Costas, Ocker receive awards as fans flock to Cooperstown on Induction Eve

(COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.) – Jack Morris may not have recognized himself on Saturday, but the fans in Cooperstown did.

And soon, his bronze likeness will be there for all to see in the Hall of Fame’s Plaque Gallery.

“I’m going to have some pretty tired face muscles after this weekend, with all the smiling I’ve been doing,” said Morris on Saturday, a bit more than 24 hours before the Class of 2018 is inducted in Cooperstown. “This is an incredible experience. I think I’ve hugged more people than I ever have in my life.”

Morris, the legendarily intense pitcher and owner of four World Series rings, will be inducted on Sunday, July 29, along with Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Chipper Jones, Jim Thome and Alan Trammell. The Induction Ceremony will be held at 1:30 p.m. ET at Cooperstown’s Clark Sports Center and broadcast live on MLB Network. A live stream will be available at mlb.com and facebook.com/baseballhall.

Hoffman, Jones, Morris and Thome played golf Saturday morning in the annual Hall of Fame Weekend Golf Tournament, enjoying their new status with many returning Hall of Famers who also participated. A record 57 Hall of Famers are in Cooperstown for Hall of Fame Weekend.

“This weekend is going by so fast, and I don’t want it to,” Thome said. “I want to enjoy every minute.”

Thome and many of his fellow Hall of Famers played golf in the morning, then enjoyed the Awards Presentation and the Parade of Legends before attending a private evening reception at the Hall of Fame.

At the annual Awards Presentation at Doubleday Field, Sheldon Ocker was presented with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for writers and Bob Costas received the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters.

“Twelve years old, and all I wanted to be was a sports broadcaster, especially a baseball broadcaster,” Costas said during his speech at the Awards Presentation. “It was beyond my wildest dreams and most fanciful thoughts that this would come my way.”

A broadcast of the Awards Presentation will be shown at 11 a.m. on Sunday on MLB Network.

Some of Saturday’s additional highlights included:

- The annual Hall of Fame Weekend Golf Tournament at the Leatherstocking Golf Course was won by the team led by Hall of Famers Wade Boggs, which finished six shots ahead of a team led by Chipper Jones. John Smoltz led all Hall of Famers with a low gross round of 69.

- Fans jammed Main Street to get a glimpse of their Hall of Fame heroes during the ninth annual Parade of Legends, some lining up for spots along the parade route more than 36 hours before the event. The returning Hall of Famers rode down Main Street in pickup trucks provided by Ford Motor Company.

- Almost 9,000 fans visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Saturday, the largest attendance day of the year to date.

The Museum is open Sunday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., with participants in the Hall of Fame’s Membership Program able to enter the Museum at 7 a.m. For more information on Membership, please visit baseballhall.org/join.

The Class of 2018 will be inducted at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown. The Induction Ceremony is free and open to the public and will be shown live on MLB Network and broadcast nationally on MLB Network Radio on Sirius/XM. A webcast will be shown at mlb.com. The Induction Ceremony is expected to last about three hours.