Hall of Fame Induction Weekend
July 29, 2007 by Geoff Young
Filed under Hall of Fame
Okay, I’ve attended some crazy events in my day, but Cooperstown was complete madness this weekend. I got to watch a few outs of the annual minor-league game played at Doubleday Stadium on Saturday before the rains hit (Aberdeen ended up beating “hometown” Oneonta for those interested), wander around the museum, and see a little of the “red carpet” event that evening — basically a bunch of Hall of Famers and their families get together for dinner and arrive via trolley, then enter the museum on a red carpet to the cheers of thousands. Not exactly my thing, but it was cool to see so many legends of the game — Wade Boggs, Whitey Ford, Willie Mays, Joe Morgan, and more — in the same place, at the same time.
On Sunday, amidst a sea of orange, I sat on a field in Cooperstown and watched as Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. were inducted into the Hall of Fame. As a Padres fan, I was kind of bummed that Gwynn got paired up with a guy whose fans live within a day’s drive of Cooperstown (as opposed to the 3,315 miles I put on my car to get there) and totally dominated the scene. As a baseball fan, though, I couldn’t be happier that those two went in together. Seems that Ripken shared many of the same qualities that made Gwynn such a pleasure to watch and so easy to cheer.
I only saw Ripken play maybe once or twice on television — the one chance I had to watch him in person never quite materialized, as his manager benched him for the Saturday night game the last time he came to Anaheim. I booed pretty loudly that night because I had driven up from San Diego specifically to watch him play. On Sunday, though, I finally got to see Ripken in person and he didn’t disappoint. Both he and Gwynn exuded an almost contagious passion for the game. The folks who voted made two great choices, picking players who accomplished fantastic things on the field and who have represented their communities so well over the years.
Congratulations to Mr. Gwynn and Mr. Ripken on their well-deserved induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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Yessir, thanks!
I attended in 1999. Back then, they also played the HOF game usually between two ML team that one of the inductees played for. That year it was the Rangers vs. the Royals. No big whup, one might say…but, the players who did play (not many stars) gave a great show…none greater than Gregg Zaun, who actually ‘called his shot’ AND DELIVERERED! If you find a copy of the VHS, you can see it. It was truly amazing. The left-field crowd was every bit as enthusiastic as Wrigley on a good day and had been chanting ‘Call Your Shot! Call Your Shot!’ We got tickets to the game via a lottery…50,000 folks were there for the induction, but only a few thousand fit into ole Doubleday Field. I had donated a few baseball cards to the Musuem and got free lifetime passes…which came in very handy…we didn’t have to wait in line. Well, in the last several years, they have stopped playing the HOF game on Induction Weekend, but I’d still love to get back. I could not recommend the experience more!