Back from Cooperstown

Back from one of the most unforgettable times in sports — the 2007 Hall of Fame Induction Weekend. Wow. Words can’t describe that one. Record 75K fans, a (cleaned up) Woodstock atmosphere, 55 living Hall of Famers on the same stage (most ever in one place), etc. After writing all those articles including our Induction mainbar on Sunday for MLB.com and BaseballHall.org, I thought it was appropriate to write about the memories we’ll take away from Cooperstown. Right at the top of my own list was walking out of the Museum late Saturday night after the private reception for Hall of Famers — and seeing
Cal Ripken signing autographs for the mob still packed on both sides of Main Street behind barricades after the earlier Red Carpet Parade. Fans on the other side would chant, "Please, Cal!" and he would accommodate them, and he wound up staying out there signing items until past midnight, despite a looming speech the next day. I got beside him and took a bunch of pictures (like these) for our sites, and I asked "Does this bring back memories for you?" Cal said, "Yes. Pretty wild." It made you think of the 2,131 victory lap. It made you think of all those seasons when he would set up at a certain spot and sign every last autograph. This impromptu Night Before The Induction Autographathon is my lasting memory from maybe the greatest weekend I have seen in 2 1/2 decades around pro sports.

Now that I’m back, I just saw something that I think pretty much says it all.

Click here and then where you see Sights and Sounds, click the first video link to view the full Hall of Fame broadcast. Go to the 1:28.21 timestamp on the media player. It’s the part where Cal is acknowledging his children, Rachel and Ryan. As the camera shows the children, look closely at the row right behind them. That’s John Travolta and Kelly Preston. I was wiping away tears as well, but wow, that was something else. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Travolta do that in any movie role. The 2007 Hall of Fame class. Tony and Cal. Like none other. . . .

Welcome back to our friend Tiff over at Party Like It’s 1982. We see that she stuck with her MLBlog title even after her beloved Redbirds ended their franchise-longest world championship drought last October. Now it looks like Brewers fans are the one partying like it’s 1982, though. Maybe you noticed that MLBlogger Geoff Jenkins just whacked that big walk-off homer Tuesday night to beat the Mets in Tom Glavine’s 300-win bid and in a possible postseason matchup. . . .

So, has everyone posted their Trading Deadline wrapup blogs? . . .

Thanks to our friend Alyssa Milano for a superhuman blogging effort. How much time do you spend on your posts? I told her how much we appreciate that kind of dedication to MLBlogs, and she emailed back, "Four hours!" You can tell, and take a look if you haven’t already. It’s funny when you think back to some initial skepticism about whether she really does her own blogging, and now you can see that she spent four hours working on that post just for fans. Pretty cool, and one reason why Entertainment Weekly says it’s the best celebrity blog out there. Right here at MLBlogs!