The 2019 Historians Podcast fund drive is at the halfway point having raised $2,000 toward our $4,000 goal. Please start the second half of the fund drive this week with your donation. www.gofundme.com/2019-the-historians If you would rather donate by mail, please make out a check to Bob Cudmore and send to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, N.Y. 12302
Then, The Story of The Mohawk Kid
Audio Podcast "Six Minutes'
Last week filmmaker Andrea Culkova from Prague in the Czech Republic spent a day filming remnants of Amsterdam, N.Y.’s carpet industry. Culkova is working on a documentary for HBO/Europe called The Magic Carpet. She is chronicling the history of the Ginskey company, a rug making firm located in the Czech Republic but operated by Germans. Through an online version of one of my Daily Gazette columns, Culkova concluded both Ginskey and Amsterdam’s Mohawk Carpet produced similar carpet versions of Louis Rigal’s mosaic Wheel of Life for the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. There will be more on this story Saturday in my Daily Gazette Focus on History column.
Several Photos on Facebook
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The photos were taken May 5 in Amsterdam showing: the mosaic version of Wheel of Life on the pedestrian bridge, Culkova shooting video on the bridge, Historic Amsterdam League co-founder Jerry Snyder and Amsterdam’s John Daly at the Elwood Museum, Culkova discussing Amsterdam’s past with Elwood Museum Director Ann Peconie and shots of the carpet display at the Elwood.
Bob Cudmore will speak to the Charleston Historical Society at 2 p.m. this Sunday, May 19, 2019 at the old Baptist Church, 390 Polin Road in Charleston, N.Y., just off Route 30A. The program is free and open to the public.
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"In Print"
Tuesday, May 14, 2019-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette- Roger Bowman: From Amsterdam to the Majors 12-01-18
With World War II ever present in the background, left hander Roger Clinton Bowman was the star pitcher on the Amsterdam High School baseball team in the 1940s. The team, coached by John Tracy, had a five-year, 47 game winning streak that ended in 1945.
According to an article by Tom Hawthorn on the Web site of the Society for American Baseball Research, Bowman was the only child of Burdette and Rebecca (Hinkle) Bowman. His father was a one-time semipro baseball player who worked as a bookkeeper in Amsterdam.
Young Bowman, born August 18, 1927, had two no-hitters in six games of the 1944 high school season, giving up one run while pitching 91 strikeouts.
After graduation in 1945 he became a part-time student at Colgate University. Mike Cinquanti in his Amsterdam Birthday Book reported that Bowman slipped while running for a bus at college and hurt his pitching arm.
Bowman was called up for the U.S. Navy. In 1946 he signed with the New York Giants organization and was awarded a reported bonus of $15,000, the equivalent of about $200,000 today.
After some work in the minor leagues Bowman went to the New York Giants near the end of the 1949 season in September. He appeared in 50 games, 13 with the Giants and 37 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, before his major league career ended in 1955. He was credited with two wins and had 13 losses. Both wins were with the Giants in 1951.
Cinquanti noted that without Bowman’s two wins, the New York Giants would not have caught up with the Brooklyn Dodgers for first place on the last day of that season. The Giants won the playoff with the Dodgers but lost the World Series in 1951 to the New York Yankees,
Most of Bowman’s career was in the minor leagues where he had 131 wins and 119 losses.
He was known for having a non-traditional windup, which he said helped him win games. From 1951 through 1955 he was often sent down to the minors then called back to the majors. He pitched a seven-inning perfect game for Hollywood in the Pacific Coast League in 1954. He was involved in one on field brawl while pitching for Pittsburgh and was ejected from the game.
The Web site Baseball Library.com stated that an arm injury in 1952 ruined Bowman’s chances for greatness. In 1953 he accidentally shot himself in his pitching arm during a hunting trip in the Adirondacks and was treated at an Albany hospital.
His last major league game was for Pittsburgh on May 22, 1955, a contest he lost to his former team, the Giants.
After leaving the major leagues, he pitched for various minor league teams around the country, even in Hawaii, during the last six years of his professional baseball career. He returned to Amsterdam in the summer of 1961 to pitch for the Amsterdam carpet workers’ union Textilers against Schenectady in the Twilight League. Teamed with his former high school catcher Costa Lazarou, Bowman and the Textilers won the game 3-2,
He finished his Colgate University art degree while playing baseball. He was an accomplished saxophone player. In later years he operated a custom upholstery business in California. He was a pilot and worked part time as an aviation instructor.
Bowman’s father died in 1982 and his mother passed in 1997. Later that year Bowman died at age 69 in Los Angeles and was buried at the Pawling Street cemetery in Hagaman.
He had married Nancy Watson in 1985. Survivors also included a son, two daughters, a stepson and stepdaughter.
Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, May 14, 2019-An upper level low will continue to allow for cloudy, chilly and rainy weather today. As this system finally moves away, some partial clearing is expected on Wednesday with a minor improvement in temperatures. However, some additional showers are possible for late tomorrow through Friday with some more passing storm systems. Warmer and drier weather may finally arrive by the weekend.
Video Podcast at the Bottom of The Historians Page
bobcudmore@yahoo.com
Bob Cudmore will speak to the Charleston Historical Society at 2 p.m. this Sunday, May 19, 2019 at the old Baptist Church, 390 Polin Road in Charleston, N.Y., just off Route 30A. Among Bob’s stories will be an account of a recent visit to Amsterdam N.Y. by a documentary filmmaker from the Czech Republic. The program is free and open to the public. The Historians Wednesday, May 15, 2019- From the Historians Podcast Archives- Episode 125, August 19, 2016-Daily Gazette feature writer Bill Buell discusses how there are several vacancies in Schenectady area municipal historian positions. Footnote from today: Bill has now retired from the Gazette and will be Schenectady County Historian.
Thursday, May 16, 2019-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette- A baseball oracle 11-10-12
Friday, May 17, 2019-Episode 266-Bob Cudmore has stories from the Mohawk Valley: Amsterdam’s downtown movie theaters, a syndicated journalist from Fonda and a Civil War surgeon who was born in Root, N.Y.
After moving to a new location last year, Spring Fling is shifting it’s carnival-like atmosphere back to Amsterdam’s downtown later this week.
Amsterdam’s Spring Fling Festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday, May 18, 2019 centered around Main Street in downtown. The City of Amsterdam and its Tourism, Marketing & Recreation Department are presenting the annual event, which The Sentinel of Amsterdam has sponsored. Around 140 vendors are expected to be at the event alongside a variety of free entertainment, including amusement rides, bounce houses, arts and crafts activities, and live music By JOHN PURCELL RecorderNews https://www.recordernews.com/news/local-news/153422 Jason Subik Show Jason Subik Mid-Morning Program WCSS Radio Amsterdam 106.9FM and 1490AM Amsterdam News and Talk https://www.facebook.com/jason.subik
The Annual American Revolution Mohawk Valley Conference has been set for June 6-9, 2019. This is the fifth year the Fort Plain Museum has held the conference. http://www.fortplainmuseum.com/
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