Michael Smith

Thank you to everyone who supported me or one of the other participants in this year's Traverse Tompkins. My compatriot Ben Sandberg is currently riding for 24 hours, looping through Cooperstown and past the Baseball Hall of Fame (in the middle of the night!). You can follow his progress here:

https://ridewithgps.com/users/2845304/live_log

I also passed through Groton, former home to the Smith-Corona Typewriter company, which sponsored a baseball team for much of the first 2/3 of the twentieth century, many of the players likely having a hand (literally) in making the typewriters Ernest Hemingway, Kurt Vonnegut, and Truman Capote used.

https://www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/local/2016/04/29/hemingway-groton-and-corona-typewriter/78308130/

Below is a photo of the Cornell Baseball Club of 1875, which might have played at the site of the current high school and playing fields.

Today I tried to pass by or visit as many past and present baseball fields in the county as possible, which included Trumansburg HS, F-8, and F-9 at Cass Park, Tatascore Field at IHS (which is more or less the site of the main Ithaca baseball field from at least the late 19th century until the high school was built), and Freeman Field at IC (plus the site of old Hoy Field at Cornell, sadly gone now, but once the venue for a mammoth HR by Lou Gehrig: https://ithacavoice.org/2015/03/trying-measure-lou-gehrigs-massive-home-run-cornell-92-years-later/).

The theme of Traverse Tompkins this year was A Sporting Chance, to align with our current exhibit (well worth the visit! your support for my ride helps make exhibits possible). Yesterday I rode to the IHS soccer game, which felt like it was in the spirit of the theme.