one of my favorite annual pasadena events took place yesterday afternoon at the public library - the annual shrine of the eternals election day, hosted by the baseball reliquary. this year's class of inductees was sports writer roger angell, former player pete rose, and former player and manager casey stengel. unfortunately none of these esteemed gentlemen were there to accept their award in person (angell and rose with prior commitments, while stengel passed away several years ago), however that did not stop the gathered crowd from having a wonderful time.
as usual this event was very well attended and filled with memorable moments. i think i could have spent all day listening to the baseball stories that were shared.among my personal highlights...
- the star spangled banner and take me out to the ballgame were performed by award winning whistler, carole anne kaufman
- hearing baseball stories of a cleveland indians fan from sister mary assumpta (photo on right) and tasting her "nun better" cookies
- seeing stengel's neice, toni mollett, hold up the former manager's shoes and place them on the stage to symbolize that he was here with us (photo at top of page)
- hearing stories of life as a major leaguer from pete rose's friend, greg goossen including a humorous moment about breaking curfew and meeting his manager (casey stengel!) on the elevator
not sure why blogger didn't publish this at my normal 12:01am time. for some reason, recent posts have been saving as drafts instead of scheduled posts. sorry faithful followers for the late state of this blog!
3 comments:
Pete Rose in the "hall of fame?" Never!! Love the baseball stuff, seriously.
You're right, Pete will never make Cooperstown. But, he exemplified all out hustle for a generation of kids. He was, after all, Charlie Hustle. The head first dives were classics that made for great photos -- as a kid I had one taped on my wall. I understand why Pete's not in the Hall, but at the same time the way he played the game deserves to be remembered. What a sad story there.
The presenters pointed out the irony that people who have broken the rules such as McGwire and Sosa will still be on the ballot, however Pete will not.
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