Who's the earliest HOF you met in person?

[Tom Hufford]

I attended the 1971 Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown, my first trip there (I was 21). After the HOF activities were over, I met with 15 other guys in the HOF Library for the Founding meeting of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) (and if you're not a member yet, you should join!).

I spent quite a bit of time sitting in the lobby of the Otesaga Hotel, where the players stayed, and I met dozens of oldtimers. I was in awe.

I met four Hall of Famers born before 1890 - Rube Marquard, Harry Hooper, Zach Wheat and Stan Coveleski. Marquard was the oldest at 84 , born 10-9-1886.

But the oldest former player I met was Larry Gardner. He was there to see his old Red Sox teammate Harry Hooper inducted. Gardner was born 5-13-86, about five months before Marquard, and made his ML debut in June 1908, three months before Rube.

I sat for a while in the hotel lobby talking to Marquard, when he said "Are you going to be here for awhile?" When I assured him that I would be he said "I'm going to run up to my room and get something, wait for me til I get back." In a few minutes he did return, carrying a large old scrapbook of his career. We sat for several hours while he went through the scrapbook, telling me stories about the games and the many guys he played with.

Can you imagine something like that happening today? I've always appreciated the time that he gave me, and I corresponded with him up until his death. I wish that I had gotten a photo of us together. I did get a photo of me with Harry Hooper and Ernie Shore that year, however, that I later sent and got signed by both.