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ONEONTA, N.Y. -- Professor of
History William M.
Simons of the SUNY College at Oneonta is serving as Director of the 20th
annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture at the
National Baseball Hall of Fame
and Museum, which runs from Wednesday, June 4, through Friday, June 6.
In a panel on "Jews and Baseball," Dr. Simons and sports lawyer and author
Robert Ruxin will co-present a seminar entitled "In the Beginning--and in
the End: The Genesis and Destruction of the Israel Baseball League" on
Friday, June 1, at 1 p.m. in the Education Gallery.
Dr. Simons' presentation will be based on his first-hand experience as
well as his extensive research, writing, and teaching about the history of
baseball. He traveled to Israel to see games, interview players, and learn
about the short-lived league during its only season last year. Ruxin
assisted the Israel Baseball League in various capacities, including serving
as its Director of Business Development. The league featured six teams in
three parks with Jewish-American former major leaguers Art Shamsky, Ken
Holtzman, and Ron Blomberg among the managers.
Since 2000, Dr. Simons has served as the editor of annual collections of
essays from the symposia entitled The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball
and American Culture, which have been published by McFarland and Company
Publishers. He has presented at the Cooperstown symposia several times, and
he is the only person to participate in all 20 of the symposia.
This year's symposium will begin at 1 p.m. on Wednesday with the keynote
address by Ira Berkow, author and prominent sportswriter for the New York
Times.
On Wednesday evening, the panel on "Baseball and Freedom: Umpires and the
Roots of Order and Freedom" will feature three prominent judges from
California, two umpires, and Branch Rickey III, the President of the Pacific
Coast League.
Thursday's presentations will include a special session entitled "The
Trial of Rube Waddell" in which participants will argue allegations that
Waddell accepted a bribe to stay out of the 1905 World Series. The
"lawyers"--author Roger Abrams of the Northeastern University School of Law
and Alan Levy, history professor at Slippery Rock University and author of
Waddell's biography--will argue their cases before Otsego County Judge Brian
Burns.
During the symposium, more than 50 papers will be presented by university
scholars and baseball researchers from across the country. Co-sponsored by
the SUNY College at Oneonta and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and
Museum, the symposium examines the impact of baseball on American culture
from multi-disciplinary perspectives.
The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture is open to
members of the community, who can register to participate. Registration
information is available online at
www.baseballhalloffame.org
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