The Hall brought the celebration, but Mother Nature brought the rain.
Mother Nature won in a first-inning walk off.
The National Baseball Hall and Fame and Museum honored the military Saturday, May 23, as part a special Classic Game. However, a steady rain that began Saturday morning made Doubleday Field unplayable by early in the game.
Team Stars – led by Hall of Famers Wade Boggs, Todd Helton, Tony LaRussa and Jack Morris – led after a half inning, 1-0, when Nick Ahmed scored on an RBI groundout by Curtis Pride.
Team Stripes – led by Hall of Famers Rollie Fingers, Fergie Jenkins and Scott Rolen – came back in the bottom half of the inning with RBI by Daniel Murphy and Kevin Mench for a 2-1 final.
The hit by Murphy, a former New York Met infielder, drew one of the big cheers from the several hundred fans who withstood the rain.
Another came in the home run derby when Jonny Gomes topped Josh Reddick in a one-swing swing-off for the Home Run Derby title.
Gomes hit a homer to left field with his one swing.
“I didn’t come all the way out here to get second,” Gomes said. “Let’s be completely honest, going heads up with a guy I helped groom in Josh Reddick, I knew I had it in the bag. One swing, one homer there in the finals. I hit it.”
Gomes said he was going to enlist in the Marines after high school but getting drafted in baseball changed his career path.
“Back in June of 2001, I enrolled into the service and was on my way out to the Marines,” Gomes said. “I ended up getting taken in the 18th round by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. So, you talk about a switch going from throwing grenades to throwing baseballs.
“I’m a real big supporter of the military,” he continued. “Love this country. Happy birthday, America!”
Gomes, a left fielder from California, played 13 seasons in the majors, with stops in Tampa, Cincinnati, Oakland, Boston and Kansas City. He had a career average of .242 with 162 homers, 835 hits and 526 RBI. He won World Series titles with Boston in 2013 and Kansas City in 2015, although he did not play for the Royals in the post-season.
Boggs also joined in the contest as a special guest. He did not hit a home run, but he came close on his final swing.
The Hall offered refunds to the crowd and then moved along with the weekend, shifting the headliners to the Grandstand Theater, where panel members spoke about their connections to the military.
Earlier in the weekend, the Hall debut two new exhibits: “The Rules of Base Ball” as part of the “Taking the Field” exhibit, and the Rick Monday’s flag exhibit, which was timed to coincide with the military theme.
Monday appeared at the Hall and the Classic over the weekend to display the flag, which he saved in 1976 from protesters at Dodger Stadium who intended to burn it.
“I started to run at them,” Monday wrote in a special dedication at baseballhall.org. “I guess the wind blew out the first match, and the second match was struck just as I got there. But if they didn’t have the flag, they could not burn it. So, I grabbed it and continued to run. The guy threw the can of lighter fluid at me, missed, and I kept going. I gave the flag to one of the Dodgers pitchers, Doug Rau, who came out of the dugout.
“I’m very proud that I was able to be close enough to react and do what I thought was right,” Monday continued. “I respect those who have protected our rights and freedoms, including their families. Some of those people paid the ultimate price.”