FanHouse BrooksRobinson

Tuesday at a luncheon on the Baltimore area, Orioles Hall of Fame third basemen Brooks Robinson revealed that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. According to the 71-year-old Robinson, the cancer was detected very early and he's now in the clear.

After a whopping 39 radiation treatments, the best defensive third baseman in baseball history disposed of the cancer the way he took care of any line drive in his vicinity -- with seeming and unbelievable ease. He told his conquering tale to a group of American Cancer Society members.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

We're getting close to having three full weeks of baseball in the books. Astute fans know that it's definitely not enough to reveal the outcome of the season, but it's certainly enough of a sample to start drawing preliminary conclusions. Of course, you still have the occasional instance where home crowds boo their own players for one reason or another. Wednesday, for example, CC Sabathia was booed by about half the Yankee Stadium crowd when he departed after allowing six earned runs in 6 2/3 innings, upping his ERA to 4.81 on the season.

While these days the only thing the Cubs and Padres are talking about is a possible trade for Jake Peavy, earlier this summer the two teams spent their time talking about how much they hated playing in the annual Hall of Fame Game in Cooperstown. You may or may not remember, but after dealing with too many complaints from organizations and the players, both the player's union and the owners decided that 2008 contest between the Cubs and Padres would be the last time the exhibition game would be played with Major League teams. Then, as a final kick to the junk, the game was rained out.

Now while my initial suggestion of just moving the game to the end of spring training made a lot of sense in my mind, the Hall of Fame has decided it wants to do something different. I mean, they are the Hall of Fame right? Why not make the Hall of Fame game an event featuring actual Hall of Famers?

Baseball's legends and old-timers will play in a new Hall of Fame Classic, a creation deemed insufficient by the group opposed to the elimination of the annual exhibition between major league teams.

"We're honored to be a part of this," said Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson, president of the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association, which is working with the Hall of Fame to put on the Hall of Fame Classic.