Baseball Hall of Fame Welcomes Class of 2024 During Induction Ceremony

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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — They were a college quarterback in Tennessee, a reserve catcher who played 17 years in the minor leagues, an infielder from the Dominican Republic and a hero from St. Paul, Minnesota.

They gathered Sunday afternoon and delivered moving, emotional speeches, mixed with a healthy dose of humility and humor, during the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Manager Jim Leyland remembers walking with his wife to a coffee shop in Siesta Key, Florida, just a few weeks after learning he had been elected to the Hall of Fame.

“Katie, can you in your wildest dreams believe that I’ve been elected to the Hall of Fame?” Leyland said. “Katie said, ‘Jim, you’re not in my wildest dreams.'”

The estimated crowd of 28,000 people cheered.

“My contributions to our beautiful pastime pale in comparison to the joy it has brought to my life,” said Leyland, “the heart of a little boy and the soul of an old man.”

Third baseman Adrian Beltre, only the fifth Dominican player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, proved that sleep is overrated, and that there’s no need to stress about a speech. He danced late into the night Saturday with his wife and friends, then gave a killer Hall of Fame speech, improvising about a quarter of it.

If Beltre was nervous, Hall of Famer David Ortiz immediately dispelled it by stepping off the stage to get a cup of coffee and then rubbing Beltre’s head as he walked to the podium to speak. He knows how much Beltre hates it when anyone touches his scalp.

“That never relaxes me…” Beltre said. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it. But it was a little sign to go back to the days when I was playing, and it was like, ‘OK, get ready to go out there and do your best with the speech.’

“I’m open to people who want to play with me.”

Beltre seized the opportunity to toy with himself a little when he saw former Seattle Mariners great Felix Hernandez pitching in the crowd and said, “To that guy who calls himself ‘King,’ I had a blast playing with you, but I had even more fun hitting against you.”

Helton was the starting quarterback at the University of Tennessee, sandwiched between Heath Shuler, who played five years in the NFL before becoming a U.S. congressman, and Peyton Manning, a Pro Football NFL Hall of Famer. Well, after watching and leading those two stars, he knew he could do better in baseball.

Helton still lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, and occasionally encounters people who stop him and ask if he’s still that great former quarterback for the Volunteers.

“Yeah,” Helton said, “but I’ve played a little baseball since then.”

Mauer, the hometown boy who played his entire 15-year career with the Minnesota Twins, got teary-eyed as he spoke of his late grandfathers, recalling that his parents and family members watched him play 1,215 times at the old Metrodome and Target Field.

“It was tough, I mean, there were a lot of emotions,” Mauer said after the ceremony. “A lot of people back home know that I recently lost my father and my grandfather, both grandfathers, a few years ago. They’ve been able to see my whole career and I think they were there today to make sure that I was able to articulate the speech that I gave.

“I know they were here.”

It seemed like half the Twin Cities were in attendance and the Twins fans dominated the crowd.

“I wanted to be a Twin from Day 1,” said Mauer, who joined St. Paul natives Dave Winfield, Jack Morris and Paul Molitor in Cooperstown. “And that feeling never went away … for 18 years.”

They both spent a lot of time thanking their former teammates, managers, scouts and everyone who had helped them along the way, but Leyland went a step further. He mentioned Gene Lamont, his longtime coach and former minor-league roommate from 1966. He talked about how special it was for him to work with Lamont, and the two of them had tears in their eyes as he spoke.

“We became best friends,” Leyland said. “I have so much respect for him as one of the best baseball men I’ve ever known. I was so proud that he was here today. And I thought it was totally unfair not to talk about him.”

There was a lot of baseball royalty in the crowd, with players like Gary Sheffield, Justin Morneau, Andy Van Slyke, Charles Johnson, Shawn Greene, Felix Hernandez, Nelson Cruz, Joe Nathan, Ian Kinsler, Richie Sexson, Elvis Andrus, Alex Avila, Brian Dozier, Colby Lewis and Mitch Moreland. Former managers Clint Hurdle and Ron Gardenhire were in attendance, as were current and former GMs Dave Dombrowski, Bill Schmidt, Derek Falvey, Thad Levine, Terry Ryan, Jon Daniels, Al Avila and Bill Smith.

Also in attendance were Helton’s former high school teammates and 86-year-old coach Bud Bales, all wearing special Knoxville Central High School uniforms with Helton’s number 16 on the back.

“I’m so happy and grateful that those guys made the trip here,” Helton said. “Some of those guys spent 16 hours in airports to get here. Or they skipped the airport, rented three tickets and drove 12 hours to get here.

“That means the world to me.”

The new Hall of Famers all thanked their loyal fans, but Leyland, who also led Team USA to the 2017 World Baseball Classic title, closed his speech on a eloquent note, letting everyone know what fans mean to the game of baseball.

“No matter which Hall of Famers you’re here to root for today,” Leyland, “or which team you choose to root for, your presence is always felt. On your feet in the ninth inning with the home team clinging to a one-run lead. Turning on your television for Game 1 of the World Series and watching 50,000 fans waving towels, hoping and praying that this is their year. Or a little boy or girl getting his or her first autograph and running back to the fans to show Mom and Dad.

“Ladies and gentlemen, that’s you.

“That’s baseball. And this is the Hall of Fame.”

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