The Hawk, the White Rat, and God

I made my annual pilgrimage to the quaint village of Cooperstown, New York to see the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. With my friend Bob as my companion, we had a great two days, touring the Hall and then sitting in our camp chairs on the athletic field to see the induction of Andre Dawson, Whitey Herzog, and Doug Harvey.

This year a new tradition was started. The evening before the induction ceremony, there was a modest parade down Main Street, ending at the entrance of the Hall. All the returning Hall of Famers took spots in the back of pickup trucks, waving to the crowd. They ranged from the nonagenarian Bob Feller, to Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, to more recent inductees such as Goose Gossage and Paul Molitor. A pretty good crowd turned out for it.

The next day, after a two-hour visit to the Hall and the plaque gallery, we camped out on the field and waited for the induction to begin. Skies were threatening, and we got a few sprinkles. A brief rain shower passed over during the speech of umpire Doug Harvey. He had prerecorded his speech, as his voice has been ravaged by throat cancer. The rain stopped quickly, though, and the sun broke out. Harvey, who was nicknamed "God" by the players because of his authoritative demeanor as an arbiter, added "You'll notice that I stopped the rain."

Whitey Herzog, the longtime manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, among other teams, put aside any notion that he was bitter about having to wait so long to be enshrined, saying "Any time is a good time." He spent much of his speech talking about learning from Casey Stengel, including how to deal with reporters--mostly by getting them drunk.

Andre "the Hawk" Dawson also had to wait quite a while for induction. His plaque has him wearing a Montreal Expos cap, where he spent most of his career, but his kindest words for his time as a Chicago Cub, and those were the fans that were most in evidence (though there was a small but loud contingent of Expos fans, a dying breed). He spent a good portion of his speech thanking doctors and trainers, as he played much of his career with bad knees. But he's only one of three players (Willie Mays and Barry Bonds being the other two) with over 400 home runs and 300 stolen bases.

Before the players were inducted there was a brief honoring of John Fogerty and his song "Centerfield," which was released twenty-five years ago and has become the rock and roll staple for baseball fans. Wearing his trademark flannel shirt, he played the song live, strumming a guitar he calls "Slugger" that was made out of a baseball bat. He's donating the bat to the Hall for exhibit. One wonders what some of the older players on the stage thought of this interlude. Willie Mays, who is mentioned in the song, seemed oblivious.