Special Article
Sharing The Heritage
Robert Fobian, Editor – Blue Crew News
I’ve been to The Hall three times in my life and I hope to go three hundred more times. My first visit was in 1983 and the thing I remember about it most was…the Plaque Gallery. The vibe of the history and the stories of those enshrined there and on display in that gallery is very potent. I had to look it up but, in 1983 there were 184 plaques. Now, in 2025, there are 351! (Hall of Fame Trivia: How many umpires have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame? The answer appears below…)
Every time I visit The Hall, I read through all the plaques chronologically and when you go, I encourage you to do so the same. The other thing I remember about that first visit was going down the street to Doubleday Field and they had a cage set up with a radar gun! And for a few bucks you could step in there, let your fastball rip and they would give you a signed and dated certificate. I was really feeling it that day, I had a good warmup…and I smoked it in there at 47 mph. Hey! I was 12! And I was a catcher, man! (By the way, if anybody knows who does the assigning at Doubleday Field, please let me know and if I get a game slot you will receive a nice steak dinner from me for your trouble.)
My next trip to The Hall came last year…2024, 41 years later. Wow! It all looked so fresh! And it’s bigger now because in 1993 they purchased the YMCA building next door and annexed it and they’ve added a theatre! Ron Adamczyk and I were up at Cooperstown All-Star Village working some games for the week.
And my best memories from that visit were seeing the Babe Ruth exhibit. I’m no Yankee fan and yet, the universal appeal of The Babe cannot be denied. It felt as though Ruth himself was going to be around the next bend as we made our way around his exhibit. I also enjoyed seeing a small display that illustrated and explained the history and details of the Tommy John procedure. Tommy had his eponymous procedure on September 25, 1974. I remembered hearing about the surgery in the late 70s as I began to absorb the game more fully, but never really knew much about it.
Which brings us to this year’s visit in 2025. Again, Adamczyk and I were up at All-Star Village working games but, this time due to scheduling Ron had games and I had the morning and afternoon off so, I grabbed another umpire from one of our crews whom we met last year, Zachary Frattaroli. Now, you have to know that when you’re up at The Hall in the summertime, you’re fighting for access to the museum with all of the youth baseball teams, coaches and families playing games at both All-Star Village and Cooperstown Dreams Park. It’s rather unfortunate seeing so many of the kids really just rush through The Hall, with their ultimate goal being “the gift shop…to get stuff!” In their defense, that gift shop at The Hall is next level and a dangerous place for even a casual baseball fan.
So, there Zachary and I were…making our way through The Hall, talking baseball, talking umpiring when I wondered out loud, “What is the greatest defensive play you have ever seen in an MLB game?” We talked about Willie May’s over the shoulder catch, Ken Griffey, Jr.’s carbon copy of Willie Mays’ over the shoulder the catch (right down to the jersey, they both wore #24!), Bo Jackson throwing out Harold Reynolds at the plate on a play where Harold was trying to score from first base on a ball hit off the wall, Ichiro throwing out Terrence Long from right field trying to go first to third and then I settled on The Jeter Flip. Zachary, the Yankee fan that he is, thought about it for a moment, smiled and said, “Yeah…Jeter’s flip for sure.”
As we are finishing this discussion, we are walking by an enormous television screen which is showing various baseball highlights at random. We stopped and watched a few and then I noticed there is a scroll bar to the side of the screen and you can view the list of plays ordered chronologically and select one to play and I said, “Hey, I wonder if they have the Jeter play?” Sure enough, they did! So, I pushed the button which placed the video in the queue and we waited for the current play to finish. Just then, a youth team of players and their coach walked towards the television. Several of them were wearing Yankees gear. As they approached I said, “Hey guys…so, some of you are Yankees fans?” And a few of them said, “Yeah…we like the Yankees.”
“Cool…”, I said. “Have any of you guys seen or heard about Derek Jeter’s famous flip play to get Jeremy Giambi of the A’s out at home plate?”
Now, to fully set the stage here…keep in mind, these are 12 year olds. This flip play was from the 2001 ALDS and Jeter retired in 2014, a year after these kids were born! Hey! If you’re going to be a fan of a team, you’ve got to know that team’s history even prior to your own birth, right?
So, a kid who was a dead ringer for “Mike Engelbert”, the catcher on the Bad News Bears (1976) says, rolling his eyes, “Yesssssssssss…yes…we’ve ALL seen the Jeter flip play…”
One of his teammates with a confused look said, “No, sir…sorry, he’s the biggest Yankee fan on our team (referring to “Engelbert”) but, I haven’t seen that play…” and then several more chimed in and said they knew Jeter, of course, but they didn’t know about the play.
So, I simply shrugged and said pointing at the screen, “Ok, well…I have it queued up here on this screen. It’s going to play when this play is over.” And then, brothers…I simply stepped back and watched the magic happen!
Oh, I didn’t watch the clip…no! I’d seen it many, many times. No, I watched…the kids. (I wish I had taken a video of them…) The play starts on the screen and they’re all watching wide eyed, not really sure what they are watching or what they should be watching or what’s about to happen. “Whoa!”, one of them shouts, “…what is Jeter doing!?!? He’s the shortstop! What the…” and then there’s this moment of silence, followed by…
“Oh…he’s out…he’s so out…”, one gasped.
And then…mayhem…bedlam…as Howard Cosell might have said…the un-MITIGATED pande-MONIUM. The kids were going totally bonkers. Jumping up and down as if one of the greatest defensive plays in the history of the game was happening right before their very eyes in real time on live TV. Holding onto their caps, slapping each other on the backs, laughing and cheering. Their Brooklyn accents cutting through it all, “Ohhhhhhhh! Tommy! Tommy! Tommy? Tommy, did you see that?!?! Did you see that, Tommy?!?!”
“Oh my gahd, Bobby! Bobby! That play right there?!?! I’ve never seen that before! Who makes that play?!?! Who!?!?! Who makes a play like THAT?!?!”
“Anthony…”, another chimes in calmly, fully restrained now, “…Derek freakin’ Jeter…Derek Jeter makes that play.”
“I’ll tell you who else is making that play, Anthony…”, intones yet another. “Me…I’m making that play.” And there’s just this totally justified roar of disapproval that you would expect for someone making a claim like that.
“Pat, you got a nice glove and arm…and you? You are not making that play, Pat.”
We quietly slink away from this moment into the shadows, content at what we’ve done. Content with what we’ve shared. The kids seeing another group of kids approaching the television queue it up again for them. “Hey…hey…you guys…do you want to see the greatest play by the greatest shortstop ever?”
One kid has an Orioles cap on, “Uh yeah…do they show Cal Ripken, Jr. on that thing?”
The Brooklyn cacophonous roar of disapproval rises up again, “Nooooooo! No! Not…Cal…Ripken, Jr…we’re talking Derek Jeter here…maybe you’ve heard of him.”
Instantly, I found myself in the Mean Joe Green Coca-Cola ad from 1979 as one of the kids said from the light to me in the shadows, “Hey mister…that was the greatest…thanks.”
I just smiled and waved and said, “You’re welcome.” And then The Hall got very dusty right at that moment. It really surprised me. You’d think they could keep that place clean…
Derek Jeter makes “The Flip” to nab Giambi at the plate in the 2001 ALDS
The 10 umpires inducted into The Hall are: Tommy Connolly, Bill Klem, Billy Evans, Cal Hubbard, Al Barlick, Bill McGowan, Doug Harvey, Hank O’Day, Nestor Chylak and Eric Gregg.
Table of Contents
Issue #14 – September 15, 2025
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