One of the most striking things about the elections of Derek Jeter and Larry Walker is that the ascension of their careers to Cooperstown levels ran so contrary to the showcase system of today. When Jeter went on his recruiting trip to the University of Michigan in 1991 at the age of 16, his mother Dorothy asked her son’s recruiter, assistant coach Arthur (Ace) Adams, “Do you think my son could start as a freshman?”



That’s how Jeter was raised. So after the Hall of Fame announcement on Tuesday evening, he laughed about hitting .202 in his first professional season playing for Gary Dembo in the Gulf Coast League in 1992, or making 56 errors the next season.



Walker recounted his upbringing in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, where hockey was king; he still played more than 30 baseball games and dozens of fastpitch softball games a year. And how in 1985, at 18 years old, he made his professional debut in Utica, N.Y., playing for Ken Brett. He...