Just a quick blog post from the press box as Citizens Bank Park on a beautiful Sunday afternoon before I return home this evening.
12 months ago at this time, I was in Cooperstown, New York, attending my first-ever Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony. That class included Goose Gossage, Dick Williams, Peter O’Malley and former Cardinals manager Billy Southworth.
It was a special time for me – a beautiful Sunday afternoon setting, just about perfect in every way, but one thing really bothered me.
I had to give up the final installment of a Cardinals-Mets series, my and the team’s last-ever game at the old Shea Stadium, to head up to Cooperstown. Why did I have to decide between the two?
This year, I had the benefit of watching Rickey Henderson’s acceptance speech on one of the press box monitors during the Cards-Phils game. But what about the 45,000 baseball fans in this park and hundreds of thousands more across America?
I do give the Phillies credit in that they announced that ticket stubs from Sunday’s game can be redeemed for a free Hall of Fame admission in the next 12 months. A nice gesture, but not enough.
Why doesn’t MLB show more respect to their greats by not holding games during the induction ceremony? Schedule all the Sunday action in the evening, for example.
Better yet, take a day off. Don’t you think Tony La Russa would like to have traveled to Henderson’s ceremony? Don’t you think most of the dignitaries still active across the game would like to be there?
Do we see the NFL having their yearly Canton, Ohio ceremony on a game Sunday? Heck, they don’t even hold it during the season.
Of course, in MLB, we are talking about a league that didn’t even think to cover their own draft live until 2007 – a league that starts their post-season games so late in the evening that the next generation of fans they should be cultivating cannot even watch.
It is about time Major League Baseball wises up and celebrates their heritage instead of relegating it to second-fiddle status. Sadly, probably the only way to get their attention is to prove to them by doing so, they will make more money.
Congratulations to new Hall of Famers Jim Rice, Henderson, the late Joe Gordon, broadcaster Tony Kubek and writer Nick Peters.
There are myriad reasons that Baseball is no longer considered our National Pastime. Treating the Hall of Fame Induction day like any other day is an affront to all who respect and cherish the game (not to mention the cherished memories of those who’ve been voted-in).
Yeah, a lot of things that MLB decides to do don’t terribly make a lot of sense to me.
Their actions make all the sense in the world when you consider making money is priority one. Losing Sunday afternoon gate receipts is something the owners would not stomach. So, as so many other things in this regime, it is ignored.
Well, then they could do the HoF induction on a different day.
Their actions only make sense if you view them as grabbing at short-term monetary gains rather than building up the sport and making money long-term.
You cannot argue with the reasoning of “Nutlaw”: When the long-term benefits are far more lucrative than the short-term, short-sighted owners have not only greedily mortgaged the future of the game, but are also largely responsible for the fact that it is no longer the National Pastime.
The ceremony itself has always been mainly for people in the business of baseball one way or another, and not really of much interest to ordinary fans. Who gets in and who doesnt is another story of course. Trying to make the ceremony into a media event (think Oscars) would be a travesty. Personally, I’ve always thought they should induct members at the all-star game. New, old and future HOFers all in one. That would be great for fans and for the game.
I beg to differ on the assertion that the HOF induction ceremony does not matter to ordinary fans. As many as 50,000 people have trekked all the way to Cooperstown to sit on the grass just to watch in person. Of course the turnout depends on who is being inducted.
don’t most sports do their hall of fame inductions in the off season or pre-season?
Did anyone make it to Cooperstown to hear Ricky tell us how great he is? Sorry I missed that.
Actually, doing HoF inductions during the All-Star break would make a lot of sense. I like that idea.