Published: April 17, 2008 01:15 am            

Idelson era begins at Baseball Hall

Priority is to find Fame Game replacement

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — New Baseball Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson said the heart of baseball beats strongest in Cooperstown.

Now Idelson, 43, faces the challenge of maintaining the health of the Hall’s heart for the foreseeable future.

Announced as the sixth president in the museum’s 69-year history Wednesday, Idelson said he never dreamed of landing this job.

“This isn’t anything I ever once thought about,” said Idelson, who was named acting president after predecessor Dale Petroskey resigned on March 25. “It’s nothing I aspired to or concentrated on when I came here in 1994. The chance to come here was a dream unto itself and the last 14 years have been nothing short of ecstatic for me.”

Board of Directors chairwoman Jane Forbes Clark, who accompanied Idelson during the conference, said the decision for the 17-member board was obvious.

“The board has had a chance to watch his commitment to the museum, we know his passion for the game, we know his deep understanding of the museum and of its mission, and we felt there was no better person to lead the Hall of Fame at this moment or take it forward,” Clark said. The board received a couple of applications for the position, she said, but Idelson emerged as the clear choice.

Among the challenges facing Idelson are finding a substitute for the Hall of Fame Game, growing membership and attendance and keeping the institution’s finances in the black.

The final Hall of Fame will be played June 16, when the Chicago Cubs play the San Diego Padres at Doubleday Field in the village. Major League Baseball said in January the game’s lone in-season exhibition will no longer be played after this season, ending a 68-year tradition.

“We’re committed to bringing another event of magnitude to Cooperstown to replace the Hall of Fame Game,” said Idelson.

Idelson also said the fact the Hall has 31,000 members is a sign of its strength.

“It shows they want to keep relationships with us,” he said. “They don’t just want to buy a ticket and never see us again. They want to stay connected.”

During the past nine years, Idelson served as the Hall’s vice president of communications and education, and said he didn’t work all that closely with the financial aspect of the museum. Licensing, sponsorship and development are areas he said he’s going to have to learn on the job.

“We have capable leadership in those areas,” said Idelson, who worked in public relations and media relations with the Boston Red Sox (1986-88) and the New York Yankees (1989-93) before being hired by the Hall. “... The learning curve won’t be that steep.”

Clark said despite the fact that Hall lost money in 2004 ($1.31 million) and 2006 ($1.93 million), it is in good shape financially.

“2006 may not have been our best year, but we’ve been very strong all the other years and we are very strong financially now,” she said.

Idelson said that the marketing of the Hall of Fame “starts from the inside and works out, and if you don’t have the Cooperstown community believing in what you are and feeling like they’re part of the institution, you’re already down 0-2 in the count.”



Rob Centorani writes for The Daily Star in Oneonta, N.Y.

        

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