MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
In real-life baseball vernacular, it is the proper answer to, “Is this heaven?”
No, it’s Cooperstown.
Cooperstown, New York is Baseball Heaven. During Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, it may be the closest thing to real heaven on earth.
Sunday was Induction Day in the quiet, sleepy village of Cooperstown, where players Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton, Joe Mauer and manager Jim Leyland took their places in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
I am fortunate to have attended a Hall of Fame induction — the only one I ever wanted to or will ever want to attend again, although I’d go back to Cooperstown in a heartbeat for anybody’s induction. For that matter, I’d go back for nobody’s induction and spend my time in the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, as the museum, the shops, the environment and the hospitality in themselves make it a trip to hold for a lifetime.
Brooks Robinson, who died last September, entered the Hall of Fame in 1983 along with Juan Marichal, George Kell, and Walter Alston, and I was there covering it for the Prince George’s Sentinel.
Jack Brickhouse, the longtime announcer for both the Chicago Cubs and White Sox was the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award when he said his idea of heaven was to be calling Game 7 of the World Series between the Cubs and the White Sox in extra innings at Wrigley Field and then have the game called due to darkness.
That’s how long it’s been since I’ve been to Cooperstown. Wrigley Field was still five years from having lights.
At the time, 1983 was said to have been the most-attended Induction Day in Hall of Fame history, surpassing the previous mark set by Mickey Mantle’s induction. That attendance mark has long since been topped, but on that day, most of the folks there were from Bawlmer, hon, and were there for the one and only No. 5.
As the late, great Chuck Thompson, himself a Frick recipient 10 years later, always said when the bases were loaded, “Everywhere you look there’s an Oriole,” as Cooperstown was a sea of orange that weekend.
In fact, there were so many busloads of people there from Baltimore – including the actual Orioles team, the eventual World Series champion (that’s how long it’s been since I’ve been to Cooperstown) – that the closest hotel we could get was in Utica, just 60 or so miles away, but a cool two-hour-plus trip by bus through the snail-paced traffic on quaint winding roads in upstate New York.
It remains one of the most meaningful times of my life for a number of reasons and a memory I will carry for my lifetime. It was nothing but wonderful; it was nothing but perfect.
There really is no place so beautiful as Cooperstown. The air and the sky are so fresh, so bright and so true, the only thing you can do is experience it. There are no words to describe it.
If you have the means, I highly recommend it.
As for this year’s inductees, Beltre, Helton and Mauer were elected by eligible voters from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America as players need to be selected on at least 75% of submitted ballots to earn induction.
Leyland, the former manager for the Pirates, Marlins, Rockies and Tigers, was elected by the Contemporary Era Committee for Managers, Executives and Umpires, having won three Manager of the Year awards, six division titles, three pennants and the 1997 World Series with the Marlins over a 22-year career that included 1,769 wins. He then came out of retirement to lead Team USA to a World Baseball Classic title in 2017.
Naturally, of this year’s class, Leyland is the one who carries the most interest amongst baseball fans here as he led the Pittsburgh Pirates out of the abyss to win three straight NL East Division titles in 1990-92. And though he skippered the Bucs for half of his big-league managerial career, still lives in Pittsburgh and is rightfully beloved there, Leyland elected not to have a cap logo on his plaque out of respect for all the teams he managed, which should come as no surprise to anyone who followed his inspirational career.
A minor-league player, coach and manager for 18 years before getting his first call as the third-base coach with the White Sox, Leyland won in three big-league markets that hadn’t regularly won, bringing winning baseball to two Rust Belt cities that hadn’t seen sustained success in years.
He famously chewed out Barry Bonds for talking back to a coach and it sent the message early that every player on his rosters would be treated the same.
He managed a lot of stars – Bonds (the two remain close friends), Bobby Bonilla, Andy Van Slyke, Gary Sheffield, Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrerra, Max Scherzer, Ivan Rodriguez, many of whom he made stars. Yet JIm Leyland was the face, the heart, the engine, the force of every team he managed because he was their unquestioned leader.
It’s been 41 years since I’ve been to Cooperstown, New York, but I can picture every inch of it in my mind always.
I wasn’t there, but I know Sunday was a perfect day in Cooperstown.
And Jim Leyland is forever in Baseball Heaven.
That’s something every baseball fan can be happy about.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @MikeBurkeMDT