Baseball Inductees Starred Differently

Aug. 4 -- If you just saw them walking down the street and you didn't know them from three IRS agents, what would you think?

Would you possibly think that these three men could be about to be enshrined in the same Hall of Fame, in the same sport, on the same day?

How could Dave Winfield, a human skyscraper, and Kirby Puckett, a human bowling ball, have ever wound up playing the same game — let alone been so consummately talented at every aspect of it?

How could Bill Mazeroski — just an ordinary-looking, laid-back country guy from the outskirts of Stuebenville, Ohio — have become arguably the greatest defensive player at any position in that game?

For those who don't understand baseball, no explanation of that is possible. For those who do, no explanation is necessary.

‘No Crying in Baseball’

The roads and the walkways of baseball lead everywhere. And Today, they led these three men — Winfield, Puckett, Mazeroski — to the same podium in the same room in the magical village of Cooperstown, N.Y., a day before they will all be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame.

"Winny's gonna cry," Puckett predicted, jabbing his buddy Winfield in the side. "I'll tell you that right now. And Maz — he's gonna cry, too.

"Me," Puckett laughed, "I'm gonna try not to cry. I never cried before. Even when I retired, I didn't cry. Something really bad has to happen for me to cry. But Winny's gonna cry. I'd bet on that."

Winfield shook his head.

"There's no crying in baseball," Winfield said, chuckling mightily.

"There might be tomorrow," Puckett said.

Hitting Machine

The funny thing is, if anyone deserves to cry on induction day, it is Puckett. After all, who knows where he and his career were headed if nature's sight burglars hadn't stolen the vision from his right eye on that sad and mysterious morning in March, 1996?

Would he have kept on churning out those 200-hit, 30-homer, Gold Glove seasons for three more years? Five more years? Ten more years?