“I think it’s going to be a lot of feelings of excitement for him and for his family,” Carpenter said this past week by phone. “I also think it’s going to bring a little closure for everyone, too. He was a special guy who had a special career and did a lot of special things, and this the last of the great things a player can do.”
With Carpenter in the audience, the late “Doc” Halladay will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday alongside five other legends: Mariano Rivera, the first player ever to be elected unanimously, and Lee Smith, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, and Harold Baines.