Gabby DiMarco elected to Beer Ball Hall of Fame on First Ballot

NO, NOT REALLY - Last January, the Hoff finally made the HoF: ace Padres reliever Trevor Hoffman, whose 601 saves are second only to Mariano Rivera, appeared on 79.9 percent of the ballots cast by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. That was more than enough to secure him a place in Cooperstown, where he joins San Diego greats like Dave Winfield and Tony Gywnn — on his third try.

But San Diego’s Gabby DiMarco won’t have to wait anything like that long to join the Beer Ball Hall of Fame inside The Doubleday Cafe, a Cooperstown sports bar dedicated to honoring what owner Pop Upland calls “the greatest drinking game in all of sport: catching a fly ball in your beer cup and then chugging it down. Football’s Lambeau Leap, in which a player jumps into the stands after scoring, may seem like it provides a greater connection between players and fans. But nothing encapsulates everything that is great about a sport the way Beer Ball does baseball. The precision and timing required, the ritual involved, the mechanics demanded when you’re trying to slurp beer around a leather ball, the tradition, and of course, that right-place-right-time magic. Gabby DiMarco performed like a champion up there. We’re honored to have her in the hall.”