Boston team in town for parade, HOF game against Detroit Tigers
By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
COOPERSTOWN — A sea of Boston Red Sox fans and a sampling of Detroit Tigers fans lined Main and Chestnut streets in Cooperstown, hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite players during Monday’s Hall of Fame Game parade.
"I’ve been waiting 50 years for this day," said Cissy Feiden of Troy. "The Red Sox are champions and they’re here."
Feiden said she’d always rooted for the Red Sox, and after seeing them cruise down Main Street, she would take her seat at Doubleday Field to watch them play the Tigers at the game. There were 9,773 people at the game.
By 11 a.m., sidewalks on both sides of Main Street were full and people were crowding into the street.
Clouds hung low in the sky, but the mood was buoyant. Everywhere were red jackets and shirts, emblems of the Red Sox, the reigning World Series champions.
The aroma of hot dogs, sausage, popcorn and hamburgers filled the air as noon, the parade start time, approached. A line of people stood outside 137 Main St. where Red Sox pitcher David Wells was among those inside, signing autographs.
Farther down the street at Mickey’s Place, fans were buying hats and more. Owner Vin Russo said the weekend had been "a typical summer weekend," but Monday was busy.
A long arc of red, white and blue balloons hung over Main Street near Pioneer Street. Signs cheering on the Red Sox hung from apartment windows.
Out in the street were several police officers, including Michael Crippen, Cooperstown’s police chief.
Asked if he, too, was a Red Sox fan, Crippen nodded at the swelling crowd and said, "I am today."
Nearby, Laura Lee, former Cooperstown village clerk, said she was a Yankees fan.
"I hope the Tigers beat the Red Sox today," she said.
Also in the Tigers camp was Matt Jaroma of Lake Orion, Mich.
"I’m a Tigers fan, and I’m glad to be here today," Jaroma said.
A member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s support organization, Friends of the Hall of Fame, Jaroma said he admires Detroit’s manager, Alan Trammell, and hoped the former shortstop would someday be enshrined in Cooperstown.
More typical of the crowd was Jim Durgin of Burlington, Mass.
"To be here, with the Red Sox in town as world champions, is great," he said. "I only wish my dad was here with me."
Minutes before the parade started, the sound system blared Queen’s "We Are The Champions," and the crowd grew excited.
Starting at Cooper Park by the Hall of Fame came floats, bands and antique cars. Cooperstown Mayor Carol Waller and her father, Otsego County Rep. Charles Bateman, rode in a long white limousine, waving American flags.
Even as floats passed and bands played, many people were standing on tiptoe, peering down the block for a glimpse of their baseball idols. Near the end of the parade came the Tigers in two of Cooperstown’s trolleys. Behind them, to cheers that moved up the street like a great wave, were the Red Sox.
Most of the crowd stayed put, snapping pictures with their digital cameras of the boys from Boston rolling by. Others wormed their way through the fans on the sidewalk, keeping pace with the teams’ buses, all the way to Doubleday Field.
