The Ithaca Journal from Ithaca, New York • 20

6B SportsClassified The Ithaca Journal Monday, August 27, 1990 Pro baseball's only city-owned team plays in Auburn 'Some didn't seem to think that pro ball would go in Auburn. They figured we'd be lucky if we lasted a Vince Klein, Astros vice-chairman Vi 7 Mi By JOHN KEKIS The Associated Press AUBURN If only Abner Doubleday had stayed put. "We could have been Cooperstown," Auburn city Councilman Tim Lattimore said. "It would have been nice if we caught the Hall of Fame." Doubleday, the alleged inventor of the game of baseball, spent the early years of his life here in Cayuga County in rolling farm country. But he moved away too soon to suit local baseball fans.

So while Cooperstown's name is synonymous with baseball, Auburn's claim to fame is something most people around here would sooner forget: it was home to the first electric chair, where William Kemmler became the first person in the world to die by electrocution 100 years ago. Auburn state prison dominates the local economy today. And yet in its own way, Auburn remains Doubleday's kind of town. It also is home to the only city-owned minor-league baseball team in America the Auburn Astros of the Class A New York-Penn League. The professional baseball roots Leo Pinckney said.

"We got something like $5,800 in just a few days." That was enough. Then all the city needed was a working agreement with a major-league team. Stapleton and company decided to contact Lee MacPhail of the New York Yankees, and he made the trip north on Dec. 19, 1957, to see what the city had to offer. The team would play in Falcon Park, already 31 years old and in rough shape after sitting idle for six years.

The outfield was overgrown with trees, the fences were falling and the infield was a mess because it had been used as a racetrack for mini-cars. However, MacPhail was oblivious to much of that, thanks to the harsh upstate winter. "I've often wondered what they of Auburn a city of 32,000 some 35 miles North of Ithaca dates back to the late 1930s and the old Canadian-American League. The city has been in and out of organized ball seven times since the turn of the century. But in 1951 it was out when the old Border League folded.

Six years later and starved for a team, three men a local businessman named Ed Ward, a doctor named Tom Stapleton, and Leo Pinckney, the sports editor of the local paper, the Auburn Citizen spearheaded a drive to get an expansion franchise in the New York-Penn League. The trio helped organize the Auburn Community Baseball Club in an effort to raise money. "We started a stock drive and went house to house," Pinckney warm sometimes, but at least you know you're doing something to help the ballclub." Brian Porter pitched for the Astros last year. When arm troubles short-circuited his career, he decided he wanted to stay in baseball and returned this season to Auburn to work as the team's assistant general manager. "It's a community-owned team, and that's one of the reasons why I came back," Porter said.

"Everyone in this town is involved. It's like one big baseball family. I've never seen anything like it. "I'm from about 20 miles outside Detroit, and when 1 came here I thought it would be like New York City," Porter said. "But when you come up here you just see mountains and hills.

And you can walk down the streets at night and not have to worry about anything." About the only worry here these days is the trend that minor-league baseball has taken in recent years. Franchises are gravitating away from the small towns into bigger markets. It happened two years ago in nearby Little Falls, which lost its Mets, and it could happen here. "There's very few of us left," Graham said. "A lot of the larger cities would like to push us out.

"In the 1950s the small cities were the backbone of minor-league baseball. Sometimes I think we get overlooked. We're an important part of baseball. If we were sold to somebody private, there's no telling where they might move the team." Not to worry. "If it got to that point, I think the city wouldn't want to lose the team," Graham said.

"I think they would even draw up a bond issue." be no team. "They all dedicate themselves to baseball here," General Manager John Graham said. "It's something you see in Little League, but not in minor-league baseball. Locals take in the players here. That's a dying trend.

They feed them, they mother them." Bill McNabb and his wife have been doing it for nine years. "We don't have any children of our own, and these kids come in and by the time they leave they call us mom and dad," said McNabb, president of the Astros' booster club. Falcon Park, built in 1926, is the third-oldest park in minor-league baseball. While the likes of Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Mel Stottlemyre, Tug McGraw and Robin Yount have passed through over the years, the directors have been too busy to watch. Each has to work an allotted number of home games a season to cover all the bases, so if they want to take in a game, many go to nearby Geneva to see the rival Cubs when the Astros are on the road.

"They have to work eight nights, but I work almost every night," said 45-year-old Doreen Henry, secretary of the team's executive board. She usually puts in about seven hours at one of the concession stands after a full day at her real job as executive director of the rape crisis center downtown. "I look forward to coming down here," Henry said. "This is my and R. A lot of us used to come down and have picnics here just to be here.

About 20 of us even have a winter picnic now. We grill hot dogs and play ball in the snow." "I do the cooking," director Max Haines said. "It gets a little Henderson's record theft may wait until next year ram ADOPTION We know that adoption is not an easy choice for you. We promise to always give a baby love and the best life has to offer. Call collect 718-767-7064 expenses paid.

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Call 273-0671. PIANO INSTRUCTION Conservatory graduate. Belle Sherman area. 272-5015. DETROIT (GNS) Rickey Henderson needs only 15 stolen bases to break Lou Brock's all-time career record, and for nearly all of his career that's been little more than a month's work.

And make that two weeks' labor when he's hot. But with 44 games remaining for the Oakland Athletics, he is no cinch to run past Brock's record of 921 steals before the regular season ends Oct. 3. Henderson has 53 stolen bases this year but has been slowed by a strained hamstring. The injury and a continuing pennant race for the American League West-leading Athletics who lost three of its last four to Detroit over the weekend could delay his breaking the record until 1991.

"If he gets it this year, and he's capable of getting it, it'll be in base-stealing situations that will help the team," said Dave McKay, the A's base running and first base coach. "If he does get it, he'll sneak up on it. If he doesn't get it, he'll be close. Rickey has a lot of time. If he doesn't get it, he'll get it next year.

We'll definitely not run the chance of getting him hurt." Henderson, who said his injured leg is now "80 percent," was held out of last Tuesday's game on a wet field against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park as a precaution. "We had situations in Baltimore. They (the in-fielders were back. Rickey looked over to the dugout. We said McKay, motioning with his hands to indicate that he had been signalled to stay put.

Another injury would deprive the A's of more than an accomplished base stealer. He's batting .324 with 22 homers and 47 runs batted in, although he has missed 21 games. "I think I can reach the record this year; it will be close," Henderson said. "If I was just going to go out to steal bases, I think I could do it anytime. "A lot of it depends on how the team is playing and what we need.

We have a lot more at stake than a guy's individual stats." Henderson, 31, has considerable experience with breaking stolen base records. In 1980, he passed American League season record holder Ty Cobb's mark of 96 and became the first American Leaguer to steak 100 bases. In 1982, his 130 stolen bases set a major league season record, surpassing Brock's record of 118. Henderson said there is less pressure as he goes af ter the career record than there was when he pursued Brock for the season record. "Pressure-wise, I think it'll be more relaxing," he said.

"The first time, there was a lot of pressure. Each and every day, you thought, 'I've got to do it. I've got to do Don't do it, you'd get mad." Henderson is thinking not only of breaking the record but smashing it during his career. "I have a chance to put it away (beyond anyone's reach)," he said. "If I play 20 years, I could put it away." But the 11-year major league veteran said nothing is assured.

"They told me Lou Brock's record would never be broken," he said. He said Brock, who was there to see Henderson's 1 19th at Milwaukee in 1982, has said he will be at the game when he breaks the career mark. Henderson doesn't have any preference which catcher he steals the record-breaker against, although he has had a long-time competition with Kansas City's veteran Bob Boone. If he had a choice of pitchers, he wouldn't mind it being Nolan Ryan was part of his record. There's no animosity.

It's just the opposite. Henderson said he probably has greater apprection for records than most players. When he was Ryan's strikeout victim, Henderson said he was honored. "It would be unusual if I got the opportunity that it was Nolan Ryan it would be something," he said with' a smile. "It would be great if he'd come over and congratulate me." Whether Henderson breaks the record this year or next, it's unlikely in any case the Hall of Fame will get either the base that ties or breaks the record.

He said the base that ties the record will go to the family of A's owner Walter A. Haas Jr. Henderson said he'll keep the record breaker. "I started with the Oakland A's," he said. "I think they (the Haas family) deserve it.

"If the Hall of Fame wants a glove or shoes, I'd be glad to give it to them. Bases I've already decided." The record-breaking plans have been made. Everything is set everything, but the date. HAIR STYLING salon-excel- PIANO: Suzuki Traditional, lent opportunity, ideal loco- 20 yrs. experience.

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"I remember that all the while I kept saying to myself, 'Thank God the infield is covered with MacPhail gave the OK and the community-owned Auburn Yankees were born. It didn't take long for everybody to get into the act. When Pinckney wrote about a "rock party" in his column, hundreds turned out to help clear sfones from the field. Together, the city worked to get the field in shape for the 1958 season. Still, doubters remained.

"The first organizational meeting was held in my living room," said 74-year-old Vince Klein, the team's vice chairman and treasurer. "Some didn't seem to think that pro ball would go in Auburn. They figured we'd be lucky if we lasted a year." Volunteers, with a helping hand from the city, have kept the team in business ever since, through affiliations with the Yankees, Mets, Twins, Phillies and Astros. "We've always been a community-owned organization because we couldn't afford to pay anybody," said Klein, who pays his own way to major-league baseball's annual meetings if team funds are low. More than once he's taken out personal loans to pay off some of the team's debt.

"The board of directors is the backbone of the organization," he said. That board has 47 unpaid members today and includes lawyers, politicians, executives and an assortment of other professional and blue-collar workers. Like baseball's greatest stars, they do it all hawk programs, pour sodas and beer, take tickets, sell hot dogs. Box seats, for instance, cost $3. Beer goes for a dollar, and hot dogs sell for $1.25.

Without the board there would Oneonta wraps up division title LITTLE FALLS (AP) Oneonta Yankees Manager Trey Hillman called the the first game of his team's New York-Penn League dou-bleheader "a showcase" for the city of Little Falls and his shortstop. Little Falls was trying to demonstrate to league president Leo Pinckney that they deserve another ifranchise. The city lost its Mets to Pittsfield, a year and a half ago. But Yankees shortstop Robert Eenhoorn stole the show. The second-round draft pick from David-json University hit his first two home runs of the season, including ja game-winning, two-run shot in the ninth inning as the Yankees beat the Utica Blue Sox, 9-8, at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Little Falls.

Six home runs were hit in the first game, which wasn't decided until Yankee center fielder Jalal Leach made a diving catch for the final out. The Blue Sox won the second game, 3-2, in Utica behind the complete-game pitching of John Smith and Joe Solimine's game-winning pinch hit in the eighth inning. In other games, it was Hamilton 3, Elmira Auburn 11, Jamestown 8 and Welland 8, Niagara Falls 4. Watertown beat Pittsfield twice, taking the first game 2-1 and the second walloped Geneva 18-4 after beating them in a previously suspended game 5-3. Despite the split, the Yankees "clinched the McNamara Division East title thanks to the Watertown Indians' sweep of the Pittsfield Mets.

Each team hit three homers in the opener. Rick Lantrip hit his third homer of the season. Dan Monzon, whose father managed at Little Falls in 1980, hit his second and third homers, and Keith Strange his fourth for the Blue Sox. At Batavia, Charlie Hurst (4-3) pitched a four-hit shutout and Mike Owens collected his ninth and 1 10th home runs in a 14-0 win over (St. Catharines.

Sean Ryan hit a three-run homer, his league-leading 12th of the season, as the Clippers scored 10 runs iin bottom of the fourth. Scott Bur-jrell (1-3) took the loss for St. EACLI PAINTERS Qualified professionals. Interiors exterior. Free eitl-motet.

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