It’s been ingrained in the community for the last century, nearly as much an Olean pillar as the oil from which it was named.
And it’s allowed for some of our area’s biggest athletic claims to fame.
Babe Ruth, who strode in on horseback, played here four days after helping the New York Yankees to their first of 27 World Series titles. Jackie Robinson took part in a game at Bradner Stadium just months after breaking the sport’s color barrier.
For 23 years, from 1939-62, Olean was home to a minor league outfit, serving most notably as a Class D (the equivalent of today’s low Class A) affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was a stop-off for well-known major leaguers such as Ralph Branca, Jim Coates, Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, Bobby Richardson and Dick Stigman.
And in the decades since, it’s maintained a steady, if slightly shrinking, hold here, through the rumored return of professional ball in the 1980s, an Atlantic 10 title for St. Bonaventure, the multiple and more recent successes of our youth teams and the back-to-back championships of the reincarnated college Oilers in 2015 and ‘16.
I’m talking, of course, about baseball.
THOUGH THIRD (and perhaps distantly so, behind football and basketball) these days in terms of overall US popularity, baseball, its history and something-about-it charm — the sport whose pace is perfectly suited for a town of 13,600 — continues to have at least a small place in the collective heart of these parts.
And given that it’s the one game that can be played at essentially every level right now due to its “low risk” nature, it might well be the one thing that can salvage this summer from a sports standpoint, the much-needed respite between what we went through in the spring and what we could be faced with this winter.
Much as it’s been in the past, through world wars, terrorist attacks and political unrest, baseball could be a welcomed distraction to the turbulence of the last few months, a kind of temporary healing for a country which has lost 143,000 lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic and been embroiled in civil disorder.
It could be the short-term salvation we so sorely need.
In the last couple of weeks, baseball games have been sprouting like the springtime flowers that might otherwise have accompanied MLB’s first half and the lost high school campaign.
THOUGH Olean’s Little League season was canceled, local travel organizations have been able to put together at least a handful of trimmed-down tournaments, round-robin events and one-off contests for kids who have been cooped up since March and the parents who watch and coach them.
That must have cultivated at least some sense of relief, a joy, however short-lived, in the fact that at least some baseball will be played in July and August.
Though their spring and summer seasons were wiped out, at least a handful of local collegians, including members of the hometown Oilers, have been able to take part in unofficial exhibitions and surviving summer circuits, such as the Tri-State League based out of Youngstown, Ohio.
“If we can get our live work in, that’s so much better than nothing,” former St. Marys High School standout Nate Beimel said after helping to organize an exhibition in his hometown last month.
And for the baseball-watching public in general, that lifeline could come with the return of the major leagues.
LOOK, THE struggle between MLB and its players’ association as it negotiated the terms for a shortened 2020 season should never have gotten to the level it did. It was frustrating and embarrassing for both sides. It was likely enough, along with a continued uncertainty, to keep some fans away — at least for this year; potentially for good.
But after 131-straight days (and counting) without a major professional event, some fans are salivating for the return of such sports.
Count me among them.
As cliche as it is, I’m looking forward to the crack of a wooden bat and the pop of a catcher’s glove. I’m curious as to how Major League Baseball will look with no fans, masked players and extended dugouts.
I like the idea, in a 60-game sprint, that every game will matter as opposed to how things play out in a traditional 162-game slog. I’m excited for Gerrit Cole vs. Max Scherzer, for Yankees-Nationals on Thursday’s Opening Night, for the very real possibility of the Blue Jays playing in Buffalo.
Baseball is back (hopefully for the next two months), and I’m glad it’s so.
Because by then, who knows what the landscape will look like for fall and winter sports in general and the Buffalo Bills and St. Bonaventure Bonnies, in particular.
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)
