simmons received the most fan votes in 2003; Niehaus, the long-time Seattle Mariners broadcaster, received the largest number of fan votes in 2004; and former Oakland A’s broadcaster Bill King received the largest number of fan votes in 2005 and 2006. Former Reds broadcaster Joe Nuxhall received the most fan votes last year with 82,304.
 
Voters are asked to base their selections on the following criteria: longevity; continuity with a club; honors, including national assignments such as the World Series and All-Star Games; and popularity with fans. Each voter will cast ballots and the broadcaster with the strongest support will be named as that year’s award-winner, and be honored the following summer at the annual Induction Ceremony in Cooperstown.
 
The annual award is named in memory of Hall of Famer Ford C. Frick, renowned sportswriter, radio broadcaster, National League president and Baseball commissioner. The complete list of recipients includes:
 
1978
Mel Allen
1988
Lindsey Nelson
1999
Arch McDonald
 
Red Barber
1989
Harry Caray
2000
Marty Brennaman
1979
Bob Elson
1990
By Saam
2001
Felo Ramirez
1980
Russ Hodges
1991
Joe Garagiola
2002
Harry Kalas
1981
Ernie Harwell
1992
Milo Hamilton
2003
Bob Uecker
1982
Vin Scully
1993
Chuck Thompson
2004
Lon Simmons
1983
Jack Brickhouse
1994
Bob Murphy
2005
Jerry Coleman
1984
Curt Gowdy
1995
Bob Wolff
2006
Gene Elston
1985
Buck Canel
1996
Herb Carneal
2007
Denny Matthews
1986
Bob Prince
1997
Jimmy Dudley
2008
Dave Niehaus
1987
Jack Buck
1998
Jaime Jarrin
 
 
The Museum’s collections contain more than 35,000 three-dimensional artifacts representing all facets of the game, from its inception in the mid-19th century to present.  Three-dimensional artifacts include bats, baseballs, uniforms, player equipment, ballpark artifacts, awards, artwork, textiles, tickets and collectibles. In addition, the Institution's archives contain in excess of 130,000 Baseball cards and 2.6 million Library items, including photographs, books, magazines, newspaper clippings, films, video and audio tapes.
 
Located on Main Street in the heart of picturesque Cooperstown, New York, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is one of the country's major tourist destinations and is surely the best-known sports shrine in the world.  Opening its doors for the first time on June 12, 1939, the Hall of Fame has stood as the definitive repository of the game's treasures and as a symbol of the most profound individual honor bestowed on an athlete. It is every fan's "Field of Dreams," with its stories, legends and magic to be passed on from generation to generation.
 
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an independent not-for-profit educational institution, dedicated to fostering an appreciation of the historical development of baseball and its impact on our culture by collecting, preserving, exhibiting and interpreting its collections for a global audience as well as honoring those who have made outstanding contributions to our National Pastime.

Record Number of Hall of Famers in Cooperstown for Class of 2008 Induction at Hall of Fame
 
--Gossage, Williams Deliver Emotional Acceptance Speeches--
 
(COOPERSTOWN, N.Y): A record 56 Hall of Famers were on stage at the Clark Sports Center on Sunday to welcome the Class of 2008 to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum – the most Hall of Famers ever to gather in one location.
 
Goose Gossage and Dick Williams thanked friends and family during three-plus hour ceremony, which also featured the posthumous inductions of Barney Dreyfuss, Bowie Kuhn, Walter O’Malley and Billy Southworth.
 
Approximately 14,000 fans witnessed the event under sunny skies. Other highlights from the afternoon included:
 
**Dozens of famous faces were spotted in the crowd, including former Cy Young Award winner David Cone; New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and former Yankees GM Gene Michael; former big league players Joe Rudi, Dave Campbell and Jim Beattie; and longtime big league general manager Roland Hemond.
 
**Ernie Banks stole the show early on in the Ceremony when Mr. Cub asked Commissioner Bud Selig if he could be placed on the Cubs’ active roster on Aug. 31 – which would make him eligible for the postseason. The 77-year-old Banks, who never made it to the World Series during his playing days, is rooting for the Cubs to end their 100-year Fall Classic drought this year.

**During the introduction of returning Hall of Famers, thunderous ovations came for Henry Aaron and Yogi Berra. The Ceremony marked the first time in 35 years that Aaron was not the all-time home run king when the Induction Ceremony took place. Berra, meanwhile, received a warm greeting from many of the Yankee fans in attendance to see Goose Gossage.
 
The National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2009 Induction Weekend will take place July 24-27 of next year, with the Induction Ceremony scheduled for July 26.   

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One of the nation's premier art institutions, the Fenimore Art Museum is home to an exceptionally rich collection of American folk art and American Indian art as well as important holdings in American decorative arts, photography, and twentieth-century art. Founded in 1945 in Cooperstown, New York, the museum is part of the New York State Historical Association (NYSHA), founded in 1899. The museum's renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection, housed in the American Indian Wing, comprises more than 800 significant art objects, representing a broad scope of North American cultures. The collections of folk and American art include seminal works by Grandma Moses, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Cole, William Sidney Mount, Benjamin West, and John H. I. Browere. The museum offers a range of interactive educational programming for children, families, and adults, including lectures and workshops for museum visitors and distance learning instruction for classrooms nationwide. The museum further explores and examines our cultural history by organizing and hosting nationally touring art and history exhibitions, including Grandma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation; Treasures from Olana: The Landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church; A Deaf Artist in Early America: The Worlds of John Brewster, Jr.; Winslow Homer: Masterworks from the Adirondacks; and Ralph Fasanella's America.

The Fenimore Art Museum is located on 5798 State Hwy. 80, Lake Road, in Cooperstown. The museum's Fenimore Café, overlooking beautiful Otsego Lake, features wonderful views and a tranquil setting amid the terraced gardens. The Museum Shop offers fine jewelry, art reproductions, and a wide selection of publications on folk art, history, and Native American art. Museum admission is $11 for adults, $9.50 for visitors age 65 and over, and $5 for children age 7 to 12; children 6 and under and NYSHA members are admitted free. Reduced price combination admission tickets that include The Farmers' Museum and The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum are also available. The museum is open from April 1 through December 30. For museum hours or general information, please call 1-888-547-1450 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org.

Fenimore Art Museum’s 2008 Exhibition Season will Surprise, Inspire and Inform

Cooperstown, N.Y., March 25, 2008—Delve into the Arts & Crafts movement, explore Otsego County through the lenses of Richard Walker and Smith and Telfer, and discover the link between Jewish visual culture and the American carousel industry in the 2008 exhibition season at the Fenimore Art Museum.
 
From April 1 through May 12, the museum will be open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 am to 4 pm, closed on Mondays.  Summer hours begin on May 13 and continue through Columbus Day, October 13. During the summer season, the museum is open seven days a week from 10 am to 5 pm.
 
Exhibition highlights include:
 
Gustav Stickley: The Enlightened Home
April 1- August 10, 2008
 
The Fenimore Art Museum presents an exhibition on the furniture of celebrated turn-of-the-century designer and manufacturer and leading spokesman for the American Arts and Crafts movement, Gustav Stickley. Gustav Stickley: The Enlightened Home features 40 pieces of original Stickley furniture and decorative objects drawn from The Stickley Museum, Fayetteville, N.Y.; Dalton’s American Decorative Arts, Syracuse, N.Y.; The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, Morris Plains, N.J. and private collections.
 
The exhibition explores Stickley’s well-designed and carefully crafted furniture within the context of his philosophical contribution to the American Arts and Crafts movement. Inspired by the ideas of British Arts and Crafts philosopher William Morris, who advocated a return to fine craftsmanship, honest design, and dignity of labor, Stickley generated his own “Craftsman” philosophy, which catapulted him to the forefront of the American Arts and Crafts movement. Rejecting the superfluous ornamentation characteristic of Victorian homes, Stickley championed functional homes whose beauty derived from simplicity and harmony.
 
Gustav Stickley: The Enlightened Home, which includes two period rooms, a 1904 living room and a 1907 dining room, highlights several pieces from Stickley’s rich body of work and illustrates how Stickley redefined the American home with his Arts and Crafts-inspired items. Stickley’s philosophy of building in harmony with the environment by using natural materials was fully realized in his home, Craftsman Farms in Morris Plains, New Jersey. His functional approach to design was a departure from the Victorian era’s dark and overly ornamental interiors. Stickley’s unornamented, clean-lined furniture was exemplified throughout the interior and exterior design of his home. While individual pieces of furniture used construction as decoration, embodied simplicity, and prioritized utility, these tenets were also implemented on a much grander scale within the home.
 
 
Bits of Home
April 1 – December 31
 
Visitors to the Fenimore Art Museum have long enjoyed the extraordinary collections of fine art, folk art, and American Indian art held by the New York State Historical Association (NYSHA). Less well known are the thousands of historical artifacts in the collections storage areas. Bits of Home is a new exhibition that is intended to acquaint visitors with these historical collections by featuring a selection of more than 30 artifacts from NYSHA and The Farmers’ Museum’s extensive collections of domestic life in nineteenth-century New York. As a theme-based gallery, this exhibition allows the visitor to explore the function and design of everything from household textiles to toys and games in a setting evocative of the environment for which they were originally made.
 
Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel
May 24 – September 1, 2008G

From gilded lions to high-stepping horses, the sacred to the secular, and the Old World to the New, this exhibition traces, for the first time, the journey of Jewish woodcarvers and paper cut artists from Eastern and Central Europe to America. Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel, organized by the American Folk Art Museum, New York, highlights the unsung role these artisans played in establishing a distinct Jewish culture in communities throughout the United States and provides a surprising revelation of the link that was forged between the immigrant Jewish woodcarvers and the American carousel industry. The exhibition brings together extraordinary examples of majestic synagogue carvings—gilded lions, Decalogues, crowns and eagles as well as intricate paper cuts—juxtaposed against dynamic carousel figures created for Brooklyn’s great amusement park, Coney Island, and others. Featuring 100 rarely exhibited artworks, drawn from private and public collections in the United States, Eastern Europe and Israel, the exhibition tells the story of this fascinating aspect of Jewish and American visual culture. 
 
Organized by Guest Curator Murray Zimiles and coordinated by the American Folk Art Museum’s Senior Curator Stacy C. Hollander, the exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 192-page book, Gilded Lions And Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel, co-published by the American Folk Art Museum with Brandeis University Press, an imprint of the University Press of New England. In addition, please visit the exhibition website at gildedlions.org, which was conceptualized by George Blumenthal and funded by The Center for Online Judaic Studies, Inc.
 
Major support for the exhibition and catalogue was provided by Michael Steinhardt; Kekst and Company; the David Berg Foundation; the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation; the Smart Family Foundation; the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation, Allentown, Pennsylvania; the Betty and John A. Levin Fund; the Robert Lehman Foundation; the Nathan Cummings Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts; and the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art
August 23– December 31, 2008

The images of African Americans at the Fenimore Art Museum offer insights into the ways that Americans in the past viewed one another; how artistic representations of black people created and reinforced popular attitudes; and how these attitudes continue to affect us today. This is not simply a story for African Americans, but for all of us, because the issues represented in this exhibition— identity, self-portrayal, survival, resistance, and stereotyping—are issues that relate to each individual who has ever wondered about their own identity and to every group that has entered this country.

This exhibition is curated by Gretchen Sullivan Sorin, Director of The Cooperstown Graduate Program and has been made possible by a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency. 

 
Earl Cunningham’s America
September 27 – December 31, 2008

Earl Cunningham’s America examines the paintings of Earl Cunningham (1893-1977), one of the premier folk artists of the 20th century. This retrospective presents the artist as a folk modernist who used the flat space and brilliant color typical of Matisse and Van Gogh to create sophisticated compositions with complex meanings about the nature of American life. The exhibition features 50 of more than 400 canvasses Cunningham painted during his life. His imaginary landscapes are marvels of the unexpected and the unlikely. Pink flamingoes dot the shoreline of the Maine coast, New England cottages sit at the edge of Florida swamps and Seminole Indians wear feathered headdresses.
 
Earl Cunningham’s America is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibition will travel to the American Folk Art Museum in New York City (March 4, 2008 – August 31, 2008) and the Mennello Museum of American Art in Orlando, Fla. (March 6, 2009 – August 2, 2009).
 
The exhibition is made possible by generous support from Darden Restaurants Foundation; the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation; the Arts and Cultural Affairs Office of Orange County, Florida; CNL Financial Group; Bright House Networks; Lockheed Martin; and Friends of The Mennello Museum of American Art. The exhibition’s tour is supported in part by the C. F. Foundation, Atlanta.
 
Remembering Cooperstown: Photographs by Smith and Telfer
April 1 – May 11 & September 20 – December 31

This exhibition, culled from the museum’s permanent collection, features familiar and rarely seen photographs drawn from the Smith and Telfer Photographic Collection. The spring and fall exhibits will each feature a different selection of photography showcasing the breadth of the collection. Cooperstown photographers ‘Wash” Smith and “Putt” Telfer compiled an exceptional record of Cooperstown’s people and places for almost a century. The Smith and Telfer Photograph Collection, donated to the museum in 1951, numbers nearly 55,000 glass plate negatives. Smith and Telfer’s legacy is rich, and includes not only standard studio work, but also a vast number of images of people and activities recorded outside of the studio. Their familiarity with Cooperstown’s people and places gave their images a natural, unposed quality, which captures the spirit and sensibility of small town life. Through their lens Cooperstown is remembered as the quintessential American rural village.

About the Fenimore Art Museum
One of the nation’s premier art institutions, the Fenimore Art Museum is home to an exceptionally rich collection of American folk art and American Indian art as well as important holdings in American decorative arts, photography, and twentieth-century art. Founded in 1945 in Cooperstown, New York, the museum is part of the New York State Historical Association (NYSHA), founded in 1899. The museum’s renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection, housed in the American Indian Wing, is a masterpiece collection of more than 800 art objects, representing a broad scope of North American cultures. The collections of folk and American art include seminal works by Grandma Moses, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Cole, William Sidney Mount, Benjamin West, and John H. I. Browere. The museum offers a range of interactive educational programming for children, families, and adults, including lectures and workshops for museum visitors and distance learning instruction for classrooms nationwide.
 
The Fenimore Art Museum is located on 5798 State Hwy. 80, Lake Road, in Cooperstown. The museum’s Fenimore Café, overlooking beautiful Otsego Lake, features wonderful views and a tranquil setting amid the terraced gardens. The Museum Shop offers fine jewelry, art reproductions, and a wide selection of publications on folk art, history, and Native American art. Museum admission is $11 for adults, $9.50 for visitors age 65 and over, and $5 for children age 7 to 12; children 6 and under and NYSHA members are admitted free. Reduced price combination admission tickets that include The Farmers’ Museum and The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum are also available. The museum is open from April 1 through December 31; closed January through March, except for special events and school groups. For museum hours or general information, please call 1-888-547-1450 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org.

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More Cooperstown Events

To be posted soon.

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