Cooperstown All Star Village

CNN News - WonderBoy goes national

2009-07-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

CNN national news reports - Tree becomes baseball bat. Lightning struck a 120-foot tree at a baseball resort, so the tree was turned into a giant baseball bat.

Watch it on CNN – Click here

Cooperstown All Star Village Builds World Record Wonder Boy Bat

2009-07-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

Watch the Video

By WBNG News

Story Created: Jul 8, 2009 at 4:27 PM EDT

Story Updated: Jul 8, 2009 at 6:20 PM EDT

An Otsego County resort is carving out a new attraction that's sure to appeal to baseball fans...

And could also win a world record.

Action News reporter Gabe Osterhout has the story.

The sound of a chainsaw echoed through the Cooperstown All-Star Village Resort in West Oneonta.

Last week, during a Little League championship game at the resort, lightening struck a 120 foot tall tree in front of the Players Village.

You can still see a notch in the back, where lighting hit the tree.

Instead of cutting the tree down, owners got an idea.

"My concern was it was the most majestic tree on the property and it was right there at the entrance of the player village so the first thing that came to my mind when I looked at it after he removed the limbs was a baseball bat," says owner Martin Patton.

Players and parents staying at the resort watched as chainsaw artists Hal Macintosh, got to work.

"We're just carving a really tall baseball bat," Macintosh says.

Not just an ordinary bat.

The bat will be a 50 feet high replica of the Wonderboy bat, carved by Robert Redford's character in the movie The Natural.

"It's fitting because its all about baseball. It's all about the purity of baseball and of course that's what this property is all about. It services children 12 and under, teams that come from all across the country," Patton says.

Macintosh expects to finish the bat by the end of the day.

In Oneonta, Gabe Osterhout, WBNG-TV Action News.

Owners say they will call the Guinness Book of World Records to see if this tree qualifies as the largest wooden bat ever made.

Link to Article

New Website Launched

2009-06-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

Cooperstown All-Star Village welcomes baseball fans and players alike to visit its new, improved website, featuring guides to local attractions and the latest features technology can offer.

We’re all about creating the finest baseball experience for young players and families alike, and this new site is part of that.

The new site, which you can bookmark at www.cooperstownallstarvillage.com, offers:

Complete statistics for each team and season.
Guides to local activities, dining, accommodations, golf, shopping and the arts.
YouTube and Flickr links to see the newest videos and photographs.
A webcam to watch live games.
A complete guide to the experience at Cooperstown All-Star Village.
A new design that’s easier to navigate and read.

We want people to have the best experience possible while they’re at Cooperstown All-Star Village. And that means giving them every tool to enjoy their stay, both during the games and in between.

The website was designed by Grafiqa Creative Services, an Oneonta-based marketing and brand-development firm that specializes in the Internet and social media.

A New Season, and New Excitement, at Cooperstown All-Star Village

2009-06-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

There’s nothing like the excitement of watching that first pitch of the season, the first “thwack” as the ball hits the catcher’s mitt, or the crack and cheers as a line drive goes into deep left-center.

We’re open for the season, and we’re pretty excited about it. Over the next few weeks, hundreds of kids will take part in the ultimate Cooperstown experience. The experience is more than just the game – although that’s hard to top:

It’s making friends and trading pins and e-mails.
It’s knowing your friends and family can watch your game live via our web cams.
It’s taking part in a bit of Americana not far from where Abner Doubleday invented the game, and where the game’s immortals are honored at National Baseball Hall of Fame.
It’s knowing you’re playing a game against some of the best young players in the country in just about the best facilities that can be created, with swimming pools, comfortable bunkhouses and better-than-tasty meals.
It’s the thrill of competing for the top trophy in the National Cooperstown Tournament of Champions, one of the premier baseball tournaments in America.

For the players’ families, we offer first-class lodging and restaurants and access to some of the prettiest country America can offer. Golf, theater, museums, hiking, boating – all under the shadow of the Catskill Mountains. We sometimes take for granted the beauty and culture available here, but we hear often enough from our guests how much they appreciate it.

So yeah, we’re pretty excited, and we’d love to tell you more. But the game’s about to start, and we don’t want to miss it.