COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — It wasn’t the largest class ever for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but it was maybe the most diverse.
And it definitely was one of the most entertaining.
In fact, it even looked to me like whoever called all the shots felt it was necessary to shake up the lineup. Kind of like a manager pulling the batting order out of his hat.
How else do you explain Jim Kaat, winner of 283 games, hitting leadoff? But there he was, the first of seven inductees to address an audience of 35,000 that braved temperatures that hovered in the 90s — and felt every bit of that. Maybe the word was out that the veteran left-hander had the suggested eight-minute speech down to the second and figured he’d be the one to set the table so to speak, like good leadoff hitters do.
It worked. Kaat didn’t waste any more words than he did pitches and it set the stage for the big, and for some, emotional hitters.
Hall of Fame slugger Dave Winfield was an articulate pinch-hitter for Bud Fowler. Minnie Minoso’s widow, Sharon, painted a wonderful picture of her husband’s career. Gil Hodges’ daughter, Irene, reminded the crowd that her father was much more than a home run hitter on the field, but also an MVP at home. Dr. Angela Terry, Buck O’Neil’s niece explained that she got to represent her uncle because she was the “longest tenured member of AARP.”
And then there was Tony Oliva, who couldn’t explain how happy he was, but did it enough times to get the message across. If he had a script it was somewhere inside his heart, not on an iPad or teleprompter.
He couldn’t express his love for the Twins or his adopted home of Minnesota often enough, but he tried. His speech was a delightful romp down a winding road that wound around beautiful dreams and wonderful memories. Never once, at least that anyone noticed, a mention of the long wait to reach this destination.
If Kaat proved to be the perfect leadoff hitter, they didn’t have to move Oliva out of his customary spot. He was the perfect setup man for the cleanup hitter batting seventh in this lineup — and David Ortiz came on down with a rush.
He had let it be known there would be a lot of name dropping in his speech. He didn’t disappoint, and he didn’t miss any bases while covering every aspect of his career. It was quite a journey to get to this point and it’s hard to believe Big Papi, to his credit, forgot anybody.
It was an afternoon that had a little bit of everything to offer, and in one case, a little bit was perfect. There was some serious weather scheduled to come through the area. Early introductions were kept to a bare minimum, video highlights ended up on the cutting room floor and the show, originally figured to last three hours, ended two hours and 34 minutes after it started — about 75 minutes before thunder boomers hit the area.
Good time, all afternoon.
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In keeping with the celebratory HOF week, here are a few tidbits you might not know, but would like to, about the newest inductees:
BUCK FOWLER — The only player born and raised in the Cooperstown area who is now a Hall of Famer. He also probably had as much to do about the start of the Negro Leagues as anyone, though he wasn’t an official participant.
Fowler originally played on integrated teams — until eventually he and other black players were kicked to the curb. He predicted that someone would make a lot of money by putting together a league of black players. Eventually Negro Leagues came into being, though if anyone made much money it wasn’t the players.
MINNIE MINOSO — Thanks to Bill Veeck’s flair for the spectacular, Minoso’s major league record covers five different decades – though there were only cameo appearances in the 40s (nine games) 70s (three) and 80s (two).
By many accounts Minnie was the most colorful, even spectacular player of the 1950s. He narrowly missed the Rookie of the Year Award to Gil McDougald in 1951, when he finished fourth in the MVP voting (McDouglad finished ninth).
GIL HODGES — I once heard the term “ham hocks” in description of his hands — and while I can’t tell you how large ham hocks are, I do know as a young reporter my hand got lost in his handshake — friendly and intimidating at the same time. Pee Wee Reese once said Gil wore a glove because it was fashionable.
It was somewhat forgotten, or overlooked, perhaps due to his death at an early age at the beginning of a managing career that included one of the biggest World Series upsets ever (1969, in case you missed it … or don’t want to remember). But Hodges ranked 11th all time on the home run list when his playing career ended (when the Dodgers traded him to the Washington Senators, who immediately named him manager).
One thing everybody did know — one of the all-time “nice guys.”
TONY OLIVA — If you were around during this era, you won’t be surprised to know that Orioles legendary manager Earl Weaver thought he was the best hitter in the game during a career disrupted by injuries.
“I don’t want to let that guy beat us,” was a refrain heard early in Earl’s career. Later, after he didn’t have to deal with him any longer, Weaver constantly asked: “Why isn’t he in the Hall of Fame?” Earl had a lot of company on that one, and no doubt would be leading the cheers today, while at the same time wondering why it took so long.
JIM KAAT — There’s so much about this guy you don’t know that will amaze you. He is more than a little bit ambidextrous — so much so that he plays golf both left- and right-handed. It doesn’t stop there. He has shot his age from both sides of the tee! It took him until he was 75 to do it right-handed. He’s 83 now, probably still doing it.
He is the biggest (literally) reason why Jim Palmer doesn’t have a double-digit total of Gold Gloves. Kaat was the Brooks Robinson of his position with 16 Gold Gloves — in consecutive years from 1962-1977. The four years Palmer won the award, Kaat was in the National League!
As a 19-year-old playing his first full year in professional ball for Missoula in the Pioneer League, he threw the staggering total of 223 innings, with 15 complete games. Safe to assume he didn’t have any pitch limits.
BUCK O’NEIL — The only thing I can tell you about Buck O’Neil is no doubt something you’ve already heard. He was the ultimate team player.
It was evident during his playing, coaching and managing days — but never more so than in 2006, when 17 pioneers of the Negro Leagues were inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame. Buck spent so much time pushing for this class that he forgot someone — himself.
There, predictably, was considerable outrage … so much so that the HOF ultimately commissioned a statue in his honor and established an award in his name, to be given judiciously as needed for extraordinary service to the game. The Buck O’Neil Award is perhaps the most coveted non-HOF honor there is.
One can almost hear him pleading: “Enough, boys, enough.”
DAVID ORTIZ — Most know that he was famously (or infamously) released by the Minnesota Twins at the age of 26 after hitting 20 home runs in 2002, shortly before his final year of arbitration and one season before free agency.
Mostly forgotten is that, after signing a $1.25 million contract with the Red Sox on Jan. 22, 2003, Big Papi was on the verge of irrelevance after the first two months of the season. He hit one homer each in April and May and only two more in June for a total of four at the midway point. He hit 27 more the rest of the year, finished with 101 RBIs and, as he said a few times during his induction speech, “the rest is history.”
But, before all that, there was an opening chapter. Ortiz was originally signed by the Seattle Mariners (11/28/92). On September 13, 1996, he was traded to the Twins as the player to be named later in a deal made on Aug. 29, 1996, for infielder Dave Hollins, who would play only 28 games for the Mariners.
Boston, as it turned out, was his third strike — and, again, “the rest is history.”
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From a purely personal standpoint this year’s Hall of Fame Induction had extra special meaning, since I was able to attend the ceremony honoring Tim Kurkjian with the BBWAA award for Baseball Writing Excellence.
There is no better reporter, no better storyteller, no more respected person than Tim. Proud to call him a great friend of long standing.
Jim Henneman can be reached at JimH@pressboxonline.com
Photo Credit: Milo Stewart Jr/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum