A few days after the MLB All-Star Game next week, David Ortiz will be one of seven former players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He's also the answer to a trivia question related to the upcoming Midsummer Classic: Who was the last Hall of Famer to appear in an All-Star Game?
Ortiz made the last of his 10 All-Star Game appearances in 2016 at Petco Park in San Diego, going 0-for-1 with a walk before giving way to a pinch runner. He's the only player from that game so far who has been elected to the Hall of Fame.
Of course, there will be others in time, as anyone who appeared during the 2017 season has not yet been eligible to appear on an HOF ballot. But time is what it will take. Going back over the past full decade of All-Star Games, the total number of Hall of Famers who have appeared in the game is just four, with Chipper Jones, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter joining Big Papi. The 2013 game, in which Ortiz and Rivera appeared, is the most recent one to feature multiple Hall of Famers.
That brings us to another trivia question, one that we won't be able to answer for many years to come: How many Hall of Famers will appear in Tuesday's game?