More than 40 Hall of Famers will be back for Induction Weekend

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July 5, 2012

More than 40 Hall of Famers will be back for Induction Weekend

Larkin, Santo to be inducted July 22

The Cooperstown Crier Thu Jul 05, 2012, 09:00 AM EDT

STAFF REPORT

Willie Mays, Whitey Ford, Sandy Koufax and 39 other National Baseball Hall of Famers are planning to attend the 2012 Induction Ceremony honoring Barry Larkin and Ron Santo, the Cooperstown shrine announced Monday.

In addition to the trio of inductees from the 1970s Koufax was enshrined in 1972; Ford in 1974; and Mays in 1979 all six of the Hall of Famers who participated in the fourth annual Hall of Fame Classic on June 16 at Doubleday Field are expected to return for the July 22 Induction Ceremony at the Clark Sports Center. Bert Blyleven, Carlton Fisk, Eddie Murray, Phil Niekro, Tony Pérez, OzzieSmith and several other former major leaguers drew a crowd of 5,116 fans to Doubleday Field for the Classic.

Attendance on July 22 figures to be much higher as the 2011 inductions of Blyleven, Roberto Alomar and Pat Gillick drew an estimated 17,500 fans to the ceremony. Alomar and Gillick join Blyleven on the Hall of Famer guest list, which is down five from last year.

This year’s list of returners includes former Cincinnati Reds standout shortstop Larkin, who was elected to the Hall by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Golden Era Committee selection Santo will be honored posthumously during the ceremony, which is slated to begin at 1:30 p.m. July 22 and will air live on MLB Network.

The complete list of returning Hall of Famers is as follows:

Roberto Alomar, Luis Aparicio;Johnny Bench, Bert Blyleven, Wade Boggs, George Brett, Lou Brock, Jim Bunning;Steve Carlton;Andre Dawson;Dennis Eckersley;Rollie Fingers, Carlton Fisk, Whitey Ford;Bob Gibson, Pat Gillick, Tony Gwynn;Doug Harvey, Rickey Henderson, Whitey Herzog;Al Kaline, Sandy Koufax;Barry Larkin;Juan Marichal, Willie Mays, Paul Molitor, Joe Morgan, Eddie Murray;Phil Niekro;Jim Palmer, Tony Pérez, Gaylord Perry;Jim Rice, Frank Robinson;Ryne Sandberg, Mike Schmidt, Red Schoendienst, Tom Seaver, Ozzie Smith, Bruce Sutter;Billy Williams and Dave Winfield.

The returning Hall of Famers are also scheduled to attend the Hall of Fame Awards Presentation at 4:30 p.m. July 21 at Doubleday Field. Longtime analyst Tim McCarver will receive the Ford C. Frick Award for major contributions to baseball broadcasting, and the Toronto Sun’s Bob Elliott will receive the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.

The Awards Presentation also will feature a celebration of the three living managers who have led the St. Louis Cardinals to World Series championships Schoendienst, Whitey

Herzog and the recently-retired Tony La Russa, who will manage the National League All-Stars on Tuesday in Kansas City. The Cardinals’ 2011 World Series trophy will be on display at the presentation and at from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. July 21 at the museum.

The Hall also will conduct a new game show, Pitch Count, featuring Blyleven and Niekro at 3 p.m.

at Doubleday Field. Following the Awards Presentation, the Hall of Famers will join McCarver and Elliott in the Parade of Legends down Main Street in Cooperstown.

Admission to the game show, the Awards Presentation and the Induction Ceremony is free.

Sirius XM Radio also will carry the Induction Ceremony, which will be shown via webcast at www.baseballhall.org.

Larkin, Williams and Pérez will take part in a Voices of the Game program at 10:30 a.m. July 23 at the Clark Sports Center. Tickets are available only to participants in the Hall of Fame’s Membership Program and cost $10 for adults and $5 for children.