Summoning equal amounts courage and strength, Brandy Halladay bravely stepped onto the stage in an upstate New York field on Sunday afternoon in front of dozens of baseball Hall of Famers and tens of thousands of well-wishers and delivered a stirring speech in place of her late husband, Roy Halladay.
Her husband, the tall, dominating right-handed pitcher who had a brilliant career for the Blue Jays and Phillies, died in a single-person plane crash in November 2017. In January 2019, the Hall of Fame announced that Halladay had received 85.4 percent of the 425 votes cast by eligible BBWAA members and would be part of the Hall’s class of 2019.
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In Roy’s absence, the traditional induction-day acceptance speech fell to Brandy.
“Anybody who thinks baseball truly isn’t a family has never been involved in baseball,” Brandy Halladay said, fighting back tears as she talked of the warm welcome that she and her boys, Braden and Ryan, had received during their time in Cooperstown. Her speech was the most unforgettable moment in an all-around wonderful induction ceremony weekend.
👏👏👏
— Sporting News MLB (@sn_mlb) July 21, 2019
Brandy Halladay, wife of the late Roy Halladay, receives a standing ovation ahead of her speech at the @baseballhall.
pic.twitter.com/RhZyklul2K
That moment deserved to own the baseball world. Instead, there were eight MLB games happening, with two others in a weather delay.
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony — and the entire weekend of events — should be on every baseball fan’s bucket list, especially if/when one of your favorite players is among the inductees. It’s a celebration of the best players in baseball history — and not just of the players in that year’s class, but a celebration with the previously elected stars who return to Cooperstown in droves to welcome the newbies and reminisce about the good times.
That weekend-long celebration — including the must-see Parade of Legends on Saturday — culminates with the induction ceremony. A celebration like that should be a stand-alone event in the baseball world. It shouldn’t have to share the stage with eight games in a season that stretches six months and includes 162 games for every team.
So let’s say MLB and the Hall of Fame — remember, the Hall is an independent organization, not owned or operated by MLB — decide to get together and figure out a way to make this happen. What are the options? Let’s take a look at a couple of possibilities, with the pros and cons of each.
Extend the All-Star break
The idea: Baseball is already taking a bit of a break, right? Why not throw the Hall’s annual celebration in with the current year’s celebration?
Why it works: This was an idea bandied about often on Twitter on Sunday, in response to my original tweet and tweets by other like-minded baseball writers. And from a fan’s TV viewing perspective, it makes a lot of sense. The grind of the regular season has pressed pause, so why not add this to the mix? Make it a full week of all-around baseball celebration.
This year, the All-Star Game was on Tuesday, July 9. No games were played Wednesday, and only one game happened Thursday (Astros-Rangers). So why not have the Parade of Legends on Wednesday and the Induction Ceremony on Thursday afternoon?
Why it doesn’t: Here’s the thing to remember, and it applies to most of these options. If you’ve been to Cooperstown for an induction weekend, you understand what that weekend of tourism means to the village and the local businesses. Amazing amounts of money flow into the economy, and the people who run the Hall are very cognizant of that. They live in Cooperstown, and they know the locals who depend on that weekend. And though this might sound harsh, they are not going to willingly share their week with a similar event.
Along with that, moving Cooperstown’s induction weekend (Friday through Sunday) to a mid-week event (Tuesday through Thursday) would be a huge downgrade for families that want to make the trip but would suddenly have to use two or three vacation days instead of zero or one to make the journey.
Also, there’s this: A lot of the same Hall of Famers who come to Cooperstown annually are regulars at the All-Star Game, too. Same thing with MLB executives and others. The logistics of getting everyone from the All-Star events (a location that changes every year) to the picturesque-but-not-exactly-convenient village of Cooperstown would be a challenge.
Press pause on the regular season
The idea: For a second time in a six-month schedule, take a quick break from the regular season. Remember Brandy Halladay’s remark about baseball being family? Think about how many people in that baseball family who played with or coached Halladay would have loved to be in Cooperstown to celebrate with Brandy and Braden and Ryan but are still active in the game. They can’t get leave their teams to travel to the ceremony. Mariano Rivera last played with the 2013 Yankees; several of his teammates from that club — including CC Sabathia, Robinson Cano, Brett Gardner and David Robertson — are still playing, so there’s no chance they could make the trip.
But if baseball took a two-day break for a weekend? That celebration could actually be attended by the people who helped influence the careers of the players being inducted.
Why it works: In a vacuum, this would be awesome. Give everyone time to travel to Cooperstown to celebrate the best of baseball and the history of the sport. Expand the events and offerings. Really blow out the celebration. I’m giddy just thinking of the idea.
Why it doesn’t: Unfortunately, there are lots of problems with this theoretically perfect scenario. Here are a couple, starting with this: When would you schedule the event? The All-Star Game is going to remain in July, of course (it’s the Midsummer Classic, after all). So do you take the break in late May/early June? Late August? Neither seems ideal. And if the goal is to give Cooperstown the weekend for tourism, then you also have to consider that owners aren’t going to be thrilled at the idea of giving up a weekend of home games/revenue. The World Series already regularly pushes to the end of October, and adding two or three more off days to the schedule would pretty much guarantee November baseball every year.
As great as this would be, in theory, I'm not sure it's worth the massive effort it would require.
Move it to the offseason
The idea: To avoid competing with regular-season games, move the induction weekend to the offseason or during spring training. Bonus: It would give baseball another high-profile event to keep the sport in the news cycle.
Why it works: No regular-season competition, which is nice. The NBA and NFL both have their ceremonies in the run-up to the regular season.
Why it doesn’t: Upstate New York isn’t exactly the ideal place for a large outdoor gathering in the winter or early spring. The average high temperature in Cooperstown in February is 33 degrees, and it’s only up to 41 in March. And each month has an average of 15 inches of snow, which is not what you want. And because the Hall is an independent organization, there’s zero chance of moving the ceremony to anywhere other than Cooperstown.
And there’s this, too: The BBWAA voters have until Dec. 31 to turn in their ballots, and the results are announced a few weeks later. Trying to coordinate everything logistically to make a ceremony happen in February or March would be nearly impossible. The vote deadlines would have to be moved up by a couple of months, which would be a pain.
But mostly, you don’t want your outdoor ceremony blanketed by snow.
Push back game times
The idea: The induction ceremony this year started at 1:30 pm ET, and lasted a little longer than normal because of the larger-than-normal class of inductees (Halladay, Mariano Rivera, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, Lee Smith and Harold Baines). Give the ceremony three hours and don’t start any baseball games until 4:30 pm. Or move the ceremony up to noon and start the games at 3 pm.
Why it works: As you've seen, there aren't any perfect options out there, and maybe that's why we're still in this same situation. This is the most realistic option, with the fewest moving pieces. It accomplishes the goal of allowing the eyes of the baseball world — the fans, players and coaches — to focus on the induction ceremony without games happening.
Why it doesn’t: Teams schedule Sunday day games because that’s getaway day — the last game of a series, with teams getting to the airport as soon as possible to travel to their next destination. Pushing games in the Eastern (and Central) time zones back three (or two) hours takes away extra hours of rest after arriving in a new city, and those are treasured hours for players and coaches. Compared with the other logistical nightmares and challenges, though, that seems like a little ask.
