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Hagen Disappointed He Won't Share Cooperstown Stage This Summer

By Mike DeNardo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – No Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens in the Hall of Fame this year.

With baseball writers failing to elect any players to the Hall of Fame in 2013, that leaves former longtime Daily News Phillies beat writer Paul Hagen as the only living inductee as the recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for baseball writing.

Hagen, who's now with mlb.com, admits it will be disappointing, not sharing the Cooperstown stage with players who are receiving the ultimate honor.

"Well, yeah, because I'm a big baseball fan and I've covered many induction weekends. I think it's a great weekend for baseball and I think part of that is having some former players be inducted into the Hall of Fame," says Hagen.

Writers voted no one into the Hall of Fame in 1996, but fans still flocked to Cooperstown to see Earl Weaver and Jim Bunning, elected by the Veterans Committee.

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