The four members of the 2024 Hall of Fame class, Jim Leyland, Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton, and Joe Mauer, shared stories and jokes during a roundtable discussion that closed out the Hall of Fame weekend.The four members of the 2024 Hall of Fame class, Jim Leyland, Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton, and Joe Mauer, shared stories and jokes during a roundtable discussion that closed out the Hall of Fame weekend. Leyland, who never played in the majors, spent 18 seasons as a minor league coach and manager before reaching Cooperstown after coaching four major league teams, plus the only edition of Team USA to win the World Baseball Classic. Beltre, who spent his career with four different clubs, was known as a poor hitter, but he finished with 3,166 hits and 477 home runs in a 21-year career. Helton, who spent 17 seasons in Denver, winning the major league title and posting consecutive 400-base seasons, said he once threw a prize ball into the stands at Coors Field and had to negotiate to get it back. Mauer, who spent his entire career with the Minnesota Twins, is the first Hall of Famer born in the 1980s and is also the youngest member of the fraternity.
Newly minted Hall of Famer Jim Leyland led Team USA to the 2017 World Baseball Classic title. … (+)
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While most of the baseball world left Cooperstown after the July 21 introductions, the four-man class of 2024 shared more stories — plus a few jabs — in a cheerful hour-long roundtable discussion that closed out the weekend.
The informal discussion, which aired live on MLB Network, was seen only by a handful of reporters and a few hundred fans packed into the metal bleachers at Doubleday Field.
No one seemed bothered, even when menacing claps of thunder sounded at the end.
Jim Leyland, who never played in the majors but spent 18 seasons as a minor league coach and manager, reached Cooperstown after coaching four major league teams, plus the only edition of Team USA to win the World Baseball Classic.
“Chuck Tanner always told me I couldn’t make bad decisions — some of them just didn’t work out,” he said. “I always wanted good defenders. I wanted as many two-way players as possible.”
Leyland broke through with the Pittsburgh Pirates, won a World Series with the Florida (now Miami) Marlins and had a year of trouble with the Colorado Rockies before reaching the World Series again with the Detroit Tigers.
“When I was in Colorado,” he said, “Larry Walker and Todd Helton hit 72 home runs. I wondered how I could screw up that bad.”
Leyland, whose son Pat manages the minor-league Kannapolis Cannonballs, was the victim of one of the worst calls ever by an umpire. With Armando Galarraga needing an out to complete a perfect game on June 2, 2010, first base umpire Jim Joyce blew a clear out call at first base.
“Armando might be more famous for not playing the perfect game than if he had,” Leyland said, noting that the referee acknowledged his mistake. The advent of videotape review grew out of that incident.
Leyland was only the 22nd manager to be named in Cooperstown. He got his chance when Tony La Russa, another Hall of Famer, hired him to coach the Chicago White Sox. “Tony didn’t make me a manager, but he made me a major-league manager,” Leyland said.
At the post-hiring party on Sunday night, Leyland said the managers in the room were given as much respect as the players.
“That meant a lot to me,” he noted.
The Hall of Fame class of 2024, from left to right, consists of Jim Leyland, Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton, … (+)
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Longtime Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre commanded respect with both his bat and glove. “I’m sorry I killed you a couple times,” Beltre told Leyland, drawing laughter from the fans in the stands.
Beltre, whose son Adrian will begin his college career as a combination pitcher and shortstop, was known as a poor hitter who even hit several home runs off his knees.
He remembered striking out former Seattle teammate and fellow Dominican Felix Hernandez—and watching the pitcher put his hands on his knees and laugh at him. When he got up, Beltre hit a ball deep into the Texas night.
Beltre, a five-time Gold Glove winner and four-time All-Star, finished with 3,166 hits and 477 home runs in a 21-year career with four different clubs. The other new recruits, Todd Helton and Joe Mauer, spent their careers with one team.
In 2007, Helton helped the Colorado Rockies to their only berth in the World Series.
He was the first Tennessee native to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He said a fan recognized him in Nashville and asked, “Aren’t you the guy who used to play football here?”
He once quarterbacked the University of Tennessee Volunteers and said his alma mater is now the national champion of college baseball.
“Vol fans are going wild,” he said. “We had eight players picked in the amateur draft this year.”
Helton said he once threw a prize ball into the stands at Coors Field.
“Troy Tulowitzki made an unassisted triple play, but I didn’t think anything of it and threw the ball to the fans,” he said. “I had to negotiate to get it back. The fan finally agreed to an autographed bat.”
Helton, who was often curt with writers covering the club, spent 17 seasons in Denver, winning the major league title and posting consecutive 400-base seasons.
“I want to thank the writers for making the best of the little I gave you,” he laughed.
Helton’s hero was Clint Hurdle, who coached the Rockies for eight years before moving to Pittsburgh. “He was my confidant, he made me a better person,” Helton said. “I was supposed to go to batting practice, but I didn’t want to hit. We talked about life, love, marriage and everything.”
Like Helton, Joe Mauer spent his entire career with one club: the Minnesota Twins. During his 15-year tenure, he also became the only backstop to win three batting titles.
The 41-year-old Mauer is the first Hall of Famer born in the 1980s and is also the youngest member of the fraternity, which now has 342 members.
Mauer, one of four St. Paul residents inducted into Cooperstown, said he especially enjoyed giving his acceptance speech to the 10 former Twins who sat behind him onstage Sunday.
“It was awesome to see our colors out there,” he said of a crowd that wore dozens of Twins jerseys, including those of fellow St. Paul residents Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor and Jack Morris.
“I give the Twin Cities credit,” the former catcher said. “It’s a blue-collar town with hard-working people.”
Although Mauer, like Helton, was a multi-sport high school boy star, he said his mother is the family’s best athlete — part of Minnesota’s first girls state championship basketball team. His older brothers all played baseball.
“I just like to compete,” said Mauer, who broke three ninth-inning no-hitters after reaching the majors. He also made a late-career switch from catcher to first base after suffering multiple concussions.
Now he’s a coach. “You’ve got to be at your best every night,” said Mauer, who coaches son Chip’s team. “As a coach now, I make sure the kids fall in love with the game first.”
Mauer’s resume remains impressive: in 15 seasons, he was a six-time All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove winner and a three-time American League batting champion – a record for a receiver.
By including the three letters “HOF” on all future signatures, the four members of the class of 2024 will certainly receive significantly more invitations to memorabilia shows and other public events.
