COOPERSTOWN — Better days are ahead for the Baseball Hall of Fame and for the game.
This was the quietest of Hall of Fame weekends, because it was the first ceremony with no living inductees since 1965 and only about 2,500 fans showed up at the Clark Sports Center. The rolling hills were not filled with baseball’s best fans.
This Induction Sunday, though, the “I’’ word was mentioned a lot. That would be “I’’ as in integrity.
Commissioner Bud Selig is trying his best now to rid the game of drug cheats, and the massive Alex Rodriguez suspension is looming. The local economy took a hit this weekend because BBWAA voters refused to elect the likes of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
The Hall of Fame players — only 34 of 62 living members were in town — have taken a strong stand against performance-enhancing drugs stars as well.
Just a little before Derek Jeter hit his Hollywood-script home run against the Rays on the first pitch of his return yesterday, ex-Yankee Goose Gossage was telling The Post the day Jeter gets inducted into the Hall of Fame will be a Cooperstown classic.
“Oh, my God,’’ the Hall of Famer said. “You better book it now. That will be huge.’’
As for Rodriguez and the others linked to Biogenesis, Gossage said: “The thing I don’t understand is why are teams sign these guys? Melky [bleeping] Cabrera, are you [bleeping] kidding me? Since when do we reward these guys?
Gossage said of the tainted home run records: “I think we ought to reinstate the records of [Hank] Aaron and [Roger] Maris, too. I don’t recognize those other records, and I hear that all the time on the street from the fans.’’
There has been much written and said about A-Rod, but consider these telling words from Gossage, when asked about the steroid-stained star.
“He’s so different. I haven’t associated with him in [years],’’ said Gossage, who joins the Yankees during spring training. “We have nothing in common.’’
Next year, 355-game winner Greg Maddux is sure to become the newest member of the Hall of Fame and three terrific managers — Joe Torre, Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa — are up for consideration by the Expansion Era Committee.
The festivities began yesterday with a chilly breeze and light rain, but by the time Haley Swindal — George Steinbrenner’s granddaughter — finished her stirring rendition of the National Anthem, the skies began to clear as umpire Hank O’Day, former Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert and catcher Deacon White were inducted. The Boss should get inducted someday as well.
It was Ruppert who got the Yankees going on their winning ways, buying the club in 1915 for $480,000, just about the minimum salary for today’s major leaguer. His best player move was to purchase Babe Ruth’s contract from the Red Sox. Ruppert also had Yankee Stadium built.
O’Day was the umpire who called out the Giants’ Fred Merkle for failing to touch second base at the Polo Grounds in 1908 following an apparent game-winning single. His career was all about integrity, as noted by O’Day’s grand-nephew Dennis McNamara, a former Chicago policeman, who accepted the honor for O’Day, who died in 1935.
This town is all about baseball and those who attended Sunday morning Mass at St. Mary’s Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church exited the church singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,’’ an Induction Sunday tradition.
Over at Stagecoach Coffee on Pioneer Street, the four local men sitting in the corner on the patio said this Induction Sunday was unlike any they could remember.
Bob Snyder used to work the manual scoreboard at Doubleday Field when he was a kid, when major league teams would play an exhibition game in town every year, and remembers sitting on the scoreboard with a Red Sox rookie named Fred Lynn.
“Our little village is quiet for a change on Induction Sunday,’’ Snyder said. “You do feel for the people who have businesses in town.’’
This beautiful little village will bounce back strong.