Last night I watched the Hall of Fame ceremonies on DVR from earlier in the day. Jim Rice, my childhood hero, and Ricky Henderson were the two living guys inducted. It was really moving.
First, there is the easy draw upon emotions and mythologies that we have all been conditioned to over the years. References to luck and gratitude, humility, to coaches and mothers and roommates. For me, Bart Giamatti's Take Time for Paradise captures it perfectly. Jim Rice told his story about growing up in Anderson, SC, playing on the black team until he was a senior, and then being jerrymandered onto the white team. He was already excelling. He chose baseball over football at the request of his mother. I've see Jim Rice walking outside of Fenway in the past five years. He could have played football, except he was quotes saying that "he wasn't a hitter." Rice related the story of his arrival in Boston, 3 years later, and Don Zimmer taking him under his wing, teaching him, and protecting him. Zimmer and Johnny Pesky became his personal coaches. His only regret, he said, was the last few at bats in 1989 that pulled him down below .300 career batting average. Ricky Henderson literally thanked everyone. His cadence was if, so that there was often a long pause, and then Thank you. Everyone except Reggie Jackson, who as a star with Oakland had handed out pens with his name on it, rather than sign an autograph. Prefacing the story, which left Jackson choking back tears of laughter, Ricky said, "How about that Reggie Jackson... " He especially thanked the people that brined him into working hard as a youth. Billy Martin was his father-figure manager.
What was so striking in this world of media polish is that both of these guys really have not much more than a public school high school education, Rice from rural South Carolina and Henderson from urban Oakland, California. For both me, their speech was fragmented and broken. Their words seemed unsure and they each stumbled along the way and "started over" again at various points int heir speech. Ricky is famous for his glamor and style and Jim, although he has always been reserved and introverted works as an analyst on NESN and over the past several years.
It was striking to me how big a deal it was by the way these two men were stylistically reduced to their communications dog paddle upon their induction.
Today the media is talking about the reinstatement of Pete Rose. I personally would like to see Rose in the hall of Fame. It is, however, a dress rehearsal for whether or not Barry Bonds will be accepted into the Hall of Fame. If after 20 years banned from the sport for gambling, Rose is still not allowed in, then how can the league admit anyone tied to the use of performance enhancing drugs? If on the other hand, Rose is allowed to enter, then his ascension takes a lot of the media focus and provides the league with a dress rehearsal of how to handle other athletes tainted by breaking of the rules.
