Calm After The Storm

- Peter Gammons

The morning after is, in many ways, the most enjoyable time of one of baseball’s greatest weekends. The Hall of Fame hosts a roundtable of the inductees, and every year those honorees are their most relaxed.

They have seen their plaques installed in the Hall and have woken up for the first time with the realization that they are Hall of Famers, like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

In many ways, this year's roundtable had a sense of peace that matched the calm waters of Cooperstown’s Otsego Lake.

Ivan Rodriguez thanked former commissioner Bud Selig for all he did for the game “and our place in it,” reciting that this is the 22nd consecutive year of labor peace. Longtime general manager John Schuerholz joyfully recounted the day in 1993 the Braves acquired Fred McGriff.

No one brought up PEDs to Astros all star first baseman Jeff Bagwell or Rodriguez, whose career began with the Rangers. Hundreds of Astros fans cheered every word that Baggie uttered. No one asked Selig what and when he knew. That time has passed.