Carter, Murray Play Second Fiddle at Hall

A crowd estimated at 18,000, including former president George Bush, saluted the Hall of Fame induction of Gary Carter and Eddie Murray on Sunday, but it was the pinch-hitting of Johnny Bench and ad-libbing of Bob Uecker that seemed to steal the show.

Bench, the Hall of Fame catcher, delivered a more than credible rendition of the Canadian National Anthem when Daniel Rodriguez, the scheduled singer, was unable to reach Cooperstown because of weather conditions.

Then, with an encore in order later in the program, Bench returned to lead the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” while wearing oversized, black-rimmed glasses and imitating Harry Caray, the late Chicago Cub announcer who would lead Wrigley Field crowds in the song during the seventh-inning stretch.

As Bench received cheers on a gray and blustery afternoon, Uecker kept the crowd -- and the 44 returning members of the Hall of Fame who were sitting behind him -- in stitches with an off-the-cuff, typically self-deprecating speech during which the man who once had his own sitcom and has been a frequent guest on the TV talk circuit made light of a five-year, major league catching career that didn’t quite match the careers of Bench and Carter.

In receiving the Ford C. Frick Award for his contributions to baseball broadcasting during 33 years with his hometown Milwaukee Brewers, Uecker deadpanned:

“This is not sour grapes by any means, but I still think I should have gone in [to the Hall] as a player.”

He said he received a $3,000 bonus when he began his baseball career with the then Milwaukee Braves and “that was much more than my dad could really afford.” He also said that the key to catching a knuckleball, which he frequently tried to do while catching Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro, was “waiting for it to stop rolling and then picking it up,” and he recalled the time that his manager, Gene Mauch, called on him to pinch-hit, ordering him to “grab a bat and stop this rally. Of course, he also once told me to go up there without a bat and see if you can get a walk.”

His was a tough act for Carter and Murray to follow but both received warm support while wrestling at times with their emotions and trying to find a way to capture their feelings.

Carter said it was like being “a kid again in a candy store,” and Murray said, “for every kid who is here I wish you could feel what I feel today. It’s unbelievable.”

The usually stoic Murray had a particularly difficult time when introducing members of his family -- “this is tough, you don’t know how much love I have for them,” he said tearfully -- and he paid special tribute to his brother Charlie, who played for the Houston Colt .45s as the oldest of the five Murray brothers, all of whom played professionally.

“Charlie,” he said, “you inspired us all. We all wanted to be like you.”

Amid chants of “Ed-die, Ed-die” from the Baltimore Oriole fans in what Murray called that “nice little sea of black and orange out there,” the former Locke High first baseman credited his former double-A manager, Jimmie Schaffer, for transforming him into a switch hitter, “which was the most important decision of my career.”

Murray also proved himself to be a student of history. In making note of the fact that he was elected to the Hall by the same baseball journalists he had usually shunned during his 21-year career, he said, “When Ted Williams was inducted into the Hall 37 years ago he said he must have earned it because he certainly didn’t win it because of his friendship with the writers. I guess in that way I’m proud to be in his company.”

He went on to explain that since baseball is a team game he was never focused on individual accomplishment and “maybe that’s why I didn’t develop any friendships with the media. I had to do what I had to do to be successful.”

Murray, however, thanked the writers for voting for him and drew a laugh as he couldn’t resist adding, “I’m sure that’s a mark they’ll all remember.”

Like Murray, Carter also had a large entourage in attendance, including the former president, whom he first met when Bush threw out a ceremonial pitch when the catcher was with the New York Mets and who became the first sitting or former president to attend a Cooperstown induction.

Carter began his speech with a short thanks in French, which he learned through Berlitz after being drafted by the Montreal Expos.

He went on to pay homage to scout Bob Zuk for envisioning the catching possibilities in him even though he was primarily an infielder at Fullerton Sunny Hills High and to Montreal instructors Bill McKenzie and Karl Kuehl for helping him with the transition.

He choked up when mentioning the leadership role his older brother, Gordon, played, and the influence of his mother, Inga, who died of leukemia when he was 12 and father, Jim, who died 17 days after Carter learned he had been elected to the Hall.

At 49, the catcher long known as The Kid, concluded his speech by giving thanks and saying, “even though I have the body of an old man now, I’ll always be a kid at heart.”

The program also included presentation of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for contributions to print journalism to Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News. McCoy, 62, is in his 31st year covering the Cincinnati Reds and said in his speech that the award was not about him but about the people who played a role in his career, particularly those who encouraged him to stay on the beat this year even though he lost more than 50% of his vision because of a stroke in January.

Uecker had the last word on that when he followed McCoy’s speech and said, “in deference to Hal McCoy, I was asked to quit many times.”

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Join the Club

Gary Carter became the 14th catcher and Eddie Murray the 19th first baseman inducted into the Hall of Fame. A look at those two positions and the year each player was inducted:

*--* CATCHER Johnny Bench 1989 Yogi Berra 1972 Roger Bresnahan 1945 Roy Campanella 1969 Gary Carter 2003 Mickey Cochrane 1947 Bill Dickey 1954 Buck Ewing 1939 Rick Ferrell 1984 Carlton Fisk 2000 Josh Gibson 1972 Gabby Hartnett 1955 Ernie Lombardi 1986 Ray Schalk 1955 FIRST BASEMEN Cap Anson 1939 Jake Beckley 1971 Jim Bottomley 1974 Dan Brouthers 1945 Orlando Cepeda 1999 Frank Chance 1946 Roger Connor 1976 Jimmie Foxx 1951 Lou Gehrig 1939 Hank Greenberg 1956 George Kelly 1973 Harmon Killebrew 1984 Buck Leonard 1972 Willie McCovey 1986 Johnny Mize 1981 Eddie Murray 2003 Tony Perez 2000 George Sisler 1939 Bill Terry 1954

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