On a perfect June afternoon, the Albany "Old Stars" defeated a mourning Syracuse team 12 to 2. Sadly, the organizer of the Syracuse squad died from a heart attack just two weeks ago and left his teammates with very heavy hearts.
Billy Smith came out of retirement and threw six innings of 2-run baseball. Someone needs to get him back out of the field. He was terrific.
Ralph Caputo finished the game with three strong scoreless innings.
He and John Corrigan almost went "yard", better luck next time.
All in all, baseball in June, in Cooperstown..... It doesn't get much better than that.
Thanks to Don Wixon for managing the squad and to John Reel for organizing it.
P.S. I believe the Albany crew won the Father/Son game by one run in a tightly contested game.
I would like to thank all the guys from Albany, young'uns and oldsters, for their level of play, outstanding fielding plays and and some prodigious shots of your bats. You were all great sportsmen, showing respect for your fellow mates, the opposing team and the umpires. I also tip my cap to all the sons and fathers from the Syracuse squad, a bunch of class men, who play the game with great tenacity to the end, as them made a valiant effort in the F-S game and had the winning runs on base, quite similar to the oldsters game last year.
We had a moment of silence out of respect for Peter Cooley, the force behind putting this event together for the last 3 or 4 years. We all will miss you Pete, but our pitches will not miss your bat from the leftside, as many of the balls you raked gave them a case of whiplash.
After the game, John Cooley, Pete's better looking brother, and I spoke about possibly continuing this great event next year. I know organizing these games takes a great deal of time and work, and Pete seemed to be a master organizer. Here's hoping John can continue on with the tradition.
