Bored

For what's it worth the rumor is that Brown retired due to family reasons and that the door is open for him to comeback down the road. I still think he had a shot at being serviceable back up catcher. LeCroy is toast, just there to be a warm body in the Spring and at Triple-A Sacramento.

Since I'm on a bit of a 1986 trip right now I figured I'd take a look back at what was going on this week in 1986 in the world of sports with the help of PaperofRecord.com using their Sporting News archive which I did once before with 1994. February 17, 1986 Cover Story: Baseball's Worst Ballpark. Gale-force winds gust through Candlestick Park by day and frigid temperatures set in by night. One Giants official calls it the weather "the worst in baseball in June, July, and August." Fans don't like it any better than players. They're staying away in droves. That's why in baseball is in jeopardy in San Francisco. -Now just a hunch coming off a 100 loss season wasn't helping attendance either but Candlestick Park really was the worst place to watch a baseball game and the Giants came close to moving to St. Petersburg in 1993, and damn that would have been great (for me). The best part of the article was an insert about a Canadian firm was coming up with a "revolutionary idea" of doming already built stadiums with an air-filled balloon type structure. Now that would have been quite the eyesore. Down and Up at Michigan -In the college basketball section there were two articles regarding Michigan State's Scott Skiles and Michigan's Roy Tarpley. One of the articles talks about a player having off the court troubles with a marijuana possession and dui conviction. If you guessed that player was Tarpley, you'd be wrong. Apparently Tarpley's off the court problems weren't public knowledge at this point as he would later be banned from the NBA for multiple drug violations. -There's a little notes section about the old Continental Basketball Association where it notes Albany head coach Phil Jackson has been suspended for two games for "physically confronting" a referee. Wonder what happened to that guy? -In the NBA notes section the Lakers had beaten the Rockets 14 straight games in Houston. The Rockets would stun the defending champs in the Western Conference Finals in five games later that year. -Brief article about rising 20 year old, rising star Mario Lemieux although it more focuses on Wayne Gretzky and whether Lemieux would reach the level of Gretzky. There's a little blurb about how if the Penguins hadn't drafted Lemieux the franchise would have left Pittsburgh. -In the NHL notes section there's a proposed change to the All-Star Game format that would match-up the NHL All-Stars against a touring Soviet national team in a two game series. Other ideas are the Stanley Cup champs vs. All-Stars or Americans vs. Canadians. -A proposed new stadium deal in New York for the Jets that would be built by Donald Trump had fallen through. -Brief commentary about the fallout after the Super Bowl about the drug problems of several members of the New England Patriots. In some team meeting after the Super Bowl the Patriots agreed to drug testing which didn't sit well with union head Gene Upshaw (yes that idiot was already running things back then) and he had this fantastic quote: -Cincinnati Reds had offered Rollie Fingers an non-roster invite to Spring Training on the condition that he shave his mustache. He would end up refusing. -Phillies pitcher Dave Stewart was very close to signing a deal with the Yomiuri Giants but it fell through. Phillies would release him three months later. -There's a few mentions in various parts of the MLB team notes sections talking about team sponsored drug testing but of course the main concern back then was cocaine not steroids.

TV Schedule for the Week of 2/18 - 2/24 MONDAY #12 Georgetown at Providence, 4:00/1:00 PM, ESPN2 Syracuse at #18 Louisville, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN #22 Texas A&M at #7 Texas, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN Gonzaga at San Diego, 11:00/8:00 PM, ESPN2 TUESDAY #14 Purdue at #15 Indiana, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN UNC-Greensboro at Davidson, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 Georgia at Kentucky, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN WEDNESDAY #3 North Carolina at N.C. State, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN #25 Marquette at St. John's, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 #24 Kansas State at Nebraska, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN2 THURSDAY Pittsburgh at #21 Notre Dame, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN Massachusetts at Rhode Island, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 Michigan at Minnesota, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN2 Oregon at USC, 11:00/8:00 pm, FSN FRIDAY Davidson at Winthrop, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 SATURDAY VCU at Akron, 11:00/8:00 AM, ESPN2 #13 Connecticut at Villanova, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN George Mason at Ohio, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, ESPN2 Arkansas at Kentucky, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, CBS* Navy at Army, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, CBS* Iowa at #19 Michigan State, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, ESPN Creighton at Oral Roberts, 3:00 PM/Noon, ESPN2 Oklahoma at #7 Texas, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* Oregon at #6 UCLA, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* #4 Kansas at Oklahoma State, 4:00/1:00 PM, CBS* St. John's at #5 Duke, 4:00/1:00 PM, CBS* #16 Drake at #8 Butler, 5:00/2:00 PM, ESPN2 Arizona State at Washington, 6:00/3:00 PM, FSN #2 Tennessee at #1 Memphis, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN Arizona at #17 Washington State, 10:00/7:00 PM, FSN Kent State at #23 St. Mary's, 11:59/8:59 PM, ESPN2 SUNDAY Syracuse at #21 Notre Dame, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, CBS* Alabama at Auburn, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, CBS* #11 Wisconsin at Ohio State, 4:00 PM/1:00 PM, CBS N.C. State at Virginia, 4:30/1:30 PM, FSN Wake Forest at #3 North Carolina, 6:30/3:30 PM, FSN California at #9 Stanford, 9:00/6:00 PM, FSN

Kevin Kouzmanoff, 3B

*phew* Stanford survives in Tucson, avoiding a second straight late game choke job with the help of a gift call on Brook Lopez that led to the winning free throws but as usual through out the game the Pac-10 officials were awful on both sides.

Since 1995 I have played the computer version of Strat-O-Matic Baseball which might as well be Dungeons & Dragons for baseball geeks. I always order the updated version of the game online but they still send me the mail order form along with some little newsletter. I usually just glance at it and throw it away but something caught my eye this time. SportingNews.com in recent years has run some sort of fantasy baseball version of Strat-O-Matic but I've never been interested in it as it costs $25 a team. Well apparently very soon they will be running a free game that will be based on the 1986 MLB season where you can make up your own team of players from 1986. They are doing in conjunction with their 1986 Take Two promotion where "celebrities" are replaying that season. From what I know of with the Sporting News version of the game the leagues are 12 teams each, you draft 25 man rosters with a salary cap, and play a 162 game season. You don't actually "play" each other as the games are simulated but you can make trades and make line up adjustments during the season. So I pose the question to my three blog readers...would anyone be interested in doing this? The website say it's a limited offer so I have no idea if I'll even be able to create a league but it sounds like an interesting alternative to typical fantasy baseball and best of all it's free. If I get a feeling that there will be enough interest on the board I'll probably create a thread for it in the Sports folder when they starting take sign ups, which will be February 27th.

Since the games are simulated I don't think you'd necessarily need to know how to play Strat-O-Matic, or at least that's what I'm hoping. There's supposed to be some sort of demo availalbe next week for how the draft works so I'll probably mess around with that to see if there is going to be any learning curve in order to be succesful in the league. If it seems like you do need to have some basic knowledge about Strat or if it is something where the players will have to be checking on their teams everyday then I'll pass on it. At this point I just want to gauge if there is enough interest to get 11 other people to sign up for a league.

Brack Project Update Most projections are updated thru Sunday and Tennessee right now is projected as the 4th #1 seed. Last Four In UNLV Syracuse UMass St. Joseph's Last Four Out Oregon Arizona State N.C. State George Mason

Kelly Johnson, 2B

TV Schedule for the Week of 2/11 - 2/17 MONDAY Villanova at #8 Georgetown, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN #3 Kansas at #11 Texas, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN #25 St. Mary's at Santa Clara, 11:00/8:00 PM, ESPN2 TUESDAY #10 Michigan State at Purdue, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN #5 North Carolina at Virginia, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2 Kentucky at #24 Vanderbilt, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN WEDNESDAY Maryland at #2 Duke, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN St. John's at Cincinnati, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 #18 Kansas State at Texas Tech, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN2 THURSDAY N.C. State at Boston College, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN Rutgers at West Virginia, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 Michigan at Iowa, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN Fordham at UMass, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN2 #7 Stanford at Arizona State, 10:30/7:30 PM, FSN FRIDAY #22 Pittsburgh at Marquette, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN SATURDAY #8 Georgetown at Syracuse, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN Virgina Tech at #5 North Carolina, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, CBS #23 Louisville at Providence, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, ESPN Oklahoma State at #16 Texas A&M, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* #7 Stanford at Arizona, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* Arkansas at Mississippi State, 4:00/1:00 PM, ESPN San Diego State at Utah, 4;00/1:00 PM, Versus #11 Texas at Baylor, 6:00/3:00 PM, ESPN Holy Cross at Bucknell, 6:00/3:00 PM, ESPN2 Old Dominion at VCU, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2 #10 Michigan State at #13 Indiana, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN #21 Washington State at Oregon, 9:00/6:00 PM, FSN SUNDAY Ohio State at Michigan, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, CBS #2 Duke at Wake Forest, 7:30/4:30 PM, FSN #6 UCLA at USC, 10:00/7:00 PM, FSN

Tim Lincecum, SP

Today is monumental day...it's My Two Year Blogoversary! My first entry talked about the first ever live sporting event I ever went to, an A's/Red Sox game. Now that I finally have received the 1985 Chicago Bears boxset I can now do write up for the oldest sports memory I have, watching Super Bowl XX. This is the only reason I could ever have to re-watch this snuff film of a football game. Here's the list of the 12 games that are in the set. Week 1 vs. Tampa Bay Week 3 at Minnesota Week 4 vs. Washington Week 5 at Tampa Bay Week 6 at San Francisco Week 7 vs. Green Bay Week 11 at Dallas Week 13 at Miami Week 16 at Detroit Divisional Playoff vs. N.Y. Giants NFC Championship vs. L.A. Rams Super Bowl XX vs. New England January 26, 1986 - Super Bowl XX: Chicago Bears (17-1) vs. New England Patriots (13-5) -Woo hoo, the player introductions are on the disk! Seriously fuck the 2001 "Oh We're a Team!" New England Patriots for ending this tradition. Back in the day they always introduced the NFC offense which seemed inappropriate in this game as the Bears defense really should have been introduced. Judging by the reaction of crowd during the introductions it seemed like their were more Patriots fans at the game. -Coin toss features the previous 17 Super Bowl MVP winners and even Joe Montana showed up this time. Majority of them didn’t seem thrilled to be there. Joe Namath got the biggest reaction and I wonder if a 21 year old Suzy Kolber was watching the game. -Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen are the announcers with Bob Griese making some cameos. Bears Offense QB: Jim McMahon RB: Walter Payton, Matt Suhey WR: Dennis McKinnon, Willie Gault TE: Emery Moorehead C: Jay Hilgenberg G: John Thayer, Mark Bortz T: Keith Van Horne, Jim Covert Patriots Defense DE: Garin Veris, Julius Adams NT: Lester Williams OLB: Andre Tippett, Don Blackmon ILB: Steve Nelson, Larry McGrew CB: Ronnie Lippett, Raymond Clayborn S: Roland James, Fred Marion Patriots Offense QB: Tony Eason RB: Craig James, Tony Collins WR: Stanley Morgan, Stephen Starring TE: Lin Dawson C: Pete Brock G: John Hannah, Ron Wooten T: Brian Holloway, Steve Moore Bears Defense DE: Richard Dent, Dan Hampton DT: Steve McMichael, William Perry OLB: Wilber Marshall, Otis Wilson MLB: Mike Singletary CB: Leslie Frazier, Mike Richardson S: Gary Fencik, Dave Duerson FIRST QUARTER -Walter Payton fumbles on second play of the game and the Patriots recover on the Bears 20. This would be the high point of the game for the Pats. The misery begins for the Pats as tight end Lin Dawson blows out his knee on their first play from scrimmage. Three straight incompletions would lead to a Tony Franklin field goal for the first points off the Bears in the playoffs. -After Don Blackmon drops a possible pick six on the Bears first play of their next possession, McMahon nails Gault for a 43 yard bomb. Their drive stalls near the Patriots 10 after Ronnie Lippett lands a heels over head hit on a McMahon scramble and Kevin Butler ties it up 3-3. What a competitive game we have! -Both teams exchange punts and then the game tilts the Bears way for, well, the rest of the game. Steve “Former Four Horseman” McMichael sacks and forces Tony Eason to fumble, recovered by Dan Hamtpon on the Pats 13. On the next play McMahon completes a drag screen pass to Emery Moorhead and on the play Merlin Olsen insists there was clip by Dennis McKinnon on Blackmon. They show two replays showing Blackmon being hit in the front of his legs which would make it a legal block but Olsen says “Look, right in the back of the legs! You can’t tell me that’s not a clip!” It wasn’t Merlin. Dick Enberg pauses like he wants to disagree but just ignores him and moves on. Olsen continues to rant on about the play a couple of plays later. Sounded like someone had money on the Pats. -William Perry makes his first appearance on offense on 2nd and Goal with a halfback option pass but The Fridge can’t get rid of it and is dropped for a loss. Another Butler field goal makes it 6-3 Bears. New England is hanging tough! -Richard Dent forces a Craig James fumble on the Patriots next play from scrimmage and the Bears again get the ball inside the Pats 15. Two plays later Matt Suhey takes it in to make it 13-3. -Patriots total yards: -19 SECOND QUARTER -After another Patriots punt the Bears easily move through a quickly tiring Patriots defense, mainly behind Matt Suhey. McMahon takes it himself from two and a half yards (video quality suddenly went bad during the play) to make it 20-3 and the rout is on. -Ron Rivera made a tackle on the next kick off and I only mention it because he was at my D.A.R.E. “graduation” in the 5th grade as our “celebrity speaker.” -After another Patriots three and out, Eason gets the hook for Steve Grogan. Eason finished the day 0 for 6 and was sacked three times. Grogan completes a couple of passes on his first possession and the Pats get their first, first down of the game with less than four minutes left in the first half but it doesn’t lead to anything. -Bears make a late march that features a 28 yard completion Ken Margerum to set up another Butler field goal to make it 23-3. Maybe doing an entry on this game was a bad idea as I’ve completely lost interest at this point as I’m sure I did at 7 years old. -Patriots total yards: -19. Grogan allows them to break even for the quarter. THIRD QUARTER -As they recap the first half before the second half kick off Olsen is still bitching about the correct non-clip call on what wasn’t even a crucial play, not that there was any crucial play in a game like this. -Even when things go right for the Patriots it doesn’t pay off. Punter Rich Camarillo gets off an ugly kick that takes a fortunate bounce on the Superdome turf and rolls all the way down to the Bears 4 yard line. But on the Bears first play of the half McMahon hits Gault on another bomb for a 60 yard gain. This would eventually lead to another McMahon touchdown keeper to make it 30-3. -And the slaughter continues as on the Patriots next drive Grogan throws behind his intended receiver Derrick Ramsey, the ball glances off Ramsey's hands and right to Reggie Phillips who takes it for a 28 yard interception return touchdown and a 37-3 lead. -22 years later and I’m starting to feel sorry for the Patriots in this game. Next “drive” Grogan completes a pass to Dedrick Jones near midfield but he is immediately hit by Gary Fenick, fumbles and Wilber Marshall recovers it. It didn’t look like a fumble to me as Jones only appeared to have one foot down before being hit but I can’t remember if the rules for possession were different back then. Instant Replay wasn’t implemented until the following season. -A “Walter” chant starts as everyone wants to see him a score a touchdown in this game but alas that would not happen. After a terrible call on a “completion” to Dennis Gentry where he didn’t even get one foot in bounds, this drive would feature The Fridge’s famous touchdown. I seem to remember reading that later Mike Ditka regretted not having Payton take it in for the score at this point in the game. 44-3. -God dammit there’s still another hour left on the disk, even without commercials. FOURTH QUARTER -Bears did start to call off the dogs a bit towards the end of the 3rd as the Pats finally get a sustained drive but it takes a 4th and Goal touchdown pass to Irving Fryar (who was playing with a laceration on his finger that he got during a fight with his wife a couple of weeks earlier) to get in the endzone, 44-10 Bears. I smell a comeback! -The scoring ends when Henry Waechter sacks Grogan in the endzone for a safety. Bears 46, Patriots 10. -It’s mentioned towards the end of the game that Buddy Ryan has been offered the Philadelphia Eagles head coaching position. -Richard Dent wins the MVP but I have to say he didn’t really standout to me over any other player on the Bears defense during this game but maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention. -The postgame trophy presentation and interviews are on the disk but the video quality isn’t particularly good. -Lord knows why I ever watched another football game again.

I'll take the 49ers.

Adam Dunn, OF OMG I WILL HAVE TOO MANY STRIKEOUTS!!!

I've made it no secret I'm a junkie for original televised footage of classic sporting events. Back in the day when ESPN Classic actually showed classic games I would love watching classic games from the 70's and 80's. I was thrilled when two years ago MLB started releasing complete World Series boxsets of the 1975, 1979, and 1986 World Series which I promptly bought all three and did write ups of all three sets on the blog. Last year two more World Series sets were released, 1977 and 1987 but I have yet to start watching either. Considering how bad the A's will be this season I might finally crack those sets open when looking for alternative things to watch during the baseball season. Both the NBA and NHL have followed suit although I'm not as interested in those sets as I am for baseball and football, but I would pick up the 1987 NBA Finals set if they ever release it as I have fond memories of it as a bandwagon Laker fan when I was younger. There has even been a set of "classic" Notre Dame games released which I did a write up the Cathlolics vs. Convicts game but haven't gotten around to viewing any of other the games. The NFL had been a long time holdout when it comes to airing any classic games, even on their own channel, but last year around the Super Bowl they finally started re-airing original Super Bowl broadcasts which continued this year. Also this past Fall they released a handful of DVD sets and individual DVDs with "classic" games. Their choices so far have been a bit odd. They released three sets of every playoff game from the 1999 Rams, 2000 Ravens, and 2002 Bucs seasons. The '99 Rams set would be kinda interesting as that year's Super Bowl had probably the best finish ever in a Super Bowl but I really have no interest in anything from the last ten years and there's nothing "classic" on either '00 Ravens or '02 Bucs set. They also released the 1980 NFC Championship game between the Eagles and Cowboys. Now that'd be a must have for an Eagles fan but the game was not particularly competitive and why release that game instead of the 1981 NFC Championship featuring "The Catch"? In addition there is a three game set of "classic" Cleveland Browns games (yes I know, what classic Browns games?) but the three games they picked left a lot to be desired. One of the games is a regular season blowout from 1989 against the Steelers and another is a playoff clinching win against the Falcons from 2002. If they swapped out either of those games for their double overtime win in the '86 playoffs against the Jets I would have bought it. Now there were two others that I did decide to pick up, the 1992 AFC Wild Card Game featuring the Bills record comeback against the Oilers and they released an 11 game set of the 1985 Chicago Bears season. I actually haven't received the Bears set yet as I got in on backorder from DeepDiscountDVD.com when it was on sale for only $44 a month ago but should be receiving it any day now. Now there are not any real "classics" on that Bears set but the '85 Bears always held a special place in my childhood because the Bears were the first "it" team for me that you just had to watch and as I've mentioned before my earliest sports memory is watching Super Bowl XX. On the set there is their MNF loss to the Dolphins that ended their undefeated season, which is actually kind of surprising as these sets are of course marketed to the fans of the teams but having that game on the set made it an automatic purchase for me as I don't know if I ever watched the original live game. So here's my complete list of of sports DVDs, that have original games on them: 1975 World Series 1977 World Series 1979 World Series 1986 World Series 1987 World Series Notre Dame Collector's Edition (7 Games) 1992 AFC Wild Card Bills vs. Oilers 1985 Chicago Bears (11 Games) In April MLB will be releasing the 2001 World Series boxset but again I'm not particularly interested in anything from the last decade, especially something that was televised by FOX, so I'm not sure if I'm going to pick that one up even if it was a true classic. Before then in early March there will be another World Series boxset released and, well....there's no fucking way I'm going to buy it.

How's the quality of the '68 Series game on the Busch Stadium set?

It sounds like to me he just stuck around to get win #900 and after that had no real interest in continuing to coach.

Ya it didn't make a whole lot of sense to release 1987 instead of 1991 last year. My only thought at the time was possibly they were only going to focus on the 70's and 80's for now but as I mentioned 2001 is being released in two months so there goes that theory. I hope they release at least one more this year as they only did two World Series boxsets last year along two speicality sets (Cubs and Cal Ripken, neither set looked any good).

TV Schedule for the Week of 2/4 - 2/10 MONDAY Louisville at #16 Marquette, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN Missouri at #4 Kansas, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN Gonzaga at #25 St. Mary's, 11:00/8:00 PM, ESPN2 TUESDAY Michigan at Ohio State, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN Florida at #7 Tennessee, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN #10 Butler at Valparaiso, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN2 WEDNESDAY #19 Connecticut at Syracuse, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN #12 Texas at Oklahoma, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 #2 Duke at #3 North Carolina, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN THURSDAY West Virginia at #1 Pittsburgh, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN Clemson at Virginia, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 #14 Indiana at Illinois, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN #13 Xavier at Saint Louis, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN2 #5 UCLA at #17 Washington State, 10:30/7:30 PM, FSN SATURDAY #16 Marquette at #22 Notre Dame, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN Boston College at #2 Duke, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, CBS Iowa at Minnesota, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, ESPN Southern at Grambling, 2:00/11:00 AM, ESPN2 USC at #17 Washington State, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* #12 Texas at Iowa State, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* Virginia at Wake Forest, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC* Georgia Tech at #19 Connecticut, 4:00/1:00 PM, ESPN Hampton at Delaware State, 4:00/1:00 PM, ESPN2 Oklahoma State at #20 Kansas State, 6:00/3:00 PM, ESPN Hawaii at Nevada, 6:00/3:00 PM, ESPN2 #6 Georgetown at Louisville, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN SUNDAY #14 Indiana at Ohio State, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, CBS Arizona State at Arizona, 2:30 PM/11:30 AM, FSN #5 UCLA at Washington, 4:30/1:30 PM, FSN Clemson at #3 North Carolina, 6:30/3:30 PM, FSN

So Eli Manning joins Joe Montana as the only quarterbacks to lead their team down the field for the winning touchdown in the final minute of a Super Bowl. Didn't see that coming. And Montana will keep his Super Bowl MVP record. Hooray.

HOLY SHIT!

Oh goodie, Wes Welker is going to set the Super Bowl receptions record with two more catches. And now he ties it.

Nah, they'll score on the drive after next with under a minute to go.

For baseball only, here's who I've seen and I'll let the question continue. Reggie Jackson George Brett Nolan Ryan Robin Yount Carlton Fisk Kirby Puckett Dave Winfield Ozzie Smith Eddie Murray Dennis Eckersley Paul Molitor Wade Boggs Ryne Sandberg Tony Gwynn Cal Ripken Goose Gossage The players that have been inducted by the writer's since 1993 that I never saw live were Steve Carlton, Phil Niekro, Mike Schmidt, Don Sutton, Tony Perez, and Gary Carter.

2009: NBC - Tampa 2010: CBS - Miami 2011: FOX - Arlington, TX 2012: NBC