For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 30, 2001
Remarks by the President in Photo Opportunity with Members of the Baseball Hall of Fame
The East Room
Listen to the President's
Remarks
11:46 A.M. EST
THE
PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. Laura and I
are delighted to welcome you all to the people's house. The
Vice President is delighted to welcome you to the people's house,
too. (Laughter.) This is an exciting day for my
administration and all the baseball fans that live here in Washington.
I first
want to thank the Commissioner for coming. Mr.
Commissioner, it's good to see you again, sir. You're doing
a great job in shepherding our national pastime through some pretty
tough times. And I appreciate your leadership and I
appreciate your friendship.
Speaking
about Wisconsin, I'm glad to see my Cabinet Secretary is
here. (Laughter.) Thank you for coming, Tommy;
and Mel Martinez, as well. I appreciate you all being here.
We've got
some huge fans, baseball fans here: Billy Crystal, I'm
honored you're here. I appreciate the movie you're
making. I'm looking forward to maybe getting to see it here
in the White House. If you would let us do that, it would be
such an honor. I don't know if Costas is here yet.
MR.
COSTAS: Here, Mr. President. (Laughter.)
THE
PRESIDENT: Where is he? (Laughter.)
MR.
COSTAS: It's hard to see me, Mr.
President. (Laughter.)
THE
PRESIDENT: Representing all the traditionalists in America.
(Laughter.)
Secretary
Abraham, I'm sorry -- a fine Detroit Tiger fan. Congressman Boehlert,
whose district is the Hall of Fame.
I also want
to thank Jane -- it's good to see you again. I remember
coming up to the induction ceremony when my friend, Nolan Ryan, got
inducted. So your hospitality is great. And,
Dale, thank you for thinking of this.
One of the
great things about living here is you don't have to sign up for a
baseball fantasy camp -- (laughter) -- to meet your heroes. It turns
out, they come here. (Laughter.) I want to thank
the players, the former players, the managers and the wives who are
here. I think we're going to have a great day.
There are
some familiar faces here, but none more beloved than Yogi
Berra. Yogi's been an inspiration to
me. (Laughter and applause.) Not only because of his
baseball skills, but, of course, for the enduring mark he left on the
English language. (Laughter.) Some in the press
corps here even think he might be my
speechwriter. (Laughter.) I don't know if you
know, Yogi, but I quoted you when I went to the Congress the other day
to deliver my budget address: "Relieved you made it, we were
afraid you might have taken the wrong fork."
And, of
course, Big Texas here, and Ruth, thank you all for coming -- friends
of ours who remind us of glorious days we had in
baseball. The reason I like to keep Nolan around is he is a
reminder that when we got done with the Sammy Sosa trade, there was
still some talent left on the Rangers. (Laughter.)
But along
with Nolan, we've got people like Sandy Koufax and Bunning and Ford and
Gibson and Marichal, some of the greatest arms in the history of the
game. Seeing all the pitchers here brings to mind Lefty
Gomez's definition of a complete pitcher. They asked Lefty
once to share his secret. He said, it's easy, clean living
and a fast outfield. (Laughter.) And we had some pretty
fast outfielders behind us, too.
I'm sorry
that Ted Williams couldn't be here today. One time I had the
opportunity to watch a batting practice at an All Star game, sitting
right behind Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. For a baseball
fanatic, it was an unbelievable moment. It might sound funny
to you, but at that moment, I said, well gosh, all three of us have
something in common. We wanted to be big league
stars. One of us peaked a little
early. (Laughter.)
I know that
we all join together in wishing Ted the very best as he struggles to
overcome his illness.
Five
decades of baseball are represented here in the White House, from Bob
Feller to Duke Snider to Dave Winfield to Robin Yount. I'm
just a little biased toward those of you who played back in the
'50s. It was my prime as a baseball card collector in the
'50s.
Monty Irwin
is here. And I remember very clearly, seeing him at the
first baseball game I ever went to. He was standing in the
Polo Grounds, I might add, on grass. Monty, you probably
didn't see me, because I was up in the stands with my Uncle
Buck. But I'll never forget it. And as I recall,
Red Schoendienst was there, as well.
And,
gentlemen, if you're half as excited to be at the White House as I was
that afternoon, I'm really glad to repay the favor. Everyone who loves
baseball can remember the first time he saw the inside of a real Major
League park, with real big league players. It stays with you
forever -- the greenness of the grass, the sight of Major Leaguers in
uniform, the sound of big league swing meeting a big league
pitch. And when you're a kid and you actually meet one of
your baseball heroes or get an autograph on a ball, that's a big deal,
too. It means a lot.
Each one of
the stars who are here has been a part of that. Each one has
given that gift to millions of children for generations. And
speaking for all of the millions of boys and girls, I say, thank you.
When I was
growing up, there were the Mantle kids -- like Crystal and Costas --
and there were the Mays kids. You'd think that with Mickey
Mantle coming from Oklahoma, which is next-door to where I was raised,
that I would have been a Mantle kid. But, no, for some
reason I was a Mays kid. And I was really proud of it, by the way.
Years later
when I went to work with the Rangers, I got to meet both of those
players, and got to meet a lot of other good folks, like Nolan
Ryan. And I began to appreciate what the life of a famous
ballplayer is like; what a responsibility it is when so many youngsters
look up to you. So much is expected of you, whether you're
in uniform or not in uniform.
It isn't
always easy to be worthy of a kid's devotion or a teammate's
trust. But the folks behind us tried. They were
successful and that's what made them great. Baseball isn't
just in the stats -- though, of course, that's part of
it. It isn't just the money. It really isn't who
makes the Hall of Fame. As much as anything else, baseball
is the style of a Willie Mays, or the determination of a Hank Aaron, or
the endurance of a Mickey Mantle, the discipline of Carl Yastrzemski,
the drive of Eddie Mathews, the reliability of a Kaline or a Morgan,
the grace of a DiMaggio, the kindness of a Harmon Killebrew, and the
class of Stan Musial, the courage of a Jackie Robinson or the heroism
of Lou Gehrig.
My hope for
the game is that these qualities will never be lost. Whatever else
changes, even if the same nine innings run longer and the flyballs
farther, and the grass isn't always grass like it should be, those
values are still what makes the boys and girls and the fans and players
into legends.
In a small
way, maybe we can help to preserve the best of baseball right here in
the house that Washington built. After we moved in, I
pointed out to a great baseball fan, the First Lady, that we've got a
pretty good-sized backyard here. (Laughter.) And
maybe with the help of some groundskeepers, we can play ball on the
South Lawn. She agreed, just so long as I wasn't one of the
players. (Laughter.) So, for the next four
seasons, we're going to invite kids here from the area to play tee-ball
on the South Lawn of the White House. (Applause.)
And so, my
congratulations are to not only the new crop of inductees of the Hall
of Fame -- Winfield Puckett, to the family of Hilton Smith, and Bill
Mazeroski -- but congratulations to the Hall of Famers who have made
the game what it is. It is such an honor for us to welcome
you here. Thank you for coming, and I hope you enjoy the
lunch as much as I know I'm going to.
God
bless. (Applause.)
END 11:55
A.M. EST
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