Posted By:
Tom HuffordI've met and talked with several hundred current or ex-major leaguers, but since this is a Vintage forum, I'll focus on an experience I had in 1971.
I was in college and had done some player biographical research in conjunction with the folks at the Hall of Fame. I'd never been to Cooperstown, though, and when the late Bob Davids asked if I'd like to go for a meeting of like-minded researchers, I jumped at the chance. The meeting led to the formation of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), and was held the day after the 1971 HOF inductions. That was the year that the BBWAA did not elect anyone, but the Negro League Committee elected Satchell Paige, and the Veterans Committee elected Dave Bancroft, Jake Beckley, Chick Hafey, Harry Hooper, Joe Kelley, Rube Marquard, and George Weiss. Only Paige, Hafey, Hooper, and Marquard were living and able to attend. Bancroft and Weiss were too sick to come.
Someone told me that the players stayed at the Otesaga Hotel, so I walked over there and walked into the lobby and sat down (you couldn't do that on induction weekend these days!). There were a few fans like me there, the players that passed through were happy to mix and mingle, and I thought that Cooperstown was really cool - on my first visit I met and talked at least a while with Dizzy Dean, Carl Hubbell, Bill Dickey, Ted Lyons, Joe Cronin, Edd Roush, Sam Rice, Burleigh Grimes, Stan Musial, Red Ruffing, Lloyd Waner, Joe Medwick, Waite Hoyt, Pie Traynor, Earle Combs, Zach Wheat and Jesse Haines. And, in addition to Harry Hooper, his former teammates Larry Gardner and Ernie Shore also came along.
The highlight was Rube Marquard, who was there for his HOF induction. I sat in the lobby talking to Marquard for about an hour, and then he said "I have something I'd like to show you. If I go upstairs and get it, will you wait until I get back?" Now, what would you have said?? So I waited, and here comes Marquard back carrying a big scrapbook that he (or someone - his wife?) had kept during his career. He sat down, and we spent a couple of hours while he went through the whole scrapbook, telling me about games he was in, old teammates, etc. Can you imagine anything like that happening today?
What a day - I didn't have a tape recorder, but do have the memories!