Baseball’s Hall of Fame isn’t just an idea or a goal. It’s a place. Players are so busy trying to gain entry with their performances that they often forget it’s a building with bricks and people and memories.
So it’s fun to watch wide-eyed inductees take in their surroundings during induction week in Cooperstown, N.Y. Is that the elusive Sandy Koufax standing there? Yes, it is. And over there, not far from a flesh-and-blood Willie Mays, is the jersey Babe Ruth wore the day the Yankees retired his number. And, yes, that’s Pete Rose down the street, autographing anything and everything for money while he continues to knock on a door that won’t open for him.