As a Cooperstown resident, I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to soak in Hall of Fame Weekend each year. There are so many different events going on—from autograph signings to clinics to the actual induction ceremony—that the weekend becomes a non-stop whirlwind of baseball activity that has something to fit fans of just about any sort, from casual to diehard.

One of the best and most underrated events of Hall of Fame Weekend took place last Friday. Sponsored by the Major League Baseball Players’ Alumni Association, the Hall of Fame’s annual youth clinic gave children ages five to 12 the rare opportunity to learn the game from some of its masters. Ten former major league players led approximately 150 children in a variety of instructional drills, including baserunning, pitching, outfield play, and catching fundamentals. Four headline names participated, including perennial Hall of Fame candidate Lee Smith, former Big Red Machine component George Foster, longtime Montreal Expos ace Steve Rogers, and old favorite Jim “Mudcat” Grant. (My nephew Brandon, who took part in the clinic, particularly enjoyed listening to Foster, who has become his new favorite player. After the clinic, we went to a local baseball shop, where Brandon soon asked me if the store had a section containing cards of Foster. Sadly, the store didn’t, but that didn’t quell Brandon’s passion.)

As I watched from the third base dugout at venerable Doubleday Field, I took note of how well organized the clinic seemed to be. Each group of youngsters spent 15 minutes at each station, as former players offered hands-on instruction, before moving on to the next post. The kids completed seven of eight stations, as some late afternoon thunder and lightning forced organizers to cut the event short by about ten minutes. The early termination didn’t matter; by then, the kids had received nearly two hours of instruction at the cost of exactly nothing. Yes, the event was completely free of charge.

Frankly, I’m surprised that more parents don’t sign their kids up for the experience. In addition to being free, it features outgoing instructors who all have a desire to teach youngsters about the game. There are few scenes more uplifting than watching a 75-year-old Mudcat Grant telling five to 12-year-olds stories about his playing days while emphasizing the important of getting an education. Grant did this despite his continued recovery from recent knee and hip surgeries. Mudcat walked with the assistance of a cane, but aside from the effects on his gait, he still looks good some 36 years after last throwing a pitch in a major league game. Mudcat is truly a modern day marvel—and a phenomenal ambassador for the game.

Then there were the unusual sights supplied by everyday fans, some of whom stand out for being a bit unusual. If you ever visit Cooperstown during Hall of Fame Weekend, you’re bound to see anything, from Babe Ruth look-alikes to banjo-playing figures in full Oakland A’s regalia. I also noticed some fans wearing specially made Colt .45s jerseys, an interesting sight considering that the Houston franchise hasn’t been known by that nickname for 45 years. Not surprisingly, the dominant colors seen on Main Street featured the green and gold of the A’s (Rickey Henderson’s primary team) and the red and blue of the Red Sox (Jim Rice’s club). I noticed only a scant number of Mets jerseys and caps, and almost no Yankee memorabilia, a decidedly odd occurrence on induction weekend. There were certainly plenty of former Yankees in attendance, including Henderson, Frick Award winner Tony Kubek, Paul Blair, Ron Blomberg, Roger Clemens (in town to watch his son play at the local Dreams Park), Dwight Gooden, Ron Guidry, Scott McGregor, Luis Tiant, and the venerable Moose Skowron.

For those who prefer to encounter Hall of Famers, the weekend provided plenty of chances. As folks made their way down Main and Pioneer streets during Hall of Fame Weekend, they could not help but bump into the omnipresent Bob Feller, who appeared at practically every store that features any kind of autograph signing. Feller receives his fair share of criticism for being one of those old-fashioned “get off my lawn!” kind of guys, but the man is always accessible to the media, willingly engages fans, and has an impeccable resume as both a player and American war hero. During my years at the Hall of Fame, I interviewed Feller more than any other player, and he never failed to treat me with fairness and respect. And there is no one who loves the Hall of Fame more than Rapid Robert.

As good as Hall of Fame Weekend was, there were some pitfalls. One of those was the incessant tardiness of players scheduled to appear at signings. For example, Rickey Henderson was supposed to sign at the local CVS on Monday, beginning at 12 noon and ending at 1:30. Those fans who had formed a lengthy line that wrapped around the block on Main Street needed to exert extraordinary patience, since Henderson arrived about 40 minutes late for his signing. And he didn’t stay past 1:30 to make up for the lost time. Unfortunately, Henderson’s tardiness is typical of many ballplayers who routinely arrive late for autograph shows. It is simply amazing to me how many players, whether retired or active, pay so little attention to start times. As someone who occasionally does book signings, the idea of arriving late for any of them strikes me as thoroughly rude and completely unprofessional, but I get the feeling that it’s the norm in the autograph business.

Crowd control was another concern during the big weekend. Working as a volunteer for one of the Cooperstown retailers that hosted a slew of sidewalk autograph signings, I soon realized how difficult it was to keep people on the sidewalks and out of the middle of the street. Unbelievably, one fan asked me why he couldn’t walk in the middle of the Main Street. I patiently tried to explain to him that walking in the middle of Main Street could result in being hit with a car! (That would seem obvious, no?) Frankly, the village should have done what it has done in recent years and completely shut down Main Street to vehicular traffic. That would have eliminated many of the safety concerns, while allowing people to walk freely in the streets and sidewalks without the same level of congestion. It would have also given the town the feel of a block party, a nice atmosphere to have for something as festive as induction weekend.

But the issues of crowded streets and lateness didn’t detract from what was mostly a wonderful experience. All in all, Hall of Fame Weekend came off as a success, especially artistically. The rains, except for the heavy downpours on Friday, stayed away for the most part, Henderson delivered a surprisingly good and funny induction speech; and fans had plenty of opportunities to acquire autographs of both Hall of Famers and retired standouts. The youth clinic was a big hit, thanks to impeccable organization by the Hall and the MLB Alumni Association, and the enthusiastic presence of a group of former major leaguers. From an economic perspective, Hall of Fame Weekend provided a needed boost of energy to a town that has been hit hard by both the national and state economies. Bolstered by an estimated 20,000 fans and a cast of nearly 80 former ballplayers, Cooperstown felt revitalized over the last five days.

As someone who has been living in Cooperstown for the past 16 summers, I never get tired of this special weekend. For a baseball fan and for someone who wants to see Cooperstown thrive and prosper, Hall of Fame Weekend remains a worthy endeavor.

Bruce Markusen writes “Cooperstown Confidential” for The Hardball Times.

Markusen: Jim, first off, I know that I speak for a lot of Yankee fans who are glad that you’re back broadcasting, not on the YES Network [as before], but on the MLB Network. What went into your decision to come back after essentially retiring for three years?

Kaat: Well, my wife, who had been battling cancer for a couple of years, passed away last year. I retired because we wanted to get a little more time together. She was doing pretty well, but her cancer came back. She couldn’t survive that, so a lot of my friends and family said to me, maybe you ought to go back to work. So that’s what I did, starting this year just on a part-time basis. I just reached out to some people, and if they wanted me to do it, I said fine. So MLB hired me to do ten games, I did the World Baseball Classic, and I’ll do a little stuff for XM Radio. So that sort of motivated me to do it.

Markusen: Did it take a lot of convincing?

Kaat: Not a lot. There was a period of time there where I didn’t know if I wanted to do that [come back], but toward the end of the year in December, I thought, yeah, it might be a good idea for me to do that.

Markusen: Jim, do you still keep close tabs on the Yankees, a team that you followed so closely for so long? Do you still follow them on a regular basis?

Kaat: Oh, very much so. Two of the three games I’ve done so far have been the Yankees. I did the home opener, and I did the Yankee-Red Sox game on June 11. I keep up with all of the teams, and I’ll have another Yankee game—the Yankees and White Sox—at the end of July, so that gives me good reason to keep up with them. I have a Mets-Dodgers game coming up, too. I still follow the Yankees through the newspapers, the box scores, and of course, nowadays on television you can get about all the highlights you want.

Markusen: It’s been a very uneven year for the Yankees. A very poor April, a lot of injuries early, then they had that nine-game winning streak, and now they seem to be struggling a little bit. As you look at the team, what do you think has been the problem?

Kaat: Well, I still think, and I think that with any team, you really need to have quality guys in the seventh and eighth innings to set up whoever your closer is, in this case Mariano. And I always think that’s a determining factor. I mean, hitting comes and goes, guys will go into slumps. The Yankees have played well in the field, in the infield—I don’t know about their range—but they aren’t making any errors. But I’ve always liked teams, as Tampa Bay did last year and the Red Sox this year, that have good guys down in the pen at the end of the game. You know, when Bruney’s been healthy, Aceves has been in and out of the [late-inning] role, Coke, the lefty, has done pretty well, but they haven’t been able to find that solid seventh and eighth-inning guy.

Of course, Brian Cashman knows, and I always chide him about it, I think Chamberlain should be in the bullpen. I think he’d be a perfect eighth-inning guy, but that’s not my decision. But I think that [the bullpen] will determine how well they do.

Markusen: When you look at the intangibles and more subtle areas with this team, you sometimes hear criticism that they play a little too tense, maybe they don’t have a killer instinct, and they continue to struggle with runners in scoring position. Do you give a lot of merit to any of that?

Kaat: Well, the runners in scoring position I do, because the more years go by, the more we’re aware of how great the 1998 team was and the teams in that era, the team that had Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill, Knoblauch, Jeter was a younger player, Bernie Williams, Girardi was still playing, guys that made contact, advanced runners, manufactured runs. And they had a great bullpen. I think their offense this year is the kind of explosive offense—they’re like a team of really DHs—they can crush mediocre pitching, but until they do those kinds of things against good pitching like the teams in the late nineties, that’s probably where they’re lacking.

Markusen: Let’s talk about yourself. You mentioned the passing of your previous wife, MaryAnn. But this is a great week for you. You’re now newly married [as of earlier this week] and I guess this is your honeymoon here in Cooperstown.

Kaat: Yeah, it really is. It kind of came out of the blue, it was such a surprise to Margie and I. She’s a golf pro—I met her five or six years ago and used to say hello to her occasionally at this breakfast spot, and I would see her at some golf functions—but I never saw any kind of a romantic interest there. But we had mutual friends in Philadelphia who said, ‘We think we have the perfect match for you.’ And they were right. It was a whirlwind romance, and we’re both just thrilled. And, you know, I continue to honor MaryAnn. I’ve started a fund and we’ve put lights on a little league field back in my hometown in her memory. Margie had a similar experience in her life. So we honor [those we’ve lost]. But we’re just very happy together.

Markusen: So Margie’s at the Otesaga Hotel with you this weekend. That’s a good place to be.

Kaat: Yes, it is. We got married in Bedington, Vermont, which is her hometown. She and her dad and her brother were at the game [the Hall of Fame Classic] today. And that’s, of course, a short drive from Cooperstown. So, the Otesaga is not a bad place to hang out.

Markusen: Years ago, I used to work here at the Hall of Fame and I interviewed you a couple of times over at the Otesaga golf course. I know that you like to come back here. What is particularly special about this place, this setting, for an old ballplayer like yourself?

Kaat: Well, I guess it started as a kid because my dad was such a baseball historian and a baseball fan. I have a picture of him on my desk standing in front of the old museum in 1947; you can imagine what it looked like then, and that was the year of Lefty Grove’s induction to the Hall of Fame. So that was my start, where the attraction began. And then I was here playing the Hall of Fame Game in 1966, when Stengel and Williams got inducted, Casey Stengel and Ted Williams. The Cardinals brought up a skinny young left-hander to pitch against us, a pitcher from Triple-A named Steve Carlton. Since then, we [the White Sox] played the Hall of Fame Game in the seventies, when Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford got inducted, and then I was here as a supporter to [former teammate] Harmon Killebrew. Then along came Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt and Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn [whom Kaat came to know from his days with the Phillies], and a few years ago Bruce Sutter. If my schedule allows, I always enjoy coming back to Cooperstown.

Bruce Markusen, a resident of Cooperstown, also writes for The Hardball Times.

On the offensive side, Cervelli will probably never hit with much power, but he is patient at the plate and willing to take pitches to the opposite field. If Cervelli can mature enough offensively to become a .consistent 270 hitter who continues to draws walks, he will become a very good backup catcher. That might sound like an example of damning with faint praise, but solid No. 2 receivers have become like gold in today’s game. There are only a handful of standout backup catchers in either league: Chris Coste in Philadelphia, Henry Blanco in San Diego, Kelly Shoppach in Cleveland, and Mike Redmond in Minnesota. Cervelli has a chance to become the Yankees’ best backup catcher since a fellow named Joe Girardi, who last played a game in pinstripes in 1999. Yes, it’s been that long…

As uneven as the Yankees’ play has been through six weeks, they haven’t experienced the same kind of schizophrenia displayed by their Triple-A affiliate, the Scranton Yankees. The Scrantonians began the International League season by winning 23 of first 28 games, and they did so by clubbing the opposition with a powerhouse offense. Then came Scranton’s recent four-game stretch. Through Wednesday night, Scranton’s offense had failed to score a run in 44 consecutive innings—a simply remarkable run of futility. The Triple-A Yankees have suffered four consecutive shutouts, in addition to six scoreless innings left over during a previous loss last Saturday. Suddenly, Scranton’s record is a more earthly 23-10.

So what happened? As with the major league Yankees, injuries have hit Dave Miley’s team hard. Second baseman Kevin Russo and outfielders Shelley “Slam” Duncan and John Rodriguez, representing a third of Scranton’s starting nine, are all hurt. And the healthy players are slumping, none worse than third baseman and former No. 1 pick Eric Duncan. Duncan was wallowing in an oh-for-33 hammerlock before finally breaking out with a double on Wednesday. The slump, which dropped Duncan’s average from .309 to .206, probably cost Duncan what little chance he had of a promotion to the Bronx.

In spite of the recent offensive outage, three Scrantonians remain candidates for recall once the Yankees decide that Angel Berroa’s time has come to an end. Rodriguez, Shelley Duncan, and Juan Miranda could all help the Yankees in a reserve role, more specifically as late-inning pinch-hitters. (Personally, I’d vote for Slam Duncan.) With the Yankees giving so many at bats to Cervelli, Kevin Cash, and Brett Gardner, that’s a commodity that the Yankees could use in close games…

One never knows when a former big leaguer will be taking a stroll through the Hall of Fame. Earlier this week, retired right-hander Jack Billingham visited Cooperstown for several days as part of a cross-country trek. As Billingham explained to my friend, Hall of Fame senior researcher Bill Francis, he and his wife Jolene, along with his sister and brother-in-law, have been touring the nation in RVs. Along the way, they’ve visited some of Jack’s old stomping grounds, including Cincinnati, where he pitched most of his career with the Reds, and Detroit, where he played for three seasons late in his career). Cactus Jack, as he’s sometimes labeled, also pitched briefly for the dreaded Red Sox, but Boston is not part of the cross-country itinerary. Good for you, Jack.

This was not Billingham’s first visit to Cooperstown. Forty years ago, he came to town as part of a contingent with the Astros, who played Billy Martin’s Twins in the 1969 Hall of Fame Game. Billingham also has an indirect connection to the Hall of Fame. He is a distant cousin of the legendary Christy Mathewson, who was part of the Hall’s inaugural class in 1936.

“Cactus Jack,” as he’s sometimes called, remains one of the most underrated members of Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine.” Too often Billingham is remembered for giving up Hank Aaron’s record-tying 714th home run, an unfair legacy to say the least. While the Reds’ offensive stars, like Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez, have garnered most of the publicity, Billingham turned in workmanlike performances for a reliable rotation that also included Gary Nolan, Don Gullett, and Fredie Norman. Durable and consistent, Billingham used a sinkerball to post consecutive 19-win seasons in 1973 and ’74, before winning a total of 27 games during the Reds’ two world championship seasons of 1975 and ’76.

Billingham raised his level of pitching in World Series play, allowing only one earned run in just over 25 innings, and still holds the record for lowest ERA in World Series history. He pitched in a total of three World Series, including some high-quality competition: the 1972 A’s, the 1975 Red Sox, and the 1976 Yankees. Billingham’s performance against those teams gives him a much better and far more deserving legacy.

Bruce Markusen, a resident of Cooperstown, has written eight books on baseball.

I can’t disagree with Aaron, who overcame a childhood filled with poverty to become one of the game’s legends. While “Hammerin’ Hank” was not the equal of The Babe—no one is—he is unquestionably one of the all-time greats. Still the major league career leader in RBIs and total bases, Aaron was a phenomenal five-tool talent who excelled in every important area. He also deserves extra credit for breaking Ruth’s home run record under the extraordinary duress of racial hatred. Aaron and his family received horrific threats, both in the form of venomous phone calls and vicious hate mail. His sustained excellence in 1973 and 1974, when he was chasing the record and ultimately breaking it, is impressive enough on the surface; it becomes even more pronounced in view of the emotional distress and genuine concerns for his safety.

Unfortunately, Aaron was subjected to racial torment at various times in his career, especially at the beginning and the end. As a minor leaguer developing in the Milwaukee Braves’ farm system, Aaron received an assignment to report to Jacksonville of the South Atlantic League. He and two of his teammates made history, integrating the previously all-white league while dodging the race baiters. “We had three black players on that team,” Aaron told a capacity crowd in the Hall of Fame’s Grandstand Theater. “I had a very good year. I led the league in everything but hotel accommodations.”

Not only did Aaron and his two black teammates have to endure the embarrassment of staying in separate hotels and eating in different restaurants; they had to endure uncivil behavior at the games. “The problem we had was with spectators. We had a rough time in the South. It got ridiculous. At some ballparks, we could not dress in the clubhouse. If you went 0-for-4, the fans would throw bananas at us.

“We used to talk about how silly people can really be when all we wanted to do was play ball. The thing that made me succeed more was how hateful they were.”

The hatred certainly did not stop Aaron. It did not prevent him from breaking a wide-ranging set of records. Some would say he is the greatest living player. Is he at the top of the list? Maybe, maybe not. Willie Mays has his supporters, as does Barry Bonds. But at the very least, Aaron deserves to be in the argument. For someone who overcame so much racism and poverty, that’s a pretty good legacy to have…

Not only did the Yankees do the right thing in reducing the prices of some of their high-end box seats, they did the smart thing. In this case, let’s refer to the “Empty Seat Syndrome.” Empty seats are the worst thing that can happen to a professional sports team. Empty seats don’t buy concession items. Empty seats don’t buy souvenirs or memorabilia. Empty seats don’t tell their friends about their wonderful experiences at the ballpark. On top of all that, empty seats just look bad, especially when they are located so close to the playing field. When a team is coming off back-to-back seasons of four million fans in paid attendance, there is no excuse for not filling the ballpark—especially a new one that has so many improvements over the old house—on a regular basis. Hopefully, the Yankees have learned their lesson…

As long as Joe Girardi keeps using Jorge Posada as a DH on days when he does not catch, the Yankees will continue to need a third catcher. (Anything would be more useful than a 13th pitcher.) Otherwise, Girardi will find himself strapped in the late innings, unable to pinch-hit or pinch-run for Jose Molina. One potential pickup is Brayan Pena, a switch-hitting catcher who was designated for assignment by the Royals last weekend. The 27-year-old Pena is a rare breed in 2009: a backup catcher who can hit and who carries enough versatility to fill in at third base or first base. As a player who has been DFAed (designated for assignment), Pena will cost almost nothing in a trade, assuming that he is not waived or given his outright release.

Bruce Markusen, who writes “Cooperstown Confidential” for MLBlogs at MLB.com, can be reached via email at bmarkusen@stny.rr.com.