Anyone heading to Cooperstown, N.Y., for this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame inductions should bring plenty of drinks and snacks as well as the comfiest chair they can carry, because Sunday’s festivities may take quite a while. With five men—Mariano Rivera, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, Lee Smith and Harold Baines—joining the Hall along with the deceased Roy Halladay, the stage will be crowded, and the afternoon will feature plenty of speeches. That’s nothing new: In the last six years, the Hall has been cranking out bronze plaques, swelling its ranks by 29 (20 via the BBWAA ballot, the rest through the era-based Veterans Committees), or as many as had been added in the entire decade prior, excluding the 17 Negro Leaguers who were mass inducted in 2006.
Baseball Hall of Fame Inductions Are Heading for a Bleak Period
