ST. LOUIS -- The doors opened and Jonathan Papelbon appeared.
Of all the American League All-Stars made available for the traditional media get-together, the Red Sox' closer usually offers the most interesting analysis, and the reporters knew it. Last year it came in the form of Papelbon insinuating he wanted to close out the win for the A.L. in New York, ahead of the Yankees' Mariano Rivera, a topic that undoubtedly would resurface.
The Red Sox' closer was ready.
"There's no reason why Mo shouldn't save this game," Papelbon said. "I guess I'm just going to have to wait until he retires to get a chance. This All-Star Game is definitely a game about how many times you've been here. A guy who has as many All-Star Games under his belt should deserve to close. But do I want to close? Of course I want to. Will I? Probably not."
No, there wasn't the controversy of a year ago, but Papelbon would still manage to raise some eyebrows. It took more than 40 minutes into the hour-long cavalcade of questions, but the pitcher -- per usual -- delivered.
"Definitely," he said when asked if he thought about someday heading into the Hall of Fame.
"When I was in rookie development camp, and when I was in Instructional League, I told everybody there I wanted to be in the Hall of Fame. That was my goal," Papelbon said. "So that's what I'm aiming for now."
Needless to say, the looks when it comes to Papelbon's proclamation are a lot different now, after 136 major league saves, than they were when his claims were first uttered five years ago.
"Ben Cherington and Theo (Epstein) looked at me and said, 'Who does this kid think he is?'" Papelbon recalled. "I think about it a lot. I think about what I set out to do and said I wanted to do, and how I'm going to get there and what it's going to take to get there."
Papelbon's quest has certainly gotten off to a healthy beginning, having made the All-Star team in each of his first four seasons. And, as his teammate Josh Beckett pointed out back in 2007, the task of making it to Cooperstown was probably made a lot more feasible when Papelbon remained a reliever.
"I remember that one year in spring training where I'm like, 'Pap, what are doing? You could go to the Hall of Fame if you stay as a closer!'" Beckett said. "Then, all of a sudden, he's in there saying, 'Tito, let me be the closer.'"
While it is impossible to predict the chances Papelbon has at fulfilling his goal, noted statistician Bill James has devised a formula to help gauge the likelihood of active players heading to the Hall. It's called the 'Hall of Fame Monitor' and assigns a score to each player in regards to how close they might be to becoming a lock for induction.
Once the player reaches '100,' it means they can enter the argument in terms of being called a Hall of Famer. Right now Papelbon stands at '42,' well behind Rivera (204) and Trevor Hoffman (156), but after just four full seasons, he is certainly on the right track.
And, fortunately for Papelbon, there is no better reminder as to how he should go about getting to his goal than the sight of the player sitting across the ballroom, Monday afternoon.
"I probably have more respect for Rivera than any other player in this room," the Sox' hurler explained. "There's no one even close that I have more respect for... I wouldn't be in the situation I am today if it wasn't for him. The role is what it is today because of that guy. For me it's a great opportunity to share the field with him."
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