Zeke’s Blog: Hall of Fame Weekend A Melting Pot of Baseball Experiences

Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith meets with fans during a skills clinic at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, NY over Hall of Fame Weekend 2022 (Photo: Zeke Fuhrman)

COOPERSTOWN, NY (KDLM) – The National Baseball Hall of Fame over Induction Weekend has always been a bucket list item for me.

The real diehards started rolling into town on Thursday to scope out all the newest souvenirs for the weekend, get first dibs on the memorabilia or purchase special autograph tickets with the MLB alum and Hall of Famers that would be in town. Thursday or Friday would a great day to get there if you ever plan on going to Cooperstown for the induction festivities (Joe Mauer is on the ballot in 2024…). Smaller crowds, easy to navigate the shots, the museum and gallery are pretty open and there are short lines at the gift shop.

Hall of Fame weekend is the largest gathering of baseball Hall of Famers of the year, with 43 participating in the Hall of Fame parade down Main Street in Cooperstown on Saturday, and even more showing up on Sunday for the induction ceremony.

There were four main cliques of fans in Cooperstown this weekend: the Twins faithful who made the trip out to see the long-overdue inductions of Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat, the Boston fans who made the four-hour drive to see David Ortiz inducted, the fans who traveled from the Dominican Republic to cheer on their local hero Ortiz, and fans who were here for the experience.

The most fun has been the fans from the DR. There are four players from the DR who have been inducted: Juan Marichal, Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero and Ortiz. All four were in town for the induction and they brought the whole island with them. There were giant groups of fans with DR flags parading in the streets, fans with instruments in alleyways, and randomly bursting into cheers, chants and singing. About midway through Tony Oliva’s speech on Sunday, Alex Rodriguez (whose parents were from the Dominican Republic) tried to sneak into the ceremony but was loudly cheered by the DR fans in the crowd. A-Rod tried to ignore them but eventually had to turn to them and motion for them to hush while Oliva was speaking.

Friday began with a special Ozzie Smith clinic at Abner Doubleday Field a couple of blocks from the museum. Ozzie, who was inducted into the Hall as a St. Louis Cardinal in 2002, was joined by fellow Hall of Famers Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken Jr, and Jim Thome. Fans with the pre-purchased tickets spent 15 minutes with each Hall of Famer for a Q and A, then had the opportunity to play catch, field ground balls and pop flies, and turn double plays with them on the field.

Hall of Famer Jim Thome listens to a fan’s question at the Hall of Fame Skills Clinic at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, NY during Hall of Fame Weekend 2022 (Photo: Zeke Fuhrman)

Fans walking down the street sometimes randomly run into players (that want to be found). Many of the players wandering the streets are former players that aren’t in the Hall of Fame. Denny McClain, who won two Cy Young Awards with the Detroit Tigers in 1968, had a tent sent up to sign autographs and talk baseball with fans. Jose Canseco was in town too, joking around with fans and telling stories of his playing days. Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau were signing together on Sunday before the induction ceremony.

The Minnesota Twins are in Cooperstown. #morneau #mauer pic.twitter.com/l2KF1QrCsC

— Jeff (@MNTwinsZealot) July 24, 2022

A lot of players set up special signings at the various restaurants and bars for fans to get a nicer, inscribed autograph. A lot of autograph seekers have special requests for signed balls: sign it on the sweet spot, inscribe a special message (HOF, MVP, etc) instead of getting a ball signed randomly and quickly on the street.

A baseball autographed by both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig for sale at Seventh Inning Stretch in Cooperstown, New York. (Photo: Zeke Fuhrman)

If your favorite player isn’t signing, you can always just purchase an authenticated autograph ball from one of the dozens of shops on Main Street…but they’re spendy. A Hall of Fame inscribed Ken Griffey Jr baseball will run you about $450, a David Ortiz ball is about $800, and a Derek Jeter ball is pushing $1,000. The most expensive piece I found was a dual-signed ball by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig for $35,000.

The Otsego Hotel on Lake Otsego is the get-away for players and their families. Each player attending gets two rooms. But, occasionally a player will wander away from the hotel…because why not? In addition to being a giant reunion for the best players of all time, they also like to walk around The Gallery and reminisce about their favorite players and friends, look at some of their old memorabilia in the museum, and interact with fans.

KDLM’s Zeke Fuhrman interviews Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven in the gift shop of the Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, NY (Photo: Luke Widbin/Leighton Broadcasting)

Twins Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven is one of the players that frequently left the hotel to explore Cooperstown. I spotted Bert walking into the Museum Gift Shop as I was looking through some of the souvenirs. Nobody saw him at first. Or if they did see him, they didn’t recognize him. Unless you watched Bert on Twins TV broadcasts for all those years, he just looked like a regular museum attendee. Then, slowly the buzz began. A couple of Twins fans walked into the museum and recognized him instantly. Then word got out that a Hall of Famer was in the gift shop. Luckily, I was able to sneak over to Bert and ask him a couple of questions before the Twins mob came in.

Then comes the Hall of Fame parade. Behind barricaded streets, fans can watch, cheer and interact with their favorite Hall of Famers as they ride down Main Street in the back of pickup trucks with their wives. The end of the parade route in front of the museum is the place to be: that’s where the players exit their vehicles and enter a special players-only gathering inside the gallery before departing for their own separate parties. The Twins organization rented out the entire Fenimore Art Gallery for their post-parade party.

Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez rides past fans during the 2022 Hall of Fame induction weekend parade on July 23, 2022 (Photo: Zeke Fuhrman)

As Hall of Famers exit their vehicles, some of them will walk toward the crowd and sign autographs. For example, Cal Ripken Jr jogged a couple of blocks back up the parade route and signed autographs for fans along the route for about 30 minutes. Bert Blyleven signed for fans for a long time, too. Mariano Rivera signed autographs for kids only. Wade Boggs individually thanked the patrol officers working the parade, took photos with them then went inside the museum.

My fan moment was at the Tunnicliff Inn on Friday. For years, I have been working on a little fan project. I have a 1985 MLB All-Star Game program and for the last ten years, I’ve been slowly collecting the autographs of the players from that team that would eventually play for the Twins. The ’85 All-Star Game was played at the Metrodome. Coming into the weekend, I was only missing three. I had Bert Blyleven, Jack Morris, Paul Molitor, Jeff Reardon, and Tom Brunanksy (the only All-Star for the Twins in ’85). I was missing Dave Winfield, Gary Ward, and Tommy Herr.

Winfield, who doesn’t do autograph appearances often, was signing at noon. His price to sign a flat item was only (only…) $75. It’s the most I’ve ever spent on a piece of sports memorabilia and it’s the best $75 I’ve spent. After he signed it, paged through it to see who was on the team that year, and told a couple of stories about the game held in his home state that season.

But for me, as media, the Cooperstown trip was just as much connecting with fans as it was connecting and networking with fellow media members and colleagues: connecting with Bally Sports North’s Dick Bremer, KSTP’s Schmit, LaVelle Neal and Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune, Randy Shaver of Kare 11…guys that I grew up watching and reading. Then, all of a sudden I’m riding the shuttle from media parking to the media center with LaVelle Neal, and sitting next to Randy Shaver at a Tony Oliva press conference.

Pinch me.