Lukas: History lesson via nameplate in Cooperstown

From SABR member Paul Lukas at Uni Watch on June 7, 2013, with SABR member Jeff Katz:

Thirty years ago, when I was in college, we had an on-campus nonprofit record store that was staffed entirely by students — the Slipped Disc Record Co-op. When I was a freshman and sophomore, the guy who ran Slipped Disc was this dude named Jeff Katz, who was two years older than I was. He kinda took me under his wing and groomed me to become one of the store’s managers, which I became for my junior and senior years.

Jeff and I lost touch after he graduated, but he tracked me down on Facebook five or six years ago, and our friendship picked up right where it left off. He’s had an interesting life, and at the moment he is the Mayor of Cooperstown, New York, which as you might imagine is a very interesting gig if you happen to be a baseball fan, which Jeff definitely is (he’s already written one baseball book and is currently working on another).

Jeff recently flexed his mayoral muscle to create a very cool initiative involving a largely forgotten ballplayer named Bud Fowler and Cooperstown’s local high school baseball team (plus I had a very small role in it myself). See those “Fowler” NOBs in the photos at the top of this entry? Here’s the scoop behind them:

Read the full article here: http://www.uni-watch.com/2013/06/07/cooperstown-high-school-baseball-team-wears-bud-fowler-tribute-nameplates/

Related link: For coverage of the 2013 Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Conference and Bud Fowler Day in Cooperstown, click here



Originally published: June 7, 2013. Last Updated: June 7, 2013.