Gwynn and Ripken Enter Hall Without A Hitch
By Joe McDonald | Pro Baseball Central Co-host | on Monday, July 30 2007

COOPERSTOWN, NY – The hot sun shining over the record crowd was a welcome relief for the Hall of Fame, which worried about heavy rains that hit south.

But it was only one of many things that went right in front of 75,000 as the 2007 class was inducted without a hitch.

“It was a beautiful day,” Tony Gwynn said afterwards, as he was asked about Barry Bonds record. “75,000 people; couldn’t have been a better day for baseball.”

As the sea of fans went all the way back to the trees at the Clark Sports Center, no steroids controversies, no tainted records, and no dark clouds hovered over the field. The Hall, though, did switch up the ceremony to let Gwynn and Cal Ripken go first before Kansas City Royals’ announcer Denny Matthews and St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Rick Hummel, in case the storm happened to hit the hamlet.

Gwynn, maybe baseball’s most prolific hitter since Ted Williams, spoke first. In a speech lasting almost a half hour, he reminisced about his life in baseball and spoke about a life changing event in 1992, when he met the “Splendid Splinter.”

“I'll always remember meeting Ted Williams at the 1992 All-Star Game,” Gwynn thought. “He was my idol and I'd read his book 'The Art of Hitting' as a kid. I had a bat in my hand and he took it from me and started to pick his teeth with it! He made me think about the art of hitting.”

The .338 lifetime batter’s speech mimicked his career, smooth and made you smile. He also thanked everyone from his life from his wife Alicia to former San Diego Padres manager Jack McKeon.

Then came Ripken, the person most of the crowd wanted to see. With the close proximity to Baltimore, many Oriole backers arrived to cheer baseball’s Ironman as he took the stage.

“I know some fans have looked at ‘The Streak’ as a special accomplishment, and while I appreciate that, I always looked at it as just showing up for work every day,” said Ripken, who broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive game streak in 1995. “As I look out on this audience, I see thousands of people who do the same: Teachers, police officers, mothers, fathers, business people and many others. You all may not receive the accolades that I have throughout my career, so I’d like to take the time out to salute all of you for showing up, working hard and making the world a better place.”

Humble and poignant, Ripken spoke for 16 minutes and offered his wife Kelly a rose, which he put in his jacket pocket, only to have his son Ryan take out another one, from his blazer, to give to his mother.

“I wish I thought of that,” joked Gwynn afterwards.

Their speeches echoed their careers - great, but with the everyman point of view. In fact, Ripen led off with a little parable that proved it.

“Recently I was teaching hitting to a 10-year old boy," one of the few men to have over 3000 hits and over 400 home runs said, "and after the boy started having some success, he said to me: 'So did you play baseball?' I told him I did and he asked: 'What team?' I said the Orioles and he asked: 'What position?' I said shortstop with a little third base at the end and he asked: 'So should I know you?' That put it all in perspective."

On the day storms hit south of Cooperstown and an attempt at one of baseball’s great records was being controversially taken in San Francisco, there was nothing tainted about this glorious baseball afternoon.