Hall of Fame is all in the family for him

Witnessing the Hall of Fame induction of Wade Boggs four years ago was the thrill of lifetime for me. Wade wasn't only the first player from my hometown Tampa Bay Rays to enter the Hall - he is my brother-in-law.

Wade's wife, Debbie, and my wife, Betty, are sisters.

Betty and I plus two of my three children made the trip to Cooperstown for that family celebration in 2005.

It was a monumental event and, in my mind, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe I'd have a reason to return to New York for another induction ceremony.

Until recently.

As it turns out, Wade Boggs isn't the only member of my family to be voted into baseball's hallowed Hall. In November, as I delved into my family history, I discovered I'm also related to Joe Gordon, the former Yankees/Indians second baseman who was voted into the Hall by the Veterans Committee.

Joe is my third cousin.

I've been interested in family history for a few years now and have logged more than 1,800 names on my home computer. It was during this quest for ancestral family that I crossed paths with second cousin and fellow Gordon family researcher Marie Vayer.

Last October, Marie passed along an e-mail address for another fellow Gordon historian, Judy Gordon. I e-mailed Judy, asking her how we were related but a couple weeks passed without a reply. And when she did reply it was a somewhat cryptic e-mail announcing the election of Joe Gordon to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

At first I thought she had sent it because we were all Gordons and she wanted everyone to know that someone with our last name had been bestowed professional baseball's highest honor.

"Is Joe Gordon any relation to you?" I asked Judy. "Yes," she replied, "he's my father." I nearly fell out of my chair.

"Now you have two relatives in the Baseball Hall of Fame," Judy said.

In late summer of 1999, when Wade homered to collect his 3,000th hit and then retired at the end of the season, I began thinking about five years down the road to his eligibility to the Hall of Fame and a potential trip to his induction ceremony at Cooperstown. Reality finally hit me, driving from Albany to Cooperstown that late July in 2005.

We spent most of Saturday in downtown, walking the busy sidewalks and seeing the sights. A visit to the museum was a treat, especially seeing Wade's display. Even though the museum was crowded with people, it wasn't too bad maneuvering around the exhibits. But going through the museum's gift store was a different story - crowded and busy but with lots of neat stuff.

At lunchtime we went to a restaurant that you had to walk down a set of stairs to get to. Along the way, we saw former major-leaguers signing autographs that included Duke Snider and Darryl Strawberry.

We then headed to Doubleday Field to watch a minor-league baseball game. After a couple of innings we left, walked around some more and then headed back to our hotel to get ready for the Hall of Fame dinner at the Otesaga Resort Hotel and the reception afterward at the museum.

Saturday night was special. My wife and I got to meet actor Bill Murray at the cocktail party and then sat among the attending Hall of Fame players at dinner. I was able to take a picture of the six living Hall of Fame third basemen who were in attendance - George Kell, Brooks Robinson, Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Paul Molitor and Boggs.

Later, we rode a trolley from the hotel to the museum and walked the red carpet. A few minutes after arriving, Wade, his father, Win, and I, along with a couple of others, were given a tour of the Hall's basement where we got to see Lou Gehrig's first baseman's mitt, Babe Ruth's bat and old-time catcher's equipment and uniforms.

Even more special was the induction ceremony day. We arrived early and witnessed the throng of people coming in from all different directions. Our seats for the event were right in the middle on the front row. We took pictures early in the afternoon, which happened to be a really hot day. Being up close and watching the introduction of the Hall of Famers was really neat.

The entire weekend went by quickly and we all had a good time. Later, I received a limited-edition numbered Hall of Fame plaque of Boggs and Ryne Sandberg. That was icing on the cake for me.

Since then, I've been busy collecting genealogy information on both sides of my family. Then came the news in November about Joe Gordon.

I don't know what's going to be more exciting for me this time - attending the induction ceremony or getting to meet Judy and Marie in person and sharing genealogy stories.

But now I'm wondering if I'm related to Kansas City Royals third baseman Alex Gordon.

Anything's possible.