When I was a little kid, my father used to bring home baseball record books from the newspaper office, including photos of the first class of five players elected to the Hall of Fame.
How stodgy and old-fashioned they looked in old photos – faces and bodies and uniforms that seemed clunky by “modern” standards of 1946 and 1947. Yet there they were, the first “immortals” – chosen in 1936 for the emerging Hall of Fame: Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. I saw Cobb and Ruth at the first Old-Timers Game in Yankee Stadium at the end of 1947; Ruth was dying, in his camel’s-hair coat, his voice crackling on the primitive public-address system. He was an immortal, but he was most surely mortal. In 1947, we were also living in a time of Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial – and Jackie Robinson. More immortals. When I saw them play, did I stop to study them carefully, so I would have an engraved memory of their swing, their mannerisms? Nah. Not smart enough. We live in the moment, but I was minimally wise enough, as a young sportswriter in the ‘60s, to know I was in the presence of immortals -- Koufax and Gibson, as good as it gets; Mays and Clemente and Aaron and Frank Robinson. And when I was around the New York Yankees from 1995 to 2013, it was a privilege to watch Mariano Rivera break off that cutter that was equal-opportunity unhittable. He dominated in a modest way, no gestures, no celebrating, because, as he often says, he “respects the game.” I must add, it was also a privilege to watch Jeter and Williams and Posada and Pettitte, year after year; they soothed the ancient sting of my Yankee-tormented childhood as a Brooklyn Dodger fan. How could I hate a team that had those guys? I recently met a rabbi on Long Island who raved about a trip he had taken to Israel in the company of the evangelical Christian Mariano Rivera. I am sure Rivera’s rabbinical admirer is celebrating today, as Rivera has become the first baseball immortal to be elected unanimously. Considerating the cranks and crackpots and purists in my colleagues, this is huge. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/sports/baseball/mariano-rivera-hall-of-fame.html I did not have the same surety about Roy Halladay and Mike Mussina (NYT writers are not allowed to vote for awards, and I follow those rules in retirement.) The voters have confirmed Halladay and Mussina as Hall of Fame pitchers, so congratulations. And did you see Tyler Kepner’s absorbing insider explanation of what Rivera taught Halladay about the cutter? It would cost Rivera a few bucks in a clubhouse kangaroo courthouse. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/20/sports/hall-of-fame-roy-halladay.html In Rivera’s first season, 1995, I got to watch one of the best post-season series ever played, a best-of-five division thriller between the emerging Yankees and what seemed to be the emerging Seattle Mariners. The difference in that series was Edgar Martinez, a designated hitter at the peak of his game. He was unspectacular in demeanor but dominant in hitting a ball. Just before the fifth and final game, I wrote an “early” column – for the first national edition – quoting Reginald Martinez Jackson, Yankee star and by then Yankee advisor, raving about Edgar Martinez, no relation. Reggie’s raves are best read in context of my revised column, after Martinez had clubbed the Mariners into the next round: https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/09/sports/95-playoffs-sports-of-the-times-one-martinez-is-raving-about-another-martinez.html Do I think of Edgar Martinez the way I think of Ruth, or Mays, or Koufax, or Rivera? No, but there are four or five levels of Hall of Fame players. I hate the designated-hitter rule; it has led to the current plague of launch-arc/strikeout flailers. But Edgar was not a launch-arc guy. Read how Reggie dissected his professional swings in that marvelous 1995 division series. I cannot hold being a designated hitter against Martinez; he played where they told him to play. Designated hitters gotta live, too. I remember Edgar dominating an epic series, sending Junior Griffey sliding home with a joyous cat-in-the-hat smile, (Think Buck Showalter ever wonders why the Yanks did not activate young Derek Jeter for the post-season….or why Buck did not keep young Mariano Rivera on the mound after getting two outs?) That epic coastal series was the time of Edgar Martinez, not Mariano Rivera. Now they go into the Hall together. Like Johnson, like Mathewson, like Wagner, like Cobb, like the Babe himself – by definition, tightly monitored by baseball fans and players and officials and voters: immortals, all.
Altenir Silva
1/23/2019 11:18:19 am
Wow! I think it was awesome. Watching those guys in action. The emotion on seeing Babe Ruth in the ballgame should be too intense and beautiful, like watching Zero Mostel singing “If I were a rich man” on Fiddler On The Roof. The time has gone, but the poetry stays.
George Vecsey
1/23/2019 06:31:19 pm
Altenir: It was just a glimpse of him -- from RF seats -- last day of 47 season, my first time in YS. First old-timers game, ever, anywhere.
Altenir Silva
1/23/2019 07:18:15 pm
Dear George:
Mendel
1/23/2019 04:51:32 pm
"As a Christian, with all due respect to Metallica, I don't listen to that kind of music," Rivera added."
George Vecsey
1/23/2019 06:34:54 pm
Mendel: I would imagine he has other beliefs that he does not mention.
bruce
1/23/2019 05:56:33 pm
george,
George Vecsey
1/23/2019 06:48:27 pm
Dave Kindred once wrote a piece about the team he would choose for "The Game to Save Humanity" or some such cause. I cannot find it on line. I once came up with a team of guys not in the hall of fame: "My Guys." Maris. Hodges. Santo at the time. Dale Murphy, I am sure. Somebody made a good case recently for Bill Freehan.
bruce
1/23/2019 07:20:40 pm
george,
Ed Martin
1/24/2019 08:05:42 pm
It may not get as much attention as Guiliani’s comment, but I am satisfied to be known as “The guy who disagreed with George Vecsey, by believing Gil Hodges should be in the Hall of Fame.”
Ed Martin
1/25/2019 07:19:26 pm
No offense GV, just a bit of tongue in cheek. As you know I attended a number of games in the 46 to 51 era, and while away, fewer. All of those guys were my heroes, and Gil had a dignity that showed through and was so well respected by the others. I have a memory of him breaking up a fight on the field, and coincidentally, Frank, Hondo, Howard doing the same thing in DC, picking up a guy and carrying him away. Shalom!
Ed Martin
1/25/2019 07:37:21 pm
WOW! 1/30/2019 12:53:39 pm
George—Being roughly the same vintage as you, I enjoyed the same period of baseball history. You got all the greats right and was wise to not compare the generations.
bruce
1/30/2019 01:25:12 pm
alan, 2/1/2019 11:29:35 am
Bruce,
bruce
2/1/2019 12:20:33 pm
alan, Comments are closed.
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