Welcome to Cooperstown

Thank God for Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn. Thank you for not giving in to the 1990's rampage of steroids and giving in to Ultra-Stars like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. These guys are as clean as John Kruk's plate. A weekend in Cooperstown showed all their hard work. People from Baltimore and flippin' San Diego drove their behinds all the way down to NowhereLand. The largest crowd in Hall of Fame history was there. 70,000 people! That's the exact amount of people the Minnesota Wild had in total attendance last year! Ripken is a baseball player's player. He played in 2,632 games in a row, with no breaks. It is an accomplishment if Barry Bonds plays in 32 games in a row. He has the most home runs ever for a shortstop, and sort of revolutionzed that position, at least, until Rey Ordonez came around. Tony Gwynn looked like a huge teddy bear. He looked like Aretha Franklin, but he swang like she sang. Only Ty Cobb had more .300 seasons in a row. He batted .394 in a season. .394! He would have won every batting title in the National League if he hit .394, for 77 years in a row! That batting average is the third highest in the last eighty years. These players kept it clean, and until Jose Canseco says otherwise, the baseball universe thanks them.