The 20th annual Symposium on Baseball and American Culture will be Wednesday through Friday at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.
The event will feature more than 50 presentations on baseball’s effect on American culture, the highest number in the history of the symposium, according to a news release. The event is co-sponsored by the State University College at Oneonta and the Hall of Fame.
There will be 17 panel discussions on topics ranging from baseball and the law to minority issues and music. This year’s keynote speech will be given by Ira Berkow, the former New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning sportswriter and author of more than two dozen books.
The speech, titled “Impressions and Perspectives, What Makes a Hero?” will be from 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Grandstand Theater and is open to museum visitors as well as symposium participants.
“This event is unlike any other in the country. We explore baseball from a cultural standpoint rather than the game on the field,” Jim Gates, Hall of Fame librarian, said in the release.
“We invite academics as well as students because we hope to encourage the next generation of baseball scholars,” he said.
On Friday morning, a panel will discuss “Seasons Past” and feature Steve Jacobson, former daily baseball writer for Newsday, Mitchell Nathanson of Villanova University and Bruce Markusen, of Cooperstown.
A special discussion on “Baseball and Freedom: Umpires and the Roots of Order and Freedom” will be from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Other panel discussions run from 2:15 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday at locations in and around the museum. The symposium will feature academics and presenters from across the country.
Admission for the keynote address is included for all symposium participants. Registration fee is $165 or $50 for students and includes all sessions, a daily continental breakfast, a catered picnic, refreshments and a three-day pass to the Hall of Fame.
Having been to one of these myself, I can tell you it’s great fun. The crowds aren’t too heavy in Cooperstown at this point and the people are fascinating, if you like academic types. I went for a whole week, coupling the symposium with some research at the library for an (aborted) book project. I stayed in a lovely B&B, The White House Inn, a short walk to the Hall and found the whole experience quite relaxing. In fact my wife, a veterinarian, had an interview up there several years ago and I was kind of hoping she would get the job so we could live there. Ah well.
A schedule of events and presentations is available online by visiting http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/museum/symposium.jsp. For information, call Gates at 547-0311.
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