Chapter Seven, Page 93

AUGUST 8, 1977

DOUBLEDAY FIELD, COOPERSTOWN

TWINS 8, PHILLIES 5

A pattern is starting to emerge in the Baseball Hall of Fame Game. Stars, starters, and the established and better-known players are typically:

• Either not making the trip to Cooperstown,

• Or they come to the Mecca of Baseball with their teams and do not play,

• Or they play but limit their participation to token appearances, an at-bat or two, an

   inning pitched, maybe, and on the field for three defensive outs.

           The exceptions are definitely proving the rule. This is a change from the way the Baseball Hall of Fame Game used to be played, with American League and National League going at each other with a seriousness they used to bring to the All Star Game, or even, to some extent, the World Series.

In the 1940s and continuing through to the mid-1970s, the two leagues took pride in beating their rivals. Thus, in the Baseball Hall of Fame Game, rival managers would typically play to win. Stars would dive head first into the centerfield bleachers to make a grab or shatter a cart full of pop bottles while hauling in long drives.

That’s not the case now. A manager would be run out of town by the home town fans and crucified by the writers if he played an established starter, let alone a star, for more than a token appearance, and the player got hurt.

True, winning will always remain the objective. But in 1977, with the bigger salaries coming into baseball representing serious investments to clubs and financial security to players, no one wanted to risk an injury in what had become a meaningless game.

Chapter Eleven, Page 150

CHAPTER ELEVEN

JUNE 16, 2008:

SLOGGING TOWARD COOPERSTOWN

WHAT MAN HAD WROUGHT, NATURE AND NATURE’S GOD WOULD

REND ASUNDER. WHAT BETTER WAY TO PUNCTUATE 6/16/08,

THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME GAME’S FINAL DAY OF LIFE?

NO ONE AMONG THE GRAMMARIANS OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL –

NEITHER MLB, THE PLAYERS, THEIR UNION, NOR THEIR AGENTS –

WOULD HAVE A SAY ON WHAT THE END MARK WOULD BE:

QUESTION MARK … PERIOD … EXCLAMATION POINT … A SET OF ELLIPSES?

FATE LEFT THAT CALL TO REST ELSEWHERE. TOMMY LASORDA

HAD IT WRONG. THE RECIPIENT OF THAT RESPONSIBILITY DID NOT

“BLEED DODGER BLUE.” RATHER, HE TOOK THE TOTALITY

OF BASEBALL, WHICH THE DYING BABE RUTH CALLED

“THE ONLY REAL GAME,” INTO FULL ACCOUNT.

JUNE 16, 2008

DOUBLEDAY FIELD, COOPERSTOWN

CUBS VS. PADRES –

CANCELED, STORM

And thus, it came to pass, that on the 16^th earthly cycle around the planetary axis of the third stone from the sun, in the sixth month of the Year of Our Lord, Anno Domini, Two Thousand and Eight, those Larger Forces no one can name deemed that IT BE OVER in a storm of biblical proportions.

The early morning rain made any final game iffy. The hail and tornadic winds put all hope to rest. The Baseball Hall of Fame Game would end not with the whimper of a faux contest these exhibitions had become but with the BANG of a thundercloud.

Dizzy, Ted, Babe, Eddie, Honus, Lefty, Ty, Christy, Connie, Grover, Smoky Joe, Mickey, Willie, and the Duke rejoiced. All would be well. Fate would not let a game happen today for the last time.

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