The new class of Baseball Hall of Famers will be inducted Sunday in Cooperstown, New York.
Things are slowly getting back to normal for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum after the COVID disruptions of recent years led to the Class of 2020 being honored in September 2021.
But this year, a large contingent of Boston Red Sox fans is expected to cheer Baseball Writers’ Association of America electee David Ortiz and six others gaining baseball immortality via the veterans committees.
The ceremony begins at 1:30 p.m.
Josh Rawitch took over as the Hall’s president last year.
“Several of the guys who have been here for a long time, names like Cal Ripken, Bert Blyleven, Wade Boggs, tons of names that come back year after year, I could literally list probably 20 of them, by and large what I’ve found is that they really love coming back because we try our best to make it a special experience for them.”
Big Papi is a first-ballot honoree, and the first player to go in alone in a decade. He cleared the 75 percent voting threshold with 77.9 percent of the vote. The Dominican Republic native is also the only first-ballot designated hitter to reach the Hall. He made 10 all-star teams for the Red Sox, finishing with 541 home runs, the 12th-most doubles in history with 632, and a museum’s worth of playoff highlights en route to three World Series titles.
The Early Baseball Era Committee elected Bud Fowler and Buck O’Neil, while the Golden Days Era Committee tapped Gil Hodges, Minnie Miñoso, Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat.
Kaat spent 25 years in the majors, pitching from the 50s to the 80s, and has worked as a coach and broadcaster ever since. The lefty retired with a 3.45 ERA over 4,530.1 innings, and after coming up in 1959, finally won a World Series with the 1982 Cardinals.
“I thought the reason I was not voted in by the writers and it took a while is that I never considered myself a dominant starting pitcher like Seaver, Koufax, Marichal, Gibson, most of the starting pitchers that you see in the Hall of Fame were dominant pitchers. I did what I did over a long period of time. And I also was a relief pitcher for several years near the end of my career. So from that standpoint, I didn't really know,” he said.
Now 83, the 16-time Gold Glover won 283 games.
“I think I could make a case by looking at some pitchers that yes, my records might have been worthy of that but I'm grateful that the Golden Days Committee this year took a look at it. And looked back and compared me to some of the other starting pitchers and rewarded me for consistency and longevity and dependability,” he said.
On the media side, Jack Graney is the posthumous recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, while ESPN analyst and writer Tim Kurkjian is receiving the Career Excellence Award.
Kurkjian says his parents deserve credit for his approach to his career.
“I just figured out that I got to try harder than everyone else. I worked against some guys who are way better writers than I ever was. So I figured, how am I going to beat these guys? I'm just going to have to be the guy who shows up at the ballpark at 1 o'clock or 2 o'clock in the afternoon for a 7 o'clock game, I'm gonna have to be the guy who writes later than everyone else, I'm just going to have to be the guy who tries harder than everyone else, because I'm not as good as a lot of these people that I'm covering with. So that's pretty much where it came from is I said, ‘How can I win here without great talent?’ And the answer is you better have a great work ethic,” he said.
Kurkjian says being on the other side of the Hall of Fame this year, as an honoree, will take some getting used to.
“Johnny Bench called me this morning to congratulate me. Johnny Bench, the greatest catcher of all time and he said welcome to The Club. And I almost started to cry again. That's how meaningful and powerful that is for me. So when I go there, I'll think about all the times that I went there as a writer and will continue to go to see guys inducted and this time I'll have something to do with it and I can't even begin to tell you how great that is for me and my family,” he said.
The ceremony will be carried live on the MLB Network.
