It was a week in April 1949 when it was time to start getting out of the house more often, and taking in some activities we enjoyed for years around Oneonta.
Baseball was back in the city, and as The Oneonta Star of April 25 reported, “Returning to typical end-of-April weather, manager Eddie Popowski and his squad of 19 bronzed and conditioned Oneonta Red Sox arrived in the city late yesterday afternoon, terminating a four-day bus trip from the spring training base at Ocala, Fla.
“The Sockers left Ocala early Thursday morning and stayed in Charleston, S.C., the first night. The second day’s travel ended in Roanoke, Va., where the Red Sox watched Red Marion’s Roanoke crew open the Piedmont League season. After a Saturday morning workout on Maher Field in Roanoke, the players traveled to Harrisburg, Pa., coming to Oneonta from the Pennsylvania capital yesterday.” It was still several years before Interstates 95, 81 and 88 were opened, to make travel faster.
Opening day arrived, and The Star told readers on April 28, “Scoring six runs in the fourth inning, Rome squeezed out an 8-7 victory over Oneonta here yesterday in the opening game of the 1949 Canadian-American League campaign before 1,476, including 468 children.” That year’s squad had a southpaw pitcher, an Oneonta native, Willie Eustice.
One thing new for that baseball season was the ability to hear games on the radio. The Star explained on April 23, “Beginning Wednesday, April 27th every home game of the Oneonta Red Sox will be broadcast from start to finish over WDOS-FM. Special broadcasting lines and equipment have been installed in the broadcasting booth atop the Grandstand in Neahwa Ball Park.
“When you listen to your baseball programs as broadcast on your FM radio you hear it crystal clear. Even if lightning is crackling and causing ear splitting static on your standard radio, with FM static is a thing of the past.”
In addition to getting back outdoors to the ballpark, another new entertainment option opened on Thursday, April 28 — outdoor movies at the Del-Sego Drive In Theatre.
From copy in a Star advertisement for the grand opening on April 27, “Del-Sego offers you the best in pictures, sound and projection … enjoy our concession service in the comfort and privacy of your car while you watch the picture. No parking problems — Just drive in … not necessary to employ a baby sitter — Children under 12 free! No need to dress-up … bring Mother and Dad. In fact bring the whole family, old and young alike, enjoy good movies.” William Warnken Jr. and Bert D. Mitchell were listed as owners.
The Del-Sego was in Oneonta’s East End until 1981.
While you didn’t have to dress up to go to the Del-Sego, another entertainment option that week called for fancy dress.
“They came in formals, they came in cottons,” The Star of April 28 reported. “They came to dance and they came to watch. At eleven o’clock last night the crowd was still coming, into the Armory for the ‘sweetest music this side of heaven’ played by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadiens for the 2,000 from Oneonta and vicinity, who turned out for the fourth annual Kiwanis Charity Ball.
“Outside, non-attending teen-agers in blue jeans hung about just to catch the music that drifted out the open windows. Inside, the crowd was of three minds. Some couples never left the area about the band stand but stood entranced, content just to watch the famous leader and his 20 men ‘at work.’ A crowded balcony held the second group, interested in the listening phase but taking theirs the easy way.
“The third and largest contingent attended to the music being solid, just like the crowd. A sardine (if he could have gotten to the center of the dance floor, which we doubt!) would have been seized with a bad case of claustrophobia.
“From the couples who never missed a beat of the smoothest music these old ears have heard in many moons to the couples who seldom, if ever, hit the same beat as the orchestra, everybody was happy with the ball, the Armory, the Kiwanis and the Lombardo. It can safely be said … that the ball was a success.”
On Wednesday, a glance at our local times in May 1974.