EP45: Jeff Idelson - Running the Baseball Hall of Fame, the state of the game, and HOF Class of '19!

May 29, 2019

Play ball! Having a career in baseball for over 30 years just sounds like a great way to earn a living, and my guest today on the #MakeYourMark podcast, Jeff Idelson, has been the President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY for 11 years! Not only has he presided over an exciting time in baseball history, but he’s made his impact on America’s pastime, and he has great stories to tell!

“I got the Yankees job in December of ‘88, and I go to a kick-off cocktail party before the team is going to spring training in ‘89, I was 24 years old and he is there, and I walked right up to him and said, ‘Hey Mr. Steinbrenner, I want to introduce myself to you. I’m Jeff Idelson, I’m your new assistant PR Director.’ He puts his hands on my shoulders, and says ‘Good to have you! You’re that young man from Detroit, aren’t you?’  I said ‘No sir, I’m the young man from Boston!’ and he said ‘Great to have you on board, I have three words of advice for you. Rent, don’t buy!’. I nodded my head, you know, the sage advice from your new boss. Working for him was incredibly rewarding, very difficult guy to work for, a guy who was focused on winning, focus on putting together a product, and we were terrible when I was there. But I learned a lot from him about just being ahead of the curve, how to anticipate, how to manage relationships, it was tough love but it was perfect for me at that age.”

Jeff’s career in baseball has spanned from selling hotdogs in Fenway Park, to working for the Boss, George Steinbrenner, and 25 years in Cooperstown, and we cover a wide range of baseball topics, including the chances of Pete Rose along with those suspected of steroid use to be inducted into the Hall, and the incredible HOF Class of ‘19!

“I remember having a conversation with a guy named Seymour Siwoff, who bought the Elias Sports Bureau 60 years ago, in fact he still runs it, he’s like 98 now, great guy, but you want to talk about a different era. He calls me on a Saturday morning 7 o'clock and I was like, why is my phone ringing, I don’t work for the team anymore! He says ‘Hi Jeff, it’s Seymour!’ This was in 1994, the internet was just being born and he says, ‘You know I've donated every day-by-day for every player in the history of baseball to your library’ and these are giant ledger books, it’s the statistics for every guy, and he says, ‘I understand you’re going to put all those things on the internet.’ And I said, ‘Seymour, that’s the furthest thing on my mind! All that I am trying to do is to drag people to Cooperstown!’ and he says ‘Good! The internet is a fad, it’s like the hula hoop, it’s going to be gone in a few years!’”

This episode was special for me as it stirred up some great memories I have within baseball, including Little League, trading baseball cards, and attending the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. This is a perfect listen for the season!

“Pete Rose is a good example. When I came to the Hall in 1994, the big topic was Pete, who back in ‘91 had been banned by baseball. Arguably one of the top hitters of all time, and here you have a Hall of Fame without the all-time hits leader! But baseball’s rules for election don’t consider players who are on the ineligible list, which Pete was on and is still today, and he did nothing to show he belonged in the Hall. As you walk into every clubhouse, as I have done, and the first thing you see is, ‘Don’t Gamble on Baseball’, and Pete admitted to gambling on baseball. Now you have legalized gambling on baseball, you have casinos involved on a tangential level, yet I don’t see his candidacy changing.”

“I am trying to make sure the game remains relevant to the younger generations, and it’s challenging, because you have a sport that is tried and true to its traditions, we don’t like to change things very often, and the game is a game of beauty.  But as we talked about growing up, and we wondered why we love baseball so much, well, the reality is that we did not have a lot of choices, and kids and adults today have a lot of choices, and that’s why you see maybe the interest in baseball waning.”

Some Topics we talk about in this episode:

• Introduction - 2:03
• Gravitating into Baseball - 3:13
• Landing with the Red Sox - 5:37
• Working With the Enemy, the Yankees - 8:46
• Taking Advice From The Boss - 11:58
• Changing My Lifestyle - 13:37
• The Hall of Fame! - 14:58
• I Am The Baby Boomer - 17:01
• Becoming President - 20:14
• Old Timer's Game - 23:18
• Should Pete Rose be in The Hall? - 29:23
• What would you change in Baseball? - 30:59
• It’s All About Power! - 32:31
• Wrap-up and Takeaways - 37:50

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