For the second year in a row, Brett Rudy took time off from work to spend the night in the cold, but he said it was well worth it.

Rudy, an accounting manager at a database marketing company in Boston, drove four hours yesterday to make sure he was the first person in line at the Cooperstown village office to submit his application requesting the reservation of Doubleday Field this summer to play baseball.

Around 3 p.m., Rudy set up his lawn chair and pulled out a book, ready for a long wait through the afternoon, night, and next morning in the cold. He dressed in layers and brought a warm blanket and gloves. He even had a visitor, his old friend Mike Schuler from his high school days, who now lives in Jordanville. Schuler said he was there to keep Rudy company for some of the wait, and maybe deliver him dinner a bit later.

In his spare time, Rudy manages an amateur men's baseball team, the White Sox, in the 51-team Boston Men's Baseball League, the largest amateur league in New England. Rudy, who is also the director of marketing for the league, said it is important that his league offer special incentives such as playing on Doubleday Field in order to entice more players to join his league. He said he has also scheduled a game at the Skydome, home of the Toronto Bluejays, at a cost of $5,000. Though the cost of these trips is high, Rudy said, the memories the players will take out of them are priceless.

Rudy said he was requesting three game slots on Saturday, July 23 and Sunday, July 24, at a cost of $300 per three-hour time slot, to host a tournament..

This is the only weekend that fit everyone's schedule, Rudy said, so he had to make sure he was in the front of the line.

In previous years, he submitted his application though the mail, but never got the days he wanted. Not until last year did he learn that people waited in line to be at the top of the pile.

This year, the village office received 75 applications on the first day they are accepted, about the same as last year, said Deanna Ashurst, the deputy clerk.