Right now I'm at a Mohawk-owned farm and bed and breakfast in upstate New York, site of Alison's Mohawk language school where's she's been learning the Mohawk language during the month of July.

This also happens to be about 45 minutes northeast (by car) from Cooperstown, New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and site of the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony last Sunday.  Being so close, it was an easy decision to try to attend the ceremony in person, especially since Rickey Henderson was one of the three men inducted  (the others were Jim Rice and Joe Gordon ).  I will say more about Rickey later.

The induction ceremony was actually held at the Clark Sports Center, about a mile away from the Hall of Fame itself, on a vast grassy field that was described as offering "limitless seating."  This proved to be true, as an estimated 21,000 people attended, and there was still plenty of room on the field for many more.

The inductees sat on a stage, underneath a big white open-air Circe du Soleil-type tent, an impressive structure for its enormity and for its smooth, semi-glossy exterior that resembled taughtly-stretched skin.  Up on the stage, seated next to Rickey, Jim, and Joe Gordon's daughter (Joe was admitted post-humously), were 50 current Hall of Famers (HOFs) and officals.  The HOFs included Rollie Fingers, Reggie Jackson, Willie  Mays, Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt, Carl Yazstremski, Billy Williams, Tony Gwynn, Sandy Koufax, Gaylord Perry, etc.  Pretty cool seeing them in person, albeit from a distance.

Several hundred folding chairs had been set out directly in front of the stage for relatives of the inductees and HOFs, and for people who were Hall of Fame "members," those that paid a membership fee to get percs like free admittance to the Hall of Fame museum, and of course, preferred seating to the induction ceremony

These seats were encircled by a 4-foot high green slat fence, cordoning off the area, admittance being gained by showing a membership ID badge.  It was behind the green fence that the rest of us (the bleacher bums) sat, on the grass or on lawn chairs if you were informed enough or smart enough to bring one. A big video screen was set up stage right, which gave a decent view of the speaker's podium and center stage for those who were seated far away on the grass. 

Fortunately, having been given a tip from my cousin-in-law who lives on the outskirts of Cooperstown, I had deposited my lawn chair the day before the ceremony, thus reserving a great spot-- just behind the green fence.  If the stage were home plate, I was in the first row of the right field bleachers.

It was great to hear Rickey talk.  Just before his speech they showed a brief video about his career that included clips of him in action, and interviews of him and other ball players sharing stories about Rickey.  Then Rickey walked up to the podium.  He told us how much he loved the game.  He thanked all the people he needed to thank-- his wife, his three daughters, his mom, his coaches.  He thanked his youth league coach who lured him into playing baseball by picking him up for practice with hot chocolate and doughnuts in hand.  He talked about the his high school counselor who convinced him to play baseball by telling him she'd pay him a quarter for every hit he got, every base he stole, and every run he scored.  By the tenth game, he had a whole bunch of everything.  "For a kid, that was good money," he said.

He talked about being a kid, waiting outside the Coliseum parking lot where the ball players parked their cars, and he'd ask Reggie Jackson for his autograph.  Reggie never gave him his autograph, but a pen inscribed with his autograph instead.  That got a big laugh.


He thanked Charley Finley and his mule for giving him a chance, and he spoke of how much Billy Martin taught him.  He talked about, as a kid from the inner city, how playing in his home town, in the Oakland Coliseum, was a dream come true for him.  He said Dave Stewart was his best friend when they played together for the A's.

Towards the end, he said his greatest hero was Muhammad  Ali.  "Muhammad Ali said 'I am the greatest,'" Rickey said.  "And now, being in the Hall of Fame, I can say that I am with the greatest ball players of all time."