SN Conversation: Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson reflects on Cooperstown, discusses Grassroots project

Ryan Fagan

SN Conversation: Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson reflects on Cooperstown, discusses Grassroots project image

Cooperstown is a sacred place for baseball fans. Situated on the picturesque Otsego Lake, the quaint upstate New York village is home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and every July hosts the Hall’s annual induction ceremony, an event that draws baseball fans from across the country. 

For a quarter century, Jeff Idelson has called that special place home. Idelson was hired as the Hall’s director of public relations and promotions in 1994, was promoted to vice president in 1999 and was named the Hall’s president in 2008 — only the sixth person to hold that title in the 80-year history of the organization. In February, though, Idelson announced that he was retiring after the 2019 induction ceremony. 

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He’s not going to spend his time sitting in a rocking chair, though. If anything, his new project — launching Grassroots Baseball with acclaimed baseball photographer Jean Fruth — is even more ambitious than being the Hall president. 

But when you’ve been in baseball’s sacred spot for 25 years, you certainly have stories to tell and memories to reflect upon. Idelson spent time with Sporting News recently for the latest edition of the Sporting News Conversation. 

(Editor's note: The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.) 

SPORTING NEWS: You're only 54 years old and just about everything I’ve read says you’re “retiring” from the Hall. Is “retire” a weird word for you to read? I mean, you're only 54, and you have all these plans going forward? 

IDELSON: Well, it's moving forward to the next step of promoting baseball. Maybe that would've been a different way of explaining it. I spent my professional career promoting the major league game, promoting the history-makers and its tie to American culture. And the natural next step for me was to combine forces with Jean and launch Grassroots Baseball with her, because the idea is just so sound. It allows me now to help to promote the amateur game and the kids level, which is a near and dear to my heart. I’m looking forward to doing it with her. 

SN: Yeah, that's very cool. Do you remember your first trip to Cooperstown? 

IDELSON: My first trip to Cooperstown, believe it or not, was when I interviewed. I did not go there as a kid. I grew up in the Boston area. When you grow up in New England, you tend to go north to the mountains or south to the beaches. My parents and grandparents were all baseball fans, but we never ventured west. So the first time I went to Cooperstown was when I interviewed for my position back in 1994. 

SN: Was that kind of overwhelming, to see everything at the Hall while you're trying to land a job?

IDELSON: It certainly opened my eyes to an aspect of the game that I had not previously been exposed to, which was the history on a global brand level. It was baseball as an entity, not just even the major league game, but how it's played around the world, how it's played at the amateur level, the Negro Leagues, the Women's League. So it opened my eyes and I realized how exciting of an opportunity that would be. 

SN: What's your favorite thing to do in Cooperstown that’s not baseball related? 

IDELSON: Favorite things to do in Cooperstown that’s not baseball-related? Well, there’s a great deal of beauty and splendor that comes with the village, a quaintness. And I'm an avid runner, so I enjoy running. I enjoy golf. Leatherstocking Golf Course there is one of the preeminent golf courses in the country. That’s attached to the Otesaga hotel. And just to enjoy the restaurants and the walkability that Cooperstown offers. 

SN: Do you do runs around the lake? Maybe not quite that far? 

IDELSON: Well, the length around the lake is just about a marathon. So much like how Jean and I are handling the Route 66 trip, I would run around the lake in chunks. 

SN: I've been up there a couple of times, and that lake is just stunning. I went there for the first time about seven years ago, with my brother Luke, just the two of us. And I've had a Hall vote for three years now, so the first induction ceremony for the class that I voted for, I wasn’t going to miss that.

IDELSON: Which one was that? 

SN: The Tim Raines group.

IDELSON: Oh, great. Wasn’t that awesome?

SN: Oh, my gosh. It was so cool. Selfishly, and I know this is bad, but I was almost hoping he wouldn't get in the year before, so I could be part of the group that voted Tim Raines into the Hall of Fame. 

IDELSON: That gave you a little self-satisfaction?

SN: Yeah, that was cool to be part of that vote. He's a guy that definitely deserved to be in. So you've been at the Hall for 25 years. How many times did you go down into the archives, where you keep all the extra pieces, and just kind of look around? A weekly basis? Monthly? Every day?

IDELSON: Even just walking through the museum never got lost on me, never gets old. The opportunity to learn something new, to see something new, to realize the history you’re immersed in is great. And then, sure, to have the keys to the secret closet, to have the keys to the archives and be able to spend some time really immersed in the depths of the collection, it transports you back in time. My favorite memories are taking players into the archives. Ichiro Suzuki has been seven times to Cooperstown, and every time he visits, it's always under the radar. But he wants to learn a new aspect of the collection. And back in 2001, when he wanted to see the art collection, of all things. A lot of people don't realize what a renaissance man Ichiro really is. But the opportunity to take players, the Hall of Famers, to take family members to see relics that their family used, and just see the joy it brings, is something that never gets old. 

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SN: Even though these guys are superstars and Hall of Famers, are they kind of like kids again when they go back and see stuff the Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb and all these people used? 

IDELSON: Oh, absolutely. Wade Boggs, for instance, seeing a Nellie Fox-model glove that he had as a kid and saying, “My Gosh, my dad had one of these. My dad helped me get one of these gloves!” Or Phil Rizutto seeing his own gloves. My first day of the Hall of Fame was when Phil was inducted, and seeing him reunited with a glove that he had brought to the cobbler over and over to stitch because it would have holes in, and explaining that to me and the memories that it brought him? There's nothing more poignant than having a player talk about his own equipment and what it meant to him. 

SN: Yeah, that's pretty cool. So let me ask you this: What’s your favorite part of that weekend that's not part of the public's experience? Not the parade and not the ceremony, but some behind-the-scenes piece that you get to experience? 

IDELSON: The interaction among the Hall of Famers who haven't seen each other for quite some time. Perhaps Cooperstown is the only time over the course of a year that they all get together in an environment like that. And to see them, to be a fly on the wall and hear them share stories of yesteryear — the home runs get a little longer and the pitches get a little faster. But as the sport remains as time marches on, those memories remain timeless to them. 

SN: And the lobby?

IDELSON: The lobby at the Otesaga Hotel, I mean, it’s almost like you’re in a film. The stars are everywhere, and who are you going to see next? I remember Johnny Bench telling me the story about how he brought his dad for his induction, and his dad wanted to meet everybody. The day he gets there, he runs into Ted Williams and he says, “Ted, I'd like to introduce you my dad,” and Ted says, “I've already met your dad.” And he goes into the lobby and sees Stan Musial and says, “Stan, I want you to meet my dad.” And he said, “I've already met your dad.” The reality is, his dad was as excited, if not more so than Johnny, and they were able to share that indelible moment. 

SN: That's really cool. You started your baseball career as a vendor in Fenway, right? 

IDELSON: Yeah, that’s right. I was a vendor of Fenway Park when I was in middle school and high school and college, a total of five years. 

SN: So did you sell everything in those five years or did you have a specialty? 

IDELSON: No. I mean, you start on the bottom rung. And when you start on the bottom rung, you get those funnels that held popcorn and like a third of it would blow out while you were in the stands. If you were lucky, you got to sell ice cream on a warm day or hot dogs on a cold day, but that was rare. You had to work your way up. 

SN: What's the top of the Fenway vendor food chain? 

IDELSON: The top of that food chain is actually game-day programs. You make the most money, with hot dogs in second. 

SN: Part of your job while you’ve been in Cooperstown was acquiring artifacts, right? 

IDELSON: Yes. 

SN: What are some of the older items you acquired that you were very, very excited to make part of the collection. 

IDELSON: A couple of items were poignant ones for me. I spent a lot of time working with Arlene Howard, who's Elston Howard's widow, and talking to her about how important I thought it was that Elston be represented in Cooperstown as the first African-American to play for the Yankees. It took some time to work with her, and eventually she was proud to send his uniform to Cooperstown. As someone who worked for the Yankees and certainly appreciates how this sport was a leader in desegregation, having Elston Howard’s uniform on display, I thought, called great attention to that and was an important relic to have in Cooperstown, to call attention to his career. That, and maybe talking to Dutchie Carry about getting Harry Caray's glasses after he passed away. When you think of Harry Caray, you think of those gigantic glasses that he wore.

SN: Oh, yeah. 

IDELSON: They were as much of his brand as the signature calls. So now, forever, when people are in our media section, they can remember fondly when Harry Caray wore his glasses when making his great calls. 

SN: Do you remember how you approached that conversation? Just curious. 

IDELSON: I'd had a relationship with Dutchie, and I was just reaching out to her and mourning Harry’s loss, and I just flat out asked. I thought it would be a great way for him to be remembered in Cooperstown. And I asked if that might be something we could get. And the third thing, later in life, was one of Stan Musial’s harmonicas, since he was identified greatly for harmonica playing. 

SN: Yes! As someone who grew up in St. Louis, I know all about Stan and his harmonica. Iconic. So you've got this grassroots thing going, and I’m guessing you have thoughts and ideas for other things you'll do down the road. Is that right? 

IDELSON: With Grassroots, our plan is to grow Grassroots Baseball well beyond Route 66. This is just the first step. The idea, in speaking with Jean, would be to maybe look outside the country for our next endeavor. But right now we're focused on launching along Route 66, between here in California and those states and seeing how we can help grow the game in that area. And then eventually outside of the U.S. 

SN: What are you most looking forward to about this experience? 

IDELSON: What I'm most looking forward to is seeing the impact that we can have on kids' lives. I always find that really rewarding, when you are able to reach kids. We have a number of Hall of Famers and former major leaguers who want to work with us and help us to deliver that message. If we can make a difference in some of these kids' lives, then that’s going to our mission with Grassroots Baseball, which is to grow the game. 

SN: What is it about Jean and her talent, her photography, that stands out to you, that makes her so special? 

IDELSON: Well, Jean is one of the preeminent photographers and her mastery of covering kids, and photographing kids and shooting the cultures from where they come from, her images tell stories. She really leaves you with a firm understanding and a feeling of what it's like in a community. And she has a great way about her, in terms of interacting with the subjects that allows her to get the best of the best in her imagery. 

Ryan Fagan

Ryan Fagan Photo

Ryan Fagan, the national MLB writer for The Sporting News, has been a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2016. He also dabbles in college hoops and other sports. And, yeah, he has way too many junk wax baseball cards.