A Day in Cooperstown

Well, the first day in Cooperstown was a resounding success. What started as a sunny day ended up with just enough cloud cover to keep things comfortable and a few scattered raindrops later during the ceremony awarding the J.G. Taylor Spink Award honoring long-time Detroit writer Tom Gage and the Ford C. Frick Award honoring Broadcaster Dick Enberg.

The sun returned for the Parade of Legends which takes place after the Awards Ceremony on Saturday of Hall of Fame weekend and is always one of the highlights of the weekend. Seeing so many Hall of Famers in one place is truly something to behold ...

Dave Winfield looking back at us

George Brett says "Hey"

Carlton Fisk with a big thumbs up

Orlando Cepeda

Rollie Fingers twirling that famous 'stache

Tom Glavine and I having a moment

I see why they called Frank Thomas "The Big Hurt"

Johnny Bench working the crowd

Ricky Henderson

Hank Freaking Aaron!!!

Phil Neikro being coy

Robbie Alomar

Rod Carew was the epitome of cool

The honorees came last ...

John Smoltz with a thumbs up

Pedro Martinez never stopped dancing

Randy Johnson never put down the camera phone

And Craig Biggio never quit grinning

The B-G-O chant for Craig was very, very loud and the Astros were well represented in the crowd, rivaled only by Red Sox fans cheering for Pedro, but I still think we outnumbered them and most of us came from much further! I met many people that I know from twitter and hope to meet a few more today before all is said and done.

As I write this it's raining in Cooperstown and the forecast is not good for induction time, but I'm hoping and praying that the baseball gods will smile upon us and the sun will shine as brightly as Biggio's smile.

ALL PHOTOS BY JAYNE HANSEN

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED