Mr. Allan H. (Bud) Selig
Major League Baseball
777 East Wisconsin Street
Suite 3060
Milwaukee, WI 53202

Dear Commissioner Selig:

I am deeply disappointed that you have turned a deaf ear to the pleas of dedicated baseball fans and their congressional representative to keep the Hall of Fame Game alive in Cooperstown. With all due respect, your form letter to Sen. Clinton and U.S. Rep. Arcuri is disingenuous and evasive. You claim that scheduling the Hall of Fame game has become too difficult since “our teams play 162 games in 180 days.” However, Major League Baseball has found time to schedule games in Japan, China, Mexico and Puerto Rico recently.

One can’t help concluding that you are putting profits before a great baseball tradition, and at a time when the game is suffering through a long and painful scandal. Baseball fans are attached to the game because of its rich history. Since 1939, two-thirds of future Hall of Famers have played in the Hall of Fame Game. Every baseball fan knows their names: Aaron, Berra, Mays, Musial, Dimaggio, Mantle, Yastremski and many others. During World War II, with fuel rationed, the Brooklyn Dodgers kept the Hall of Fame game alive by riding horses to Cooperstown’s Doubleday Field. With far less effort, your highly profitable league can keep this great tradition alive.

Canceling the Hall of Fame Game will also do serious damage to our local economy. The game draws over 10,000 fans to Cooperstown. The village receives $30,000 from ticket sales. Game weekend is also the second most profitable of the season in an area heavily dependent on tourism. High school students will also suffer because they’ll lose income when concessions shut down.

Cooperstown is an icon in baseball history; it generates incalculable good will for Major League Baseball. Surely, there is a constructive solution to the scheduling difficulties you mention. I urge you to reconsider your decision.

Sincerely,

Don Barber

New York State Senate Candidate (SD-51)