COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. George Brett had long since been among the best hitters in baseball for the Kansas City Royals when he began to notice things about this rookie from Boston. The season was 1982, just two years after Brett spent the summer trying to become the first .400 hitter since Ted Williams.

He just missed, settling for .390.

Anyway, Brett takes up the story here, Friday afternoon on fabled Doubleday Field, down the street from the building that houses the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

"If you looked at the list of the top 10 batting order, I was up there a lot," Brett said. "But all of a sudden there's this new third baseman from the Red Sox named Wade Boggs. It's like, who is this guy? He's hitting .360, .370 in April."

The new kid showed he had some staying power, but he also showed some respect. The first time their teams met, he made it a point to watch Brett in batting practice. The two became great friends, sharing time together when their teams would play. Boggs even named his son Brett, and asked George to be the boy's godfather.

"He's one of the first baseball players I ever played against who said he looked up to me and admired me," Brett said.

"It was a fun little rivalry. I won three batting championships and he won five. It seemed like he kind of took over after I did, and kind of beat me out of a few, as I recall. He was an artist with the bat. He could put the ball wherever he wanted to. The bat was not a bat, it was a paintbrush. He painted some masterpieces out there."

After Sunday, these friends will stand as equals. Boggs will be enshrined in that same Hall of Fame down the street from Doubleday, taking his place beside Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and, naturally, George Brett, who was a member of the Class of 1999.

"Cooperstown is the most beautiful city in the world, it is. It's not the easiest place in the world to get to, but once you get here, there's something magical about this place," Brett said.

"I've been in the cornfield in Dyersville Iowa. I walked out of the left-field corn in my ghost uniform, and that was an out-of-body experience, and this is an out-of-body experience."

Brett took eight minutes before he choked up during his induction speech. He gives Boggs much less time than that before the emotions take over.

"Two minutes," he said.

Old School

Boggs and Brett get along so well because they are two of a kind. Both played baseball all-out, all the time, with respect for the game and their place in it. There's a right way to conduct your business on the field.

Maybe it's the passage of years or the shifting eras, but baseball is different today. If you believe that, you're not the only one. You have an ally in George Brett.

"I'd like to see guys put more an effort into it today, that's all. I'm tired of seeing guys hit ground balls to second or shortstop and just jog to first. I'm tired of seeing guys hit home runs and just stand there and watch them, especially when the right fielder jumps for the ball and it clears the fence by 2 feet," he said.

"I want to see guys stretch singles into doubles; they don't do that any more. They get a base hit to left center and they just jog to first, instead of running hard and stretching it into a double. I don't see that any more."

In the 1980 World Series against Philadelphia, Brett was dusted by Phillies pitcher Dickie Noles. Before he could get up out of the dust, Royals manager Jim Frey was headed onto the field in protest. Brett told his manager to go back and sit down.

"That's baseball; that's the way the game is played," he said. "I remember I struck out in that at-bat two pitches later, but you know what I was trying to do. I was trying to hit a line drive off Dickie Noles' head."

Now, before anyone gets in a wad over that -- considering what happened at Tropicana Field the other night, when Boston pitcher Matt Clement was struck by a line drive from Carl Crawford and had to leave the game -- understand what Brett is really saying.

Baseball, played properly, is busting your backside to beat the other guy -- all-out, all the time. It's running hard to first on an easy ground ball, even though you know you have no chance for a base hit.

That's how Brett did it for 21 seasons. That's what Wade Boggs did for 18 years. Any wonder they got along so well?

Exclusive Club

So what will Sunday really be like for Wade Boggs? Most of us can only guess, but George Brett knows. He understands what it's like to look out and see the ocean of faces, many of whom come to this baseball shrine out of a sense of calling.

Baseball can lock up a soul like no other game. It is the connection between generations. The basics don't change.

Brett smiled. He told the story of a third-generation Cubs fan from Texas who drove to Cooperstown with his family watch Ryne Sandberg enshrined along with Boggs.

"From Texas!" Brett said.

"But Ryne Sandberg, a guy who played on his favorite team, is going into the Hall of Fame, so he is coming up here. That's special. It's a destination that's hard to get to, but once you're here it brings out the little boy in all of us."