2019 Baseball Hall of Fame Thread

[spystud13 2371]

Ichiro will play the two games in Japan this season, wonder if MLB/HOF will actually push back his clock for a year because of that? An exception should be made. 

[Guest Lobo]

Exception made which way?  

[shnsajax 3592]

1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

Bingo.

Also, he also has almost no black ink on b-r, never won an MVP, finished 6th in RoY voting (can an Astros fan explain how Mitch Melusky finished higher than LB in RoY voting???)

Neither does Mussina, he finished 2nd once in the CY with a 3.5 era that season. 

[shnsajax 3592]

Player A: .313/.361/.521/.882 ops+ 124, 229 hr's, 1434 games played, 6116 ab's

Player B: .310/.377/.440/.817 ops+ 115, 260 hr's, 2747 games played, 12620 ab's.

Injuries really killed Nomar's career. 

[henrygandorf 29198]

4 hours ago, Lobo said:

Berkman hurt by many factors, chief among them only played 12 full seasons.  Yes, he had injuries but the writers are gonna demand more longevity and/or production from a guy who played a dozen full seasons at 1B and LF.  If he was a C or SS, that'd be one thing.  1B/corner OF that doesn't get 2,000 hits, doesn't get 400 hr's, doesn't hit .300 for a career-that's a tough sell at his position(s) .   But yeah, he raked in the 2000's and I thought he'd hang around for 2-3 years on the bottom of the ballot.  Enjoyed watching him play.  

and once again, abstract though it may be, while i was watching (and rooting for) him, i never thought to myself that i was watching a hall-of-famer.

[spystud13 2371]

56 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Exception made which way?  

Not counting those 2 games. Start his clock from last year. 

[Helobious 9482]

9 hours ago, WBT said:

 

Fluky-ass bullshit rally. Rivera gave up just 2 legit hits in his 2 innings of work that night. Fucking flare off roided-up Gonzalez ends it. Whatever, there were 5 other times he helped close the deal vs this 1 fuck up. 0.72 ERA in 141 career postseason innings while throwing exactly 1 pitch speaks for itself. 

[Mez2 4032]

23 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

try telling the arbitration attorneys this.  the game has changed.

The game's the same, just got more fierce /slim Charles

[KatHorn 20]

Probably 10 ago went to Arlington to catch rangers / Yankees game.     Not really a rangers fan but definitely not a Yankees fan, just there to see good ball.  We sat in centerfield bleachers  butted up next to Yankees bullpen. Early innings Rivera grabbed a seat on top of wall that almost within reaching distance from fans    A fan asked for autograph but Rivera very politely said league rules prohibited signing autographs during games. After that,the guy sat there for the next for or five innings and engaged in give and take and good natured humor with ranger fans.   Seemed like a genuinely great athlete who  was as much a great guy.    I always pulled for Mariano after that    

 

Edited January 24, 2019 by KatHorn

[dcar00 14455]

On 1/22/2019 at 9:47 PM, CO Horn said:

The problem is not Rivera being unanimous, but the fact that no other player has been unanimous. There are easily 100 that should have been unanimous.  That is the real travesty. Give me one reason that Maddux, Gwynn, Ryan, Seaver, etc. were not unanimous. 

pinstripes...

[Guest Lobo]

Just being devil's advocate here....grew up a Cubs fan (so NL), also liked the Red Sox (so AL).  Been in Texas so long, never picked between Rangers and Astros, that I just like watching each of them do well because of friends who are lifelong devoted fans of each.  So that said, never hated the DH, never loved the DH.  I just wish the fucking MLB would pick one and go with it.  They could announce tomorrow, no pitcher will ever come within 10 feet of a bat or they could declare every pitcher hits...I wouldn't bat an eye---I'd just like to see consistency between leagues especially now that inter-league has gone from a fun 2-series treat each season to the fucking norm week in and week out.  

So if Rivera, who is a specialist of a position (granted, the best ever at it---but a specialist of a position nonetheless)...if he can get in at 100% ballot...we can sure as shit acknowledge that DH is a position worthy of the Hall (if you meet the other benchmarks obviously).  IMHO, you can no longer discount guys because they played a chunk of their career at DH and say, "Yeah, but they didn't have to play the field, so it extended their career)...and then still say a guy who worked 20 minutes a week gets to get in with 100% of the ballot.  We either absorb all the new(ish) positional specialties/nuances of the game into the HOF discussion, or none of them.  Starting pitchers are no longer frowned upon for only averaging 6-7 innings per start instead of 8-9, Relievers are going into the Hall in larger numbers (including a 100%'er)...we can finally look at a DH in a different light.  I dunno, fuck it. 

[Huckleberry 33166]

14 hours ago, Helobious said:

Fluky-ass bullshit rally. Rivera gave up just 2 legit hits in his 2 innings of work that night. Fucking flare off roided-up Gonzalez ends it. Whatever, there were 5 other times he helped close the deal vs this 1 fuck up. 0.72 ERA in 141 career postseason innings while throwing exactly 1 pitch speaks for itself. 

Nope, he gave up three solid base hits (Finley, Grace, Womack) and he also helped blow the game himself because of his throwing error on the first bunt in the 9th. And he gave up those three solid base hits while getting only 4 real outs if you throw out the second sac bunt attempt.

4 hits, 1 HBP, 1 error, 4 real outs

The guy is the greatest closer of all time, but you can't spin that performance as anything but a failure. He didn't have many.

[Beau Vine 54489]

Can we discuss how he failed to close Boston out in the 2004 ALCS?

[Beau Vine 54489]

No one is going to bring up Gehrig being unanimously elected?

[Beau Vine 54489]

[henrygandorf 29198]

but harold baines is better than all of them.  supposedly.

[Beau Vine 54489]

26 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

but harold baines is better than all of them.  supposedly.

That's exactly what I was thinking.  I was counting the guys in that list I'd put in the Hall before Harold Baines.  And then I stopped because I decided it would be much easier to count the guys that I wouldn't.  

[henrygandorf 29198]

1 minute ago, Beau Vine said:

That's exactly what I was thinking.  I was counting the guys in that list I'd put in the Hall before Harold Baines.  And then I stopped because I decided it would be much easier to count the guys that I wouldn't.  

i feel like an interesting debate is quietly developing.  baines' one positive is longevity.  it's the only thing that made his numbers respectable, though not hof-worthy.  then you have more and more examples of guys who shined bright for a shorter period of time.  the sandy koufax example, if you will.  some guys on that list were downright dominant - saberhagen, will clark, kevin brown - stand out upon first skim.  but they didn't do it nearly long enough, and certainly didn't hit the perceived benchmarks of an inductee.

well it's 2019, and baseball players get paid a pretty ridiculous amount of money.  guys also get hurt more (or at least don't have steroids to nurse them back to health).  the money and the injuries make me think, moving forward, careers may get shorter, and we'll see more examples of the koufax and (hopefully) fewer examples of the 25 year/play into your 40's careers simply to reach certain milestones. 

is it better to burn out or to fade away?

the guy i keep coming back to is don mattingly.  dead ball era, and was the best player in his league for a short time, and the best player at his position for a slightly longer time.  i felt like i was watching a hall-of-famer.  ditto dale murphy.  he was insanely good at a young age (2 mvps by age 27 season)  but injuries shortened both of their careers and they're likely never going to see their name on a plaque.

if we're gonna vote guys in way after eligibility with some bullshit loophole backroom secret ballot, i would like to see more of the short term dominance rewarded, since it's mostly been ignored for so long, while the phil neikros* (there are a bunch of pitchers that qualify here, sorry phil) just hung around forever.

 

*phil neikro's bolded stats on baseball reference are fucking hilarious.  about 80% would be considered bad or neutral stats to lead the league in

[petscii 1189]

2 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

i feel like an interesting debate is quietly developing.  baines' one positive is longevity.  it's the only thing that made his numbers respectable, though not hof-worthy.  then you have more and more examples of guys who shined bright for a shorter period of time.  the sandy koufax example, if you will.  some guys on that list were downright dominant - saberhagen, will clark, kevin brown - stand out upon first skim.  but they didn't do it nearly long enough, and certainly didn't hit the perceived benchmarks of an inductee.

well it's 2019, and baseball players get paid a pretty ridiculous amount of money.  guys also get hurt more (or at least don't have steroids to nurse them back to health).  the money and the injuries make me think, moving forward, careers may get shorter, and we'll see more examples of the koufax and (hopefully) fewer examples of the 25 year/play into your 40's careers simply to reach certain milestones. 

is it better to burn out or to fade away?

the guy i keep coming back to is don mattingly.  dead ball era, and was the best player in his league for a short time, and the best player at his position for a slightly longer time.  i felt like i was watching a hall-of-famer.  ditto dale murphy.  he was insanely good at a young age (2 mvps by age 27 season)  but injuries shortened both of their careers and they're likely never going to see their name on a plaque.

if we're gonna vote guys in way after eligibility with some bullshit loophole backroom secret ballot, i would like to see more of the short term dominance rewarded, since it's mostly been ignored for so long, while the phil neikros* (there are a bunch of pitchers that qualify here, sorry phil) just hung around forever.

 

*phil neikro's bolded stats on baseball reference are fucking hilarious.  about 80% would be considered bad or neutral stats to lead the league in

PUT LINCECUM IN!

[pepper brooks 580]

How in the f*ck can Harold baines be in the HOF and NOT Dale Murphy?  that's just so f*cked up.  

[Huckleberry 33166]

You can type fuck here.

[spystud13 2371]

Mussina & Halladay going in without team logos on their caps. 

[huge 3798]

I saw that. Has it been done before?

[Surly Bevo 25266]

9 minutes ago, huge said:

I saw that. Has it been done before?

Lots of guys have no logo...for instance Yogi Berra is profile so no logo.  Others have caps tipped up where you couldn't see a logo if one was even there.  Catfish Hunter has no logo.I believe Maddux and LaRussa intentionally left off logos as have others.  

[Surly Bevo 25266]

Note I think it is ultimately the Hall's call but they have been respecting that decision more and more.

[Guest Lobo]

I understand Mussina because he was basically evently split between two clubs, and I respect the Halladay decision if it's made from a "we don't know what he would have wanted" kinda thing, but is the dilemma because he had two good years in Philly?  I mean, he's a Blue Jay through and through

[Beau Vine 54489]

54 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I understand Mussina because he was basically evently split between two clubs, and I respect the Halladay decision if it's made from a "we don't know what he would have wanted" kinda thing, but is the dilemma because he had two good years in Philly?  I mean, he's a Blue Jay through and through

Read this: https://deadspin.com/dipshit-philly-columnist-i-know-roy-halladays-desires-1832002277

[petscii 1189]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

I understand Mussina because he was basically evently split between two clubs, and I respect the Halladay decision if it's made from a "we don't know what he would have wanted" kinda thing, but is the dilemma because he had two good years in Philly?  I mean, he's a Blue Jay through and through

In the spirit of compromise... shouldn't it be one of these?  

 

https://store.iconaircraft.com/collections/hats

 

#toosoon?

Edited January 27, 2019 by petscii

[PittsburghTiger 6226]

I'm heading to Cooperstown Saturday morning for Sunday's ceremony.

A medical school classmate of my father's always wanted to go to Cooperstown to see a Yankee inducted. So, we go this year for Rivera. Charlie is now 86. The day before my father died he told me to keep an eye on Charlie (who was our pediatrician when we were kids).

So, one of Charlie's boys is driving up from Atlanta and we are going. It should be interesting, and fun.

[miguelito 11333]

Say hi to my man Edgar for me.

But you have to say it like "Eeeeeeeedd-garrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

[Beau Vine 54489]

6 hours ago, miguelito said:

Say hi to my man Edgar for me.

But you have to say it like "Eeeeeeeedd-garrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

Edgar's apparently driving from Seattle:

If his wife is anything like mine, he's going to be in a really bad mood when he finally gets there.

[miguelito 11333]

If you're not familiar with the commercials the Mariners put out every year, you should be.  They are usually pretty funny.  Some years, it's the best part of the season.

Anyway, the team put out a video of some of Edgar's better ones. 

(The "light bat" one refers to an Eagle Hardware commercial, where Edgar make a lamp out of a bat.  I'll post that link below.)

 

 

 

 

 

[Beau Vine 54489]

He's good, but he's no Gary Payton of Poultry.

 

[Guest Lobo]

Gary Payton:  "I have a confession to make.  I don't know much about poultry.  But I know people.  And if you people come to me, and you say to me, that you have something you want to tell me about poultry......I'm gonna listen."  

[Beau Vine 54489]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

Gary Payton:  "I have a confession to make.  I don't know much about poultry.  But I know people.  And if you people come to me, and you say to me, that you have something you want to tell me about poultry......I'm gonna listen."  

 

[EMAWesome 101]

I'll put up a link when WHB puts a podcast of this on their website but Buster Olney was on today and he mentioned two times the Yankees almost traded Riviera when he was in the minors.

The first time was in 1995 when the Yankees were trying to acquire David Wells from the Tigers in mid-season.  Riviera was a starting pitcher in the minors and was supposed to be included in the deal.  He was coming off an arm injury and had only been hitting 88 to 91 on the radar gun all season long in the minors.  He started a game in the minors just before the trade was going to be finalized and Yankees manager Gene Michaels read a scout's report on the game.  The scout mentioned that Riviera was hitting 97 mph on the radar gun.   Michaels called the minor league team and told them there was something wrong with their radar gun.  The minor league team said their radar gun was fine and Michaels eventually talked to a second scout who backed up what the first scout had reported.  Michaels got the Yankees to pull Riviera from the deal and the deal fell through.

The second time was in spring training in 1996.  Derek Jeter was a rookie and pencilled in to start at shortstop but was having a dreadful spring training.  George Steinbrenner was demanding that they trade Riviera to the Mariners for Felix Fermin but the Yankees G.M. refused to give in to Steinbrenner and the trade was never made.

[Beau Vine 54489]

 

[henrygandorf 29198]

4 hours ago, EMAWesome said:

I'll put up a link when WHB puts a podcast of this on their website but Buster Olney was on today and he mentioned two times the Yankees almost traded Riviera when he was in the minors.

The first time was in 1995 when the Yankees were trying to acquire David Wells from the Tigers in mid-season.  Riviera was a starting pitcher in the minors and was supposed to be included in the deal.  He was coming off an arm injury and had only been hitting 88 to 91 on the radar gun all season long in the minors.  He started a game in the minors just before the trade was going to be finalized and Yankees manager Gene Michaels read a scout's report on the game.  The scout mentioned that Riviera was hitting 97 mph on the radar gun.   Michaels called the minor league team and told them there was something wrong with their radar gun.  The minor league team said their radar gun was fine and Michaels eventually talked to a second scout who backed up what the first scout had reported.  Michaels got the Yankees to pull Riviera from the deal and the deal fell through.

The second time was in spring training in 1996.  Derek Jeter was a rookie and pencilled in to start at shortstop but was having a dreadful spring training.  George Steinbrenner was demanding that they trade Riviera to the Mariners for Felix Fermin but the Yankees G.M. refused to give in to Steinbrenner and the trade was never made.

rivera.

[Beau Vine 54489]

The great Marano Riviera!

[Pato del Muerto 52678]

On 7/18/2019 at 2:01 PM, Beau Vine said:

The great Marano Riviera!

He has a wandering i

[Nice Guy Eddie 13536]

What's up for next year's ballot?  Jeter looks to be the only first timer in that class that will ever get in. Giambi is the other big name but I can't imagine it.  Will it be Jeter only, or will the writers allow Schilling, Bonds or Clemens in as well?  For all 3 they have 3 years left.

Larry Walker will be in his last year of voting and his vote percentage shot up from the 30s to mid 50s this year.   A career .313, 72 WAR and 380 HRs is strong even with so many games at Coors.

My guess is Jeter, Schilling and Walker.  Clemens will get close but enough writers will leave Clemens out one more time to allow Jeter to be the main story.  Then let Clemens and Bonds in the following year.  You can punish them only so much for steroid use or attitudes.  

[UpperWestside 6193]

On 7/18/2019 at 4:01 PM, Beau Vine said:

The great Marano Riviera!

Kansas education paying big divdends for him. 

[PittsburghTiger 6226]

Our trip to Cooperstown was. mixed bag.

It's a lovely little town, and I do mean LITTLE. But the whole weekend was just too much for Charlie. He's 86 now, and had a stroke 15 years ago and the main streets were blocked off, so a lot of walking. Plus, it was about 95 degrees with wicked humidity. It was all just too much for him. The induction ceremony is not right in town at Doubleday Field, it is about a mile outside of town, in a big field that I looked at on GoogleEarth and it was about 970-feet long, no trees or covered seating.

That made it very difficult for Charlie so we left a bit early.

They estimated about 80,000 people were there. And next year, for Jeter, they figure over 100,000. Our hotel was 50 miles away! And, it was quite possibly the worst hotel I have ever spent a night, and that includes China in the mid-80s.

I would go back to Cooperstown, because the Hall of Fame is nice, and the town has a huge lake one block away from the Hall. 

I'd just not go back on induction weekend. 

On a plus note the 2019 Ford Edge got 26.7 mpg for the 900-mile round trip.

[PittsburghTiger 6226]

On 7/21/2019 at 12:31 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

What's up for next year's ballot?  Jeter looks to be the only first timer in that class that will ever get in. Giambi is the other big name but I can't imagine it.  Will it be Jeter only, or will the writers allow Schilling, Bonds or Clemens in as well?  For all 3 they have 3 years left.

Larry Walker will be in his last year of voting and his vote percentage shot up from the 30s to mid 50s this year.   A career .313, 72 WAR and 380 HRs is strong even with so many games at Coors.

My guess is Jeter, Schilling and Walker.  Clemens will get close but enough writers will leave Clemens out one more time to allow Jeter to be the main story.  Then let Clemens and Bonds in the following year.  You can punish them only so much for steroid use or attitudes.  

Some folks were saying Jeter-only class because the town will be overrun with Yankees fans.

[Beau Vine 54489]

Stark:

Quote

It was a room full of legends. And also, I was there.

It was a room packed with the greatest players who ever lived, assembled for a bus ride to Doubleday Field so they could all listen to (gulp) me speak. And that voice inside my overloaded brain had only one question:

What the heck was I doing there?

This was Saturday afternoon at the beautiful Otesaga hotel in Cooperstown. My Hall of Fame speech, to accept the rarified J.G. Taylor Spink Award, was now less than an hour away. I’d spent the last eight weeks writing, rewriting and honing that speech. I’d spent months thinking about this moment. I was ready to deliver the words. But I wasn’t prepared for this.

I wasn’t prepared to look around me and see Sandy Koufax, Brooks Robinson, Johnny Bench, Ken Griffey Jr. and 50 other baseball icons — and digest the idea that in some crazy, incomprehensible way, I was now one of them.

From the moment Wade Boggs walked directly toward me Thursday and said, “Welcome to the club,” that’s how they’d all been treating me, in the coolest, classiest way imaginable. But as I tried to comprehend the magnitude of seeing them all in one place, I found myself inching toward a corner of the room away from them. Then I decided I’d walk down the hall to the men’s room, just to breathe.

The next thing I knew, Jeff Bagwell was walking along with me. He wondered how I was doing.

“I’ll be honest, man,” I told him. “I’m having a hard time convincing myself I’m worthy of being in that room.”

“I feel the same way,” he said.

“Wait,” I told him. “You don’t feel worthy of being in that room? You remember you’re a Hall of Famer, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t feel like I’m a Hall of Famer the way those guys are Hall of Famers,” he said.

Suddenly, I felt a lot better. Just having someone else assure me that I wasn’t the only one who felt overwhelmed by the grandeur of this group was the jolt of oxygen I needed. Minutes later, the bus was ready to roll. As I walked toward it, Dennis Eckersley told me, “Let’s go, Jayson. There ain’t no show today without you.”

So this was it, my Hall of Fame moment. Ever since I climbed off that stage after delivering that speech, people have been asking me about it. So this is my chance to take you behind the scenes of an experience that very few people ever have the privilege of enjoying.

 

(Courtesy of Todd Palmerton)

---

Life isn’t about awards. It’s about moments. It’s about memories. And this was my Hall of Fame memory for a lifetime.

I’d arrived in Cooperstown the previous Sunday night. That was a Bob Costas suggestion, the way he’d done it last year, when he accepted the Frick Award: Get to town a week early. Ease into the week, take care of all the details early, so there was time left to properly savor the rest of this ride.

At first, it was just me and my amazing wife, Lisa. Then it was us and our three great kids. Cooperstown was still quiet, still almost normal. And then, in mid-week, we could see it transform before our eyes.

Suddenly we were spotting Alan Trammell and Bench at breakfast. A few hours later, there was a living legend around every corner. Then my friends and family — over 100 of them, from all over America — were arriving. All at once I felt like I was surrounded by everyone I’d ever known and cared about in my life; we’d all shared the fantastic journey which had led us to this time and this place. I can’t imagine what could possibly happen to me that could ever be cooler than that.

It took me eight weeks to write my speech. Yes, eight weeks. I wasn’t typing furiously every second of those eight weeks. I had to fit the writing around that weird distraction we know as “real life.” So there were many stops and starts along the way. But it was a speech that was swirling around my brain for all of those weeks because, well, of course it was.

What do you say in That Speech? I wrestled with that question. I studied other speeches. I ran it by friends.

I wanted it to exude my lifelong love for baseball. I wanted to make sure I connected that love with my affection for Cooperstown. I needed to find just the right words to express my love for my incredible family, which has built a life around baseball and can’t imagine any other way.

And, finally, I wanted to express my reverence for my profession. For the baseball-writing giants who came before me. For my many talented friends who do what they do so brilliantly, and often with so little acclaim. For the editors who have guided me, put up with me and lost hours and hours of sleep because of me. And for everyone who believes in the power of storytelling, an essential part of the fabric of our sport and of our lives.

---

As I climbed aboard the bus to Doubleday Field, I wasn’t sure where someone like me was even supposed to sit. Then I caught Jim Thome’s eye. He had an empty seat next to him. He patted it quietly. I plopped down beside him.

We’ve known each other for a long time. I’ve covered him. I’ve worked with him at MLB Network. We’ve spent hours talking about baseball, family and life. He took great care of me throughout the weekend. Naturally, when I tried to thank him for that afterward, he shrugged it off and said, “Hey, we’re family.”

On the bus ride that day, he reassured me that I’d do great, so I should just breathe, relax and enjoy it. I asked whether he’d been able to gather the emotional strength to look at his family during his own speech a year ago. He told me I should make certain to do that — because there was nothing more important than gazing into their eyes and sharing it with the people I cared about most. It was beautiful advice.

I made it a point to do that, to look at my wife and each of my kids as I spoke about them and to program my brain to record their priceless expressions. I’ll have those images in my head for as long as I live. I’m so grateful that I will.

It turned out to be those words I’d used to talk about my family — and the way baseball still flows so deeply through our lives — that resonated with the players around me. I was blown away by how many of them sought me out later to talk about my speech or tell me they enjoyed it. It was those family ties that bound us all together. As we milled backstage, Bench waved me over.

“You’re so lucky your family loves baseball way you do,” he said. “You’re so lucky your kids love baseball way you do.”

It was true. This is one of baseball’s most special gifts – the way it can bond husbands and wives, fathers and mothers and sons and daughters. There’s hardly a baseball player alive who doesn’t appreciate those bonds. Their lives and their careers have taken such a different path than mine. But we share the unique rhythms of the baseball life.

---

Let’s roll the clock forward to Sunday. My day to speak was in the rearview mirror. Now it was their turn, time for the Big Show. For Mariano Rivera, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, Lee Smith and Harold Baines — and for Brandy Halladay, Roy’s wife.

One more time, the greatest players of our lifetimes were assembling in the same room. Thome had welcomed me to his table. I found myself talking hitting with him and Boggs. Except I did a lot more listening than talking. It was just as awesome as you’d imagine.

The Hall’s new president, Tim Mead, approached Thome and told him they would like him to sit next to the great Henry Aaron. I saw the look of awe in Thome’s eyes. I couldn’t help but ask: “Jim, do you ever look around at these guys and think about the greatness in this room?”

“Absolutely,” he said. “Amazing, isn’t it?”

I told him what I’d told Bagwell the day before — I still wasn’t sure how someone like me belonged here.

“You definitely belong,” he told me. “The career you’ve had, what you’ve done, the person you are, you definitely belong.”

“Thank you,” I said, overwhelmed by his kindness. “But I’m well aware that you hit 600 more homers than I hit.”

---

Another bus ride to another stage had ended. The living Hall of Famers were being introduced. Backstage, there was just an intimate group.

I found myself talking with Mariano and Mussina. I was seeing a side of them I’d never seen: They were nervous. They were the ones who felt out of their comfort zone. We’d reached a point of total role reversal. Now I was the one trying to put them at ease.

Mussina showed me the handwritten notes of advice from his wife, laughing at how much trouble she’d gone to just to make sure he wouldn’t embarrass them all out there. One of the notes read: “Don’t try to be funny. Nobody will get it.” We shared a laugh. Where would we be without our wives’ words of wisdom in these big moments?

Now it was Mariano’s turn to put our time on the stage in perspective. He decided he’d figured out why I’d seemed so calm at the microphone the day before (even though, in reality, I was anything but).

“You write. You talk,” he said. “This is easy for you. We play. So this is hard for us. If you had to play, that would be hard for you.”

Who could argue with that analysis? We all have our skill sets in life. He was clearly wishing, for just that one moment, he could borrow my set. Then, just as we all expected, he headed for that stage and spoke as powerfully as he pitched. But I never felt luckier than to know we’d shared a beautiful, honest moment together.

We were just two guys who were asked to give the most important speeches of our lives on the same weekend. I would never even pretend to compare my achievements to his. But the magic of Induction Weekend in Cooperstown had connected us.

 

(Courtesy of the Stark family)

---

So what the heck was I doing there? I think I’d finally begun to understand. None of us on that stage started on our paths because we were chasing an award or a place in that Hall. We were simply doing something we loved.

I don’t play. I write. Men like Mariano don’t write. They play. So our journeys couldn’t be more different. But somehow, those journeys transported us to the same place. And I’ll never stop appreciating the way he and his fellow icons treated me in our time in the magic kingdom of Cooperstown, N.Y.

I found myself in a room full of legends. They were cool enough to act as if I had every right to be sitting among them. I’m sure they have no idea what that meant to me. But the gratitude I feel for the grace and respect they showed me and my family is something I’ll carry with me for pretty much ever. How lucky am I?

 

[miguelito 11333]

That's a nice read.

[UpperWestside 6193]

Jayson Stark is a great writer. There are very few left who can make you appreciate baseball, but he does. Thanks for sharing that Beau Vine.