Baseball Hall of Fame
David Ortiz and Buck O’Neil Headline Hall of Fame Class of 2022
Rivera was a guest at Ortiz’s party here on Saturday night, as was another former Yankee rival, his Fox Sports colleague Alex Rodriguez. Several of Ortiz’s former teammates also came to town, including Johnny Damon, LaTroy Hawkins, Mike Lowell, Trot Nixon, Dustin Pedroia, Tim Wakefield, Kevin Youkilis and Pedro Martinez, a fellow Hall of Famer […]
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Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva Set for Hall of Fame Induction
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — A humble little baseball sits at the bottom of a display case for David Ortiz on the third floor of the Hall of Fame. No hologram, no elaborate markings. In thick black ink, just below the red-seam horseshoe, someone scrawled “First HR.” Under that, in lighter pen: “Big Show.” The Big Papi […]
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Baseball Hall of Famers Compete Over Statues
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The unofficial greeters at the Hall of Fame stand together, in bronze, by the ticket booths in the museum lobby. They are multicultural monuments to strength, sacrifice and service: Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente. “Those three represented so much more than what they did on the field,” said Josh Rawitch, […]
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With Jersey Retirement, Gil Hodges Connects the Dodgers and Mets Again
By 1980, Fred Wilpon would purchase the team, adding another layer of connective tissue: Wilpon attended Brooklyn’s Lafayette High School with Dodgers Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax and was a rabid fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was under his watch that Citi Field opened in 2009 with so many Dodgers-related touches — most notably, […]
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Baseball Hall of Fame Will Create New Exhibit on Race
Such accounting will be essential to the new exhibit, and with more than 150 years of history to review it is a massive undertaking. Glanville said he preferred the term exploratory to advisory, because there is so much still to learn about the Black experience in baseball, so much that continues to evolve. “There’s still […]
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Carlos Beltran Creates a New Ethical Debate for Hall of Fame
It might have been the best game Jim Palmer ever pitched: 11 scoreless innings on a summer afternoon in Baltimore in 1977, with nine strikeouts and no walks. Palmer didn’t win it, though, because the Orioles never scored. Gaylord Perry, the slippery ace of the Texas Rangers, was dominant. “I come out to get the […]
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With One More Walk-Off, Big Papi Trots Into Cooperstown
The David Ortiz Bridge, on Brookline Ave., above the Mass Pike, connects the Fenway Park neighborhood to Kenmore Square in Boston. From there it’s about four hours to Cooperstown, N.Y., soon to be home to another lasting marker of Ortiz’s outsize legacy. Ortiz, whose slugging and swagger helped the Boston Red Sox become the most […]
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Gil Hodges and the Christmas Visit That Changed Everything
For 72 years, David Schacker has held on to a tattered black-and-white photograph, now buried deep in a closet at his home near downtown Toronto. A few days ago, shortly after Gil Hodges was elected to the Hall of Fame, he decided to take a fresh look. The image has lost some of its luster […]
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Buck O’Neil, Gil Hodges and Four Others Elected to Hall of Fame
Jim Kaat’s father, John, raised him on tales of his baseball hero, Lefty Grove, who defined pitching dominance in the years before World War II. When Grove was inducted to the Hall of Fame, in 1947, John Kaat made the pilgrimage to Cooperstown, N.Y., to see him. Jim Kaat would make many trips to Cooperstown, […]
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