Dad, Baseball and Cooperstown, New York

My father, Donald F. Parslow, loved baseball.  I don't know when he started playing but I know he played high school ball for Cooperstown's Central High School.  Dad graduated at age 16 from high school.  This was in 1942 and World War II was raging.  Dad couldn't enlist because he was too young at the time AND because he was farm labor, a critical resource at that time.  So, apparently, he played ball for the Cooperstown team.  I think but I'm not sure that this was a semi-pro team.  Maybe somebody can give me some more info. 

Anyway, I know that I once found an Cooperstown Town Crier article that referenced "Parslow" as shortstop for the team in 1943.  Yesterday, going through Dad's family photos I finally found a photo of the team which I think was taken in 1943.  The photographer was Peter L. Hollis of Cooperstown.  Dad is fourth from the left, back row.  No names are noted on the photograph.  If you see anyone you recognize, let me know.  Click on the photo to get the original size and download if you wish. 

Dad loved baseball a lot.  I remember him umpiring Little League games when we lived in Elkins, WV the first time in 1959 or so.  Even though I was 5 it was great fun to run around the park and sometimes go get the foul balls that went back over the box into the field behind home plate.  Dad would listen to games on the car radio and watch them on TV whenever they came on.  When he had to be gone to fight fires or something, I'd watch the games myself so that I could tell him about them.  He tried his best to teach me the game and while I understand it, I just never had the love for it that he had.  When he finally got a satellite dish for TV, he thought the best thing about it was that he could watch the raw feeds without the commentary and only the noise of the park over the actual game.  That was as close as he could get to being there.