Infographic: Craig Biggio HoF
Posted: May 12, 2018 Filed under: 20th Century, 21st Century | Tags: Baseball, Craig Biggio, history, Houston Astros, infographics, Major League Baseball, MLB, National Baseball Hall of Fame, sports, World Series 2 CommentsI came across this graphic quite accidentally, but now that I’ve found it, I’m thinking it’d be fun and interesting to see if there are more like it for other Hall of Famers. Craig Biggio never won a World Series with the Astros (though they appeared in one in 2005), but he was still a player worth talking about. Biggio was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015.
Visiting Cooperstown
Posted: March 25, 2018 Filed under: 19th Century, 20th Century, 21st Century, Experiences and reflections | Tags: All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, Babe Ruth, Baseball, Baseball equipment, Cooperstown, Cooperstown New York, history, Major League Baseball, MLB, National Baseball Hall of Fame, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Negro Leagues, sports 6 CommentsI spent much of the last week visiting an old friend who now lives in New York state. Though I was only there for a few days, we managed to cram a lot into our limited time together. We spent a full day in Manhattan — my first time ever in New York City. Another day, we went on a five-mile hike up a mountain in the Hudson River Valley. I also insisted, so long as I was making the trip halfway across the country, that we had to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The day we reserved for visiting the Hall of Fame came the day after our NYC day, and we didn’t get to bed until about 2:00 a.m. that night before. Cooperstown is about a three-hour drive from my friend’s home, and as late as we were out the previous night, there was no way we were going to be on the road by 6:00 am to be there in time for the 9:00 open time. Instead we pulled into town a bit after noon, and we stopped for sandwiches and coffee at a nice little café called Stagecoach Coffee (which I highly recommend, by the way, if you’re ever in Cooperstown).
We finished our lunch and arrived at the Hall of Fame around 1:00, leaving us about four hours to explore before closing time. There ended up being a couple of exhibits we didn’t get to see (pro tip: don’t go out the night before so you can get there earlier than we did), but we did see most of it, and I took an insane number of pictures in the process. For sanity’s sake, I’ll just post a few of the highlights here, but if you are somehow just morbidly curious, I’ve created a public album including all my photos here.
Ernie Banks’s Hall of Fame induction speech
Posted: February 18, 2018 Filed under: 20th Century | Tags: Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Ernie Banks, history, National Baseball Hall of Fame, sports Leave a commentErnie Banks, “Mr. Cub,” was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977. I love the fact that he starts this speech with his signature, “Let’s play two.”
This day in baseball: Class size: 0
Posted: February 16, 2018 Filed under: 20th Century, This day in baseball | Tags: Baseball, Baseball Writers Association of America, Bill Terry, history, Mel Ott, National Baseball Hall of Fame, sports Leave a commentThe Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) voted, via mail, to select from major league players retired less than 25 years for the Hall of Fame class of 1950. On February 16 of that year, the organization ended up selecting no one for induction. The top vote-getters in the balloting were former Giants Mel Ott (69%) and Bill Terry (63%), however, this fell short of the 75% of the writers’ ballots required for induction. Ott would get elected the following season, and Terry entered the Hall of Fame in 1954.
Mel Ott (ESPN.com)
This day in baseball: First Hall of Famers
Posted: February 2, 2018 Filed under: 20th Century, This day in baseball | Tags: Abner Doubleday, Babe Ruth, Baseball, Christy Mathewson, Cooperstown, history, Honus Wagner, National Baseball Hall of Fame, sports, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson 2 CommentsThe first five men elected into baseball’s new Hall of Fame on February 2, 1936 were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson. The Hall of Fame was scheduled to open in Cooperstown, New York in 1939 as part of baseball’s celebration of its “centennial,” that is, the centennial based on the myth of Doubleday’s invention of the game.
fineartamerica.com
Baseball Hall of Fame, Class of 2018
Posted: January 25, 2018 Filed under: 21st Century | Tags: Baseball, Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Major League Baseball, MLB, National Baseball Hall of Fame, sports, Trevor Hoffman, Vladimir Guerrero Leave a commentCongratulations to Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome, and Trevor Hoffman on their election into the Baseball Hall of Fame!
Hoffman, Jones, Thome, and Guerrero (Getty Images)
Ted Williams’s Hall of Fame induction speech
Posted: December 20, 2017 Filed under: 20th Century | Tags: Baseball, Boston Red Sox, history, Ken Burns, Major League Baseball, National Baseball Hall of Fame, sports, Ted Williams 1 CommentOne of the many things mentioned in the Eighth Inning of Ken Burns’s documentary Baseball was the induction of Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. I was curious about his induction speech and decided to try and look it up. His speech is surprisingly short (though I think most speeches were shorter back then than they are now), but it seems to fit what I know about Williams rather well.
