Ten for the ages
Fans who became celebrities, celebrities who became fans: A list of 10 top contenders for induction into the Baseball Fan Hall of Fame.
Steve Bartman: His reach for a foul ball in the 2003 National League Championship Series made him scapegoat par excellence at Wrigley Field.
Michael T. ''Nuf Ced" McGreevey: No-nonsense Boston saloonkeeper and leader of the Royal Rooters, whose love of the Red Sox is captured in a priceless collection at the Boston Public Library.
Louis Armstrong: Loved the game so much that he sponsored his own ball team, Armstrong's Secret 9, in New Orleans in 1931.
Barry Halper: Began collecting memorabilia as a boy in Newark in the 1940s, eventually amassing a collection nearly the equal of Cooperstown's.
Marianne Moore: Dodgers fan and poet (''Hometown Piece for Messrs. Alston and Reese"), she somehow became a Yankees fan in 1958.
Doris Bauer: Raspy-voiced Mets fan ''Doris from Rego Park" came to have a fan base all her own as a caller to WFAN in New York.
Hilda Chester: With her shrill voice and cow bell, she was Noise Incarnate at Ebbets Field in the 1930s and '40s. Favorite phrase: ''Eatcha heart out, ya bum."
Bill Murray: Co-owner of four profitable minor-league baseball teams; as SNL's Chico Escuela might say, beisbol been very, very good for Bill.
Lolly Hopkins: A fixture at Fenway from the 1930s through the '50s, she used a megaphone to rally the Boston faithful. The Sporting News called her the ''Hub's No. 1 Howler."
Walt Whitman: Briefly covered the game for the Brooklyn Eagle in the 1840s, mentioned it in ''Leaves of Grass," and in 1888 declared, ''Base ball is our game, the American game."
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
