Having visited many sports halls of fame, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. was long the biggest venue left on my list.
Pro Football (Canton), Hockey (Toronto), Naismith Memorial Basketball (Springfield, Mass.), along with International Swimming (Fort Lauderdale) and Chicagoland Sports … I have been to all of these and others. But the Baseball Hall of Fame never happened.
Hey, Cooperstown is not an easy trip. No matter how many times I was in New York, I never ventured there for a summertime induction ceremony, though there have been many I really wanted to go to.
I certainly thought about it in 2014 when the honorees included Bobby Cox, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Tony LaRussa, Frank Thomas and Joe Torre. And who wouldn’t have wanted to be there in 2007 to cheer Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, Jr.? I’d list 2005 (Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg), 1999 (Robin Yount, George Brett, Nolan Ryan and Orlando Cepeda), 1993 (Reggie
