Welcome to this year's induction ceremony to Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame.
As Commissioner of Major League Baseball, it is always my pleasure to host the annual induction ceremony. However this year is extra special because for the first time in history The Baseball Hall of Fame has waived its 5 year waiting period to accommodate the induction of not only one of the games' greatest players of all time, but also one of its greatest ambassadors. Dominick Carvoli Passed away 3 weeks ago succumbing colon cancer after a 3 year fight. He died the same way lived his life: thinking of others first and fighting the good fight to the end.
We have as presenters for you today several of Dom's coaches from throughout his career and accepting for Dom will be Angie Carvoli, Dom's wife of 17 years.
First, may I Introduce Dom's High School coach, Coach Bud James."
"Thank you Mr. Commissioner. It's my honor to be here to help induct to baseball's Hall of Fame the greatest player I ever saw play the game. The first time I saw Dom was the spring of his sophomore year. Here comes this tall, gangly..."
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Angie reminisces:
The first time I saw him, he was tripping down the hall in our high school, and I do mean tripping. Dom was about 6'2" and weighted about 130 lbs. Like me, he was a sophomore and obviously had just had his growth spurt - vertically anyway.
Dom's other outstanding feature was his ears - they were huge. Not only were they big, but they stuck out from his head like a wind break. He had to have strong legs just to keep moving forward against the drag those ears must have created. After all these years I still remember my astonishment when I first saw those ears.
My best friend Cindy and I were on our way to our next class when we passed Dom. Cindy, with her normal lack of discretion almost screamed "Who's that dork"? I was mortified, but Dom just smiled and kept going.
I was intrigued; I just had to find out more about this person. I finally found out his name was Dominick Carvoli. He was from a large Italian family on the east side of town. He had that sultry olive complexion that characterizes those of Mediterranean decent. Dom's hair was near black, and his dark brown eyes would flash obsidian when his passions were aroused.
On the other hand I am Irish; pale skin, red hair and freckles - lots and lots of freckles. My family is the law in our little town of New Madrid, MO. Da is the Chief, and both my uncles are patrolmen. My aunt is our cities detective. My older brothers want to go into law enforcement. I'm so screwed and any potential boyfriends better be ready for the inquisition.
But like I said, I was intrigued by this long tall scarecrow with twin wind socks. So I started my investigation. What? I do have the investigative genes you know. The first thing I learned was his nickname - Dombo! You know, like Dumbo the flying elephant. Kids can be so cruel. The second thing I learned about Dom was he was man totally comfortable with himself. He always knew he wasn't perfect, but so what. God, that we all could be that way.
Anyway it was still amazing that that Dom got along as well as he did. For one he was terminally clumsy, Dom could (and did) trip over the cracks in the linoleum. I noticed that teachers, when they had Dom in a class would hide the trash can because he would invariably find a way to trip over it.
Then there was his voice. That year, his voice was in the middle of changing and would go from a low baritone to a high screech all on its own and seemingly in the middle of a syllable. This drove my Da crazy when they finally met, but that was somewhere in the future.
That's what Dominick looked like, but, as you all know, looks only tell part of the story. Dom was the oldest son of a large family. As I learned from observing Dom, he was always looking out for his younger brothers and sisters. The easiest way to get those eyes to flash obsidian was to mess with his siblings. I soon learned all the little kids looked up to Dom and he in turn, always had time for them. The more I learned about Dominick Carvoli, the more I was intrigued.
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