Baseball big-leaguer "O.B." Oberkfell
manages Sullivan Mountain Lions

By TOM RUE

MONTICELLO - With the days ticking down to a June 16 first game, Sullivan Mountain Lions general manager Pete Jameson introduced the Class-A minor league team's first manager -- Kenneth R. "O.B." Oberkfell -- in a polished press conference at Remington's Restaurant (formerly Scalawag's) in downtown Monticello, May 19.

The event marked the restaurant's reopening since undergoing renovations and a name-change. In the audience were invited team supporters and members of the press.

Excitement mounted as Oberkfell swung a bat, hewn from local ash, presented by Stan Oliver, owner of Stick By Stan bat factory of Jeffersonville. After a pep-talk by Oliver on "spin-off" industries baseball is spawning here, Oberkfell filled in the crowd on his experience and views of the game.

Oberkfell named baseball great Whitey Herzog of the Cardinals as a major influence on his career. He said he is looking forward to working with Jameson and Mountain Lions owner Jay Acton.

Oberkfell was part of the champion Cardinals team in the 1982 world series, and in 1989 with the Giants' "earthquake" series. He brings the lessons of a career of hard work and play to bear on the Mountain Lions.

A 16-year veteran of major league baseball, Oberkfell spent seven years with the St. Louis Cardinals, five with the Atlanta Braves, two with the Houston Astros, and also played for the San Francisco Giants, California Angels and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Oberkfell said his first job will be to field a slate of players, starting with the Lions' first official tryouts slated for June 4, 11:00 A.M., at Fallsburg High School. The club has signed 18 of its 22 planned players, Oberkfell said.

Jameson described Oberkfell as "the kind of guy who'll go to the wall for you. He's easy-going, but you don't want to go against him on the ballfield."

Oberkfell said the most critical part of his job is to earn the respect of his players. But that respect will be mutual. "There's going to some big talent," Oberkfell predicted of the Mountain Lions, noting that many minor league players are highly motivated to move on to the majors.

"Players in the minor leagues are a little bit hungrier. The thing is, once you've made it to the big leagues, you've got to keep working to stay," he said.

At 39, Oberkfell makes his home in Houston, Texas. He'll be setting up residence in Sullivan County for the season, he said, starting June 1. He's now staying at the Best Western Motel, Monticello.

Oberkfell said he has missed the great American game since retiring from the big leagues in 1992. "I've been playing a lot of golf," he said. "It's good to be back!"

Nothing has filled the void in Oberkfell's life since he retired from the Cardinals, he said. "I wanted to be in baseball. It's been my whole life. I'm never going to be a computer expert. I'm in baseball!"

Hopes for the game's arrival in Sullivan have been on-again, off-again. After exploring numerous options at sites around the county -- even signing a contract for a municipally owned wetland in Monticello -- the team finally settled on a field set on County Route 56 in Fallsburg's rural hamlet of Mountaindale.

Landowner Bill Resnick attended the conference. Resnick told The River Reporter he donated the site to the Mountain Lions because he thought it would benefit the community. "Somebody's got to initiate something new happening in this county. And I can't think of anything cleaner to start that than baseball," Resnick said.

Resnick and his wife Patsy, who own a local supermarket equipment remanufacturing company -- as well as Becky's General Store in Mountaindale -- expressed hope the Mountain Lions will give Sullivan County, and especially his Mountaindale home, a much needed economic jump-start.

Some development and construction assistance has reportedly been provided at county expense, demonstrating the commitment verbalized by board of supervisors chair Andrew Boyar for local government to whatever was necessary to ensure the Mountain Lions found a place in Sullivan to call home.

The Resnicks may be the beneficiaries of any publicly-funded improvements if the team leaves its Mountaindale site, which is still a possibility. An Article 78 petition filed by four neighbors of the proposed stadium alleges the Fallsburg planning board railroaded approvals through without providing adequate environmental and quality-of-life protections.

The lawsuit will receive its initial hearing in supreme court on June 12, 9:30 A.M., in Monticello. The team's first home game is slated just one week later, on June 19, 6:00 P.M.

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