Baseball Hall of Fame Encounters at The National Sports Collectors Convention – Chicago 2025

Baseball Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery (Milo Stewart Jr. / National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum).

When you can’t get to Cooperstown, it means meeting National Baseball Hall of Fame members at The National Sports Collectors Convention. This year’s National is the first of three consecutive years back in Chicago (well, actually, Rosemont, if we want to be specific) through 2027. Detroit was named as the location for The National in 2028.

This was my first time back at The National since the 2023 convention in Chicago. Several Baseball Hall of Fame members appeared throughout the weekend. We’ll see which Baseball Hall of Fame members come to town over the next two years. July 2027 will make for an exciting few weeks between the 2027 All-Star Game and The National a few weeks later.

Dennis Eckersley is the only player in baseball history to record 100 complete games and 100 saves. For those who might be curious, John Smoltz achieved the latter, but not the former. Anyway, Eckersley had been a starter through the end of the 1986 season. He’s been on both ends of the St. Louis Cardinals-Chicago Cubs rivalry. Seeing as how he was still a starter in 1984, he did not pitch in the Sandberg Game. It was only after being traded to the Oakland Athletics that he transitioned to relief pitching. As a result, he became a dominant closer, winning both the 1992 AL Cy Young and MVP Awards. His 390 saves are currently 9th all time.

Tony La Russa is three-time World Series champion as a former manager of both the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. A 4-time manager of the year, he became the first manager to win in both leagues. He joined Baseball Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson in becoming the second manager to win World Series championships in both leagues. When he retired after the 2011 season, his managerial record was 2,728-2,365, giving him a .538 winning percentage and the third-most wins all time behind Connie Mack and John McGraw. After a second stint with the Chicago White Sox, La Russa finished with 2,884-2,499 (.538) and passed McGraw’s managerial wins record.

I had an opportunity to interview La Russa several years ago when One Last Strike was published. While I don’t know if he remembered our conversation taking place, I had asked him about being in the dugout for both the David Freese and Kirk Gibson walk-off home runs. As La Russa commented after a photo op on Sunday, one was happy and one was not-so-happy.

Dave Winfield became the 19th member of the 3,000-Hit Club on September 16, 1993. When he retired two seasons later, he was 35 home runs shy of joining both the 3,000-Hit and 500 Home Run Club. A 12x-All-Star, Winfield’s only World Series championship came when he was playing for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 by delivering the game-winning double in extra innings against the Atlanta Braves. He is one of five players to be drafted by three different sports. Winfield was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.

Milwaukee Brewers short stop and center fielder Robin Yount was the 17th player to join the 3,000-Hit Club and the third-youngest player to reach the mark. He also earned the AL MVP Award at both positions. Yount was a lifer with the Brewers and still holds many of the club’s franchise records. Yount joined the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

The 46th National Sports Collectors Convention will be held July 29-August 2, 2026 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. Baseball Hall of Fame Weekend will take place July 24-27, 2026.