“Thank you ladies and gentlemen. I hope some day that some of the young fellows coming into the game will know how it feels to be picked in the Hall of Fame. I know the old boys back in there were just talking it over, some have been here long before my time. They got on it, I worked hard, and I got on it. And I hope that the coming generation, the young boys today, that they’ll work hard and also be on it.
And as my old friend Cy Young says, “I hope it goes another hundred years and the next hundred years will be the greatest. You know to me this is just like an anniversary myself, because twenty-five years ago yesterday I pitched my first baseball game in Boston, for the Boston Red Sox. (applause)
So it seems like an anniversary for me too, and I’m surely glad and it’s a pleasure for me to come up here and be picked also in the Hall of Fame. Thank you.”
Short and sweet.
His career left more of an impression than anything he could’ve said 🙂
“Got on it” musta a been a popular expression back then. Today’s equivalent would be what? Getting busy or down to work, brass tacks, roll up the sleeves? For the Babe that was thankfully on the diamond and in the bar.
He also didn’t charge children for his autograph. Even if he had lived in our era of Amazon.com and other internet means to sell, I’m sure he still wouldn’t have charged. After all, he proved he wasn’t one to save money! It took his second wife and agent to help him put some away. 🙂
He was a character, for sure. I would love to see how he would have fared in today’s world. The media would have a field day with the Babe.