Fame game flames out

Monday will bring end of annual tradition in Cooperstown

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- Sometime late Monday afternoon one of the grandest of baseball traditions will end, and the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres will be able to boast -- or lament -- that they played the final Hall of Fame Game.

Kristian Connolly still can't believe Major League Baseball is ending the lone exhibition game left on the schedule and one so closely linked to the game's beginnings.

So he's working to save it.

"I love my hometown, I love baseball, and this was a decision that was going to hurt both," said Connolly, 30, who grew up in Cooperstown and worked as an intern at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. "Simply throwing in the towel on a nearly 70-year-old tradition, rather than making it work -- in the interest of what is best for the sport -- should be embarrassing for those making that decision."

Soon after the decision was announced in late January, Connolly created the Web site www.savethe famegame.com. He has sent letters to commissioner Bud Selig, players' union leader Donald Fehr, major-leaguers from all 30 clubs, the owners and front-office leaders.

Connolly said he has received a supportive response from Philadelphia Phillies chairman Bill Giles and a letter from Dave Dombrowski, president, general manager and chief executive of the Detroit Tigers. Dombrowski's letter said the players' association "negotiated this change in [the] recent basic agreement settlement."

No active player has replied, but one Hall of Famer has voiced an opinion.

"It's all money, isn't it? I think it's a shame," said Bob Feller, 89. "It's an insult to the Hall of Fame and to the Hall of Famers. I just think that they should do it for the fans. What do they do for the fans, anyway? Take their money? Raise their prices?"

In a letter to Selig and Fehr, New York Congressman Maurice Hinchey wrote: "At a time when the reputation of professional baseball is in jeopardy due to the negative attention surrounding recent scandals, the last thing Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association should be doing is ending a tradition that everyone can rally around."

Selig responded in a letter to Hinchey, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and other members of Congress who have objected to the cancellation of the game.

"As you know, our teams play 162 games in 180 days," Selig wrote. "With interleague play and interdivision matchups, finding two teams that could be scheduled into Cooperstown during an off day has become exceedingly difficult."

How times have changed.

In 1941, National League President Ford Frick instructed the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians to play in a driving rain so thousands of fans in attendance would not go home disappointed. Two years later, because of the gas shortage during World War II, the Brooklyn Dodgers rode into Cooperstown on horseback.

From its inception in 1940 until 1978, the Hall of Fame Game was played the same day as the annual induction ceremony. The game was switched in 1979 to the day after the induction ceremony and remained a big hit, usually selling out within hours. Six years ago, it was moved to mid-June because of scheduling problems.

"It's not about the schedule," Connolly said. "Major League Baseball can schedule games in Japan, China, Mexico, Memphis, Orlando and Puerto Rico, so isn't it likely that they could find a way to hold a game in Cooperstown?"

Connolly, who works for a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., is making the trek home Monday. He'll march in the parade trying to spread his message, then watch the game from the backyard of his mother-in-law's house just beyond the fence in right-center. He'll have a banner with his Web address on the front and a message on the back asking for a moment of silence throughout the bottom half of the third inning.

"It's an appropriate way to sort of demonstrate that the decisions these people are making effectively silence or turn off fans from the game," Connolly said.