Birth of The Classic

At the very moment the Hall of Fame announced that the annual Hall of Fame Game would cease to exist, speculation abounded as to what might replace the cherished tradition. The guesswork ended on Monday afternoon, when the Hall announced the introduction of the first Hall of Fame Classic, set to take place on June 21 of next year. The Classic will be a legends game, or an old-timers game (whichever terminology you prefer), pitting retired American League stars against former National League standouts. The Sunday afternoon game will cap off an entire Father’s Day weekend of special events, giving Cooperstown an unofficial start to its summer tourist season.

Given the state of both the local and national economies, this is flat-out wonderful news for the community of Cooperstown–and for fans who live within driving distance of the Hall of Fame. Frankly, this is something that the Hall of Fame should have done years ago; the cancellation of the Hall of Fame Game gave Hall officials the final push they needed to make an annual old-timers game a reality here in central New York.

So what’s to like about the Hall of Fame Classic? Well, just about everything. Let’s run down the list of favorable items:

a) A brief look at history says that an old-timers game will go over well in Cooperstown. In 1989, the Hall of Fame held an old-timers game to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Hall’s birth. The game, which was well attended and publicized, proved a smashing success. Since moving to Cooperstown in 1996, I’ve yet to hear a single member of the community voice any complaints about that game.

b) As pointed out at the Monday afternoon press conference, of the 30 players expected to participate, efforts will be made to bring in as many former players as possible with connections to the New York and Boston markets. The Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox are all avidly followed in upstate New York. Smartly, this old-timers game will reflect that regional interest.

c) The Hall of Fame Classic will be a joint production between the Hall of Fame and the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA). Founded in the early 1980s, the MLBPAA has vast experience in putting on youth clinics, charity golf tournaments, and old-timers games, all of which will comprise Hall of Fame Classic Weekend. Headed up by Hall of Fame Brooks Robinson and CEO Dan Foster, the MLBPAA knows what it’s doing when it comes to staging profitable and fan-friendly events throughout the country.

d) Throughout the Hall of Fame Classic, at least a few of the 30 retired players will be signing autographs free of charge for those fans who have bought tickets to the game. This will be a refreshing change from recent Hall of Fame games, since most of the current day players didn’t want to come here in the first place and generally did little to acknowledge the fans during their brief stays at Doubleday Field. Those concerns won’t be problems for the retired players, who will receive stipends for participating and will be contributing to a cause that helps out their alumni brethren.

e) In recent years, the staging of Hall of Fame Weekend, relegated to the last weekend in July, has come too late to help some local businesses. Now with the addition of Hall of Fame Classic Weekend, there will be bookends to the critical summer season: the Classic to start the season, and Induction Weekend to help it wind down.

In terms of drawbacks to the Classic, I can think of only one, and this consists of nitpicking more than anything else. Only four Hall of Famers will participate in the game, with the rest of the players being either recently retired and/or secondary stars. In an ideal world, six to eight Hall of Famers would have been nice. But again, this is a relatively minor point.

So in the end, with the bad comes the good. We lost the Hall of Fame Game, a beloved tradition since 1940. But we gained an annual old-timers game, an event that will likely become just as popular here in a place where the history of the game is loved just as much as the game itself.