COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- The clock assigned the number 10:06 to the moment the screen door swung open and put the grandeur of Otsego Lake on display. A brief, indoor exchange with breakfast partners Reggie Jackson and Eddie Murray had preceded the opening. It was the morning after the night before for some of us who had inhabited the Hawkeye Room downstairs at the Otesaga Resort Hotel on Thursday night into Friday. Nature couldn't have provided a more comfortable setting.
The Fords -- Whitey and Joan -- were seated on the veranda. The best baseball seats this side of Red Barber's catbird seat in Brooklyn are on the hotel's veranda.