During the 2014-15 offseason, Cooley Law Stadium, the home of Lansing Lugnuts, was undergoing mass renovations. At the same time, team’s front office members in the High-A organization were trying to come up with new and exciting features to add to the ballpark.
The best suggestion was to pioneer the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame and host it inside of the stadium. Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, Lugnuts’ radio and TV broadcaster, was assigned to head up this project. It was assigned to him by former Lugnuts owner Tom Dickson, former General Manager Nick Grueser and former Director of Marketing Jeremey Smoker.
They all agreed the idea had potential.
“The Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame first began as a concept,” Goldberg-Strassler said. “It was discovered that there was no Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame yet and that it would be a very cool project to add into the ballpark.”
The organization was committed to making this project work and ultimately placed the Hall of Fame along the outfield concourse.
Goldberg-Strassler was in charge of creating the ballot, the voting committee and executing the vote for the inaugural class. A decade later, Goldberg-Strassler is still creating the ballots and executing the voting process. He also writes the inscriptions for the inductee plaques and coordinates the induction ceremony each year.
The first class to be enriched into this hall was in 2015. This class saw big names like John Smoltz, Al Kaline and Jim Abbot be honored for their contributions to the game. However, some of the smaller names inducted make this hall special.
One of the lesser known names within the hall is the Homer High School baseball team. Homer was inducted in 2016, to honor their record of 143-6 spanning from 2003 to 2006. This team also had a 75-game win streak.
The Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame serves as one of few places that is able to commemorate small names like this that accomplished historic baseball feats within the state of Michigan.
Joe Block, radio and TV broadcaster for the Pittsburgh Pirates and a Metro Detroit native, is one of the members of the Hall of Fame’s voting committee.
Block is also a Michigan State University alumni, who remains connected to the state and uses his seat on the voting committee as an opportunity to shine a light on some of the lesser known names that deserve to be recognized for their accomplishments and contributions within baseball.
“I really enjoy having a say in this stuff and nominating people,” Block said. “I feel like my role is to make sure that people that might otherwise get overlooked [on the ballot] at least get some consideration in the voting.”
Block continued and listed some names he hopes will make it into the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame someday.
“I really want Ryan Orr to get in. He threw three perfect games at Bath High School,” Block said. “Another person on our list that we can nominate worked in youth baseball in West Michigan for 40 years. He created programs for kids, started leagues and got an umpiring program together. That has a huge effect on thousands of people. I’ll continue to vote for him. That’s the kind of stuff that I feel like I’m passionate about, trying to get these people recognized.”
This Hall of Fame gives lesser-known players like Orr the recognition they deserve, but might not find elsewhere. These small names will most likely never have a chance at Cooperstown, but do have an opportunity to be immortalized in Lansing and recognized as one of Michigan’s finest baseball figures.
The Hall is still standing strong and preparing to welcome its 11th class to be enshrined at Jackson Field. The 2025 class will see Detroit Tiger Dave Bergman, Aquinas College Coach Terry Bocian, DeWitt Coach Frank Deak, and Hope College and Washington Senators star Jim Kaat enshrined.
With almost a dozen classes inducted, it is safe to say that the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame has been a success amongst both Michigan natives and baseball fans at large.
It is not easy to build something like this from the ground up and see it grow and succeed over the course of a decade. Nonetheless, the members within the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame have been able to make it happen.
Grueser, who now works in Lansing as the senior director of business development for Playfly Sports Properties, understands why this Hall has been so successful.
“With Michigan, there’s so much rich history we have in baseball, and [a Hall of Fame] didn’t exist. So we were pumped to house it. It’s also helped that [the Hall of Fame] is in the state’s capital, it represents the whole state,” Grueser said. “Jesse has also been a big part of this success over the last decade. This hall is needed, it’s done well by Jesse and his staff, and there’s just a level of simplicity behind it. Once a year you put a couple more inductees in. It’s something simple in a world where so many things are not.”
Block also commended Goldberg-Strassler on his contributions to the Hall and attributed part of its success towards his hard work and dedication.
“Everything Jesse does he is incredibly thoughtful and passionate about. He’s a voracious researcher and has a literary sense to him that few broadcasters do,” Block said. “Because of what his strengths are, he’s been able to make this hall successful.”
Goldberg-Strassler has been an incredibly important asset within the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame. However, he attributes most of the hall’s success towards the fans and the Michigan baseball community as a whole.
“It’s all for them. It’s to recognize their efforts over years and years. It’s not really about me, it’s so much larger than that,” Goldberg-Strassler said. “When they are honored, everyone shows up to honor them and celebrate them. When Javier Cavazos was inducted, the entire stadium basically turned into a celebration of him. That’s special.”
The Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame may have started as just an addition to a ballpark, but it has now become something much larger than itself. It is a place where well known and unknown baseball careers alike are celebrated and honored.
Whether it be one of the greatest shortstops of all time, or a local high school team, every single inductee is seen as one of Michigan’s best.
Goldberg-Strassler described the impact that the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame has amongst the fans, the players and their families.
“Everybody cares so much. It’s so nice to celebrate a high school coach or team and see how much it means to them. It’s also great to celebrate Major Leaguers and their families and see what that means to them,” Goldberg-Strassler said. “The people who we’ve honored in the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame, it’s been very important to see how the event has meant the world to everybody included.”