Trammell’s dream comes true with visit to Hall
“If I graded myself as a player, I did a lot of things. Maybe nothing great but a lot of things well.”
Trammell was in Cooperstown, along with his wife Barbara, for his Orientation Visit on March 15 in advance of his induction.
The Class of 2018 will also include Baseball Writers' Association of America electees Jim Thome, Chipper Jones, Trevor Hoffman and Vladimir Guerrero – and Trammell’s fellow Modern Baseball Era Committee electee Jack Morris. The six new Hall of Famers will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, July 29, at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown.
“Talking to other inductees, it might not sink in until after the ceremony on July 29. Each day there are moments where it crosses my mind and I smile to myself and I say, ‘Tram, you are now on the Dream Team.’ For individual accomplishment it doesn’t get any better than that.
“I’m sure like 99.9 percent of the inductees will say, it wasn’t my goal when I was a young boy. First of all you wanted to play professional baseball, you wanted to make it to the major leagues, and then as you get established you want to do well and you want to win a championship. Those things I was able to do. But really as far as the Hall of Fame, that really wasn’t something that I thought about.”
From his own career, Trammell was able to watch a video of Tigers teammate Kirk Gibson slug an important homer against the Padres in the 1984 World Series, check out military helmet from Disco Demolition Night, a game his Tigers played against the White Sox in 1979, and look at a second base he used with longtime double-play partner Lou Whitaker from their final home game in 1995.
“We hit if off right from the start. It’s a great story. What a teammate,” Trammell said about his 19-year diamond partnership with Whitaker. “I’m hoping that maybe someday that he can be here as well. Regardless whether it happens or not, the story of Lou and Tram, Tram and Lou, that’s never going to be forgotten. Especially for Tigers fans.”
Asked about the progress of his induction speech, Trammell first laughed then said: “I have the gist of what I want to say and I have to fine tune it. I’m getting close and I still have a few months to go, but I’ll be ready.”
As for his Hall of Fame plaque, Trammell’s hope is that it might refer to him as “a model of consistency.”
Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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