COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — They were a college quarterback from Tennessee, a backup catcher who spent 17 years in the minor leagues, an infielder from a baseball park in the Dominican Republic and a hometown hero from St. Paul, Minnesota.
They came together Sunday afternoon to deliver moving speeches at the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony, laced with plenty of humility and humor.
Manager Jim Leyland recalled walking with his wife to a coffee shop in Siesta Key, Fla., just a few weeks after learning of his Hall of Fame induction.
“Katie, you never dreamed I’d be inducted, did you?,” Leyland said. “Katie said, ‘Jim, you never dreamed it.'”
The estimated crowd of 28,000 cheered.
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“My contributions to our beautiful pastime are nothing compared to the joy it has brought to my life,” Leyland said. “The heart of a little boy and the soul of an old man.”
Third baseman Adrian Beltre, the fifth Dominican player inducted into the Hall of Fame, didn’t think he needed to stress out over his speech and proved that sleep is overrated. He danced late into the night with his wife and friends Saturday, perfectly improvising about a quarter of his Hall of Fame speech.
If Beltre was nervous, Hall of Famer David Ortiz would come offstage to get him coffee and rub his head as Beltre walked to the podium to speak, helping to ease some of the tension, knowing how much Beltre hates having his scalp touched.
“I never relax about it…” Beltre said. “I don’t like it, I don’t love it, but it kind of reminds me of when I was active duty and I was like, ‘OK, let’s go out there and prepare to do our best with our speech.’
“I want people to hang out with me.”
Beltre saw former Seattle Mariners great pitcher Felix Hernandez in the crowd and took the opportunity to poke some fun at himself, saying, “To the guy who calls me ‘The King,’ I had fun playing with you, but I had even more fun playing against you.”
Helton was a starting quarterback at the University of Tennessee, sitting between Heath Schuler, who played five years in the NFL before becoming a U.S. congressman, and professional football/NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. Following in the footsteps of and ahead of those two stars, he realized baseball was the way to go.
Helton still lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, and people on the street still stop him and ask if he is the same man as the great former Volunteers quarterback.
“Yeah,” Helton said, “but I’ve played a little bit of baseball since then.”
Mauer, a local native who spent his entire 15-year career with the Minnesota Twins, got teary as he spoke about his late grandfather, knowing that his parents and other relatives had attended his games 1,215 times at the old Metrodome and Target Field.
“It was tough. There were a lot of emotions going through my mind,” Mauer said after the ceremony. “A lot of people back home know that I recently lost my father and my grandfather a few years ago. They’ve followed me my whole career and I know they were with me today making sure I delivered my speech.”
“I know they were here.”
It seemed like half the people in Twin City were there, with Twins fans making up the majority of the crowd.
“I wanted to be a part of the Twins from Day One,” said Mauer, who joined fellow St. Paul natives Dave Winfield, Jack Morris and Paul Molitor in Cooperstown, “and that feeling never faded in those 18 years.”
Both men spent a lot of time thanking former teammates, managers, scouts and everyone who helped them along the way, but Leyland took it a step further: He singled out longtime coach and minor league roommate Gene Lamont from 1966 in particular. He talked about how special it was for him to have worked with Lamont, and both men were in tears as he spoke.
“We became good friends,” Leyland said. “I have so much respect for him as one of the best baseball players I’ve ever been around. I was so proud to have him there today, and I thought it would be totally unfair not to talk about him.”
Among the crowd were some of the biggest names in baseball, including Gary Sheffield, Justin Morneau, Andy Van Slyke, Charles Johnson, Shawn Green, Felix Hernandez, Nelson Cruz, Joe Nathan, Ian Kinsler, Richie Sexson, Elvis Andrus, Alex Avila, Brian Dozier, Colby Lewis and Mitch Moreland. Also in attendance were former managers Clint Hurdle and Ron Gardenhire, and current and former general managers Dave Dombrowski, Bill Schmidt, Derek Falvey, Thad Levine, Terry Ryan, Jon Daniels, Al Avila and Bill Smith.
Also in attendance were some of Helton’s former high school teammates and his 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 grateful and so happy for the people who traveled all this way,” Helton said. “Some of them waited 16 hours in the airport to get here, or they abandoned the airport, borrowed three cards and drove 12 hours to get here.”
“That means a lot to me.”
While all of the new inductees thanked the legions of fans, Leyland, who led Team USA to a World Baseball Classic victory in 2017, ended his speech eloquently by letting everyone know what the fans mean to the game of baseball.
“No matter which Hall of Famer you’re here to cheer on today or which team you’re rooting for, your presence will always be felt,” Leyland said. “Standing up in the bottom of the ninth inning with the home team leading by one; watching the first game of the World Series on TV and seeing 50,000 fans waving towels, hoping and praying that this is the year they’re going to win; or watching a little boy or girl get their first autograph and rush back to show it to Mommy and Daddy.
“Guys, that’s you guys.
“This is baseball. And this is the Hall of Fame.”
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