COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – Saturday was a de-facto women-in-baseball day at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Claire Smith was presented with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, Rachel Robinson with the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, and Kathleen Lowenthal accepted the Ford C. Frick Award on behalf of her step-father, Bill King.

“I think this is a ‘Holy Toledo’ moment,” said Lowenthal said, referencing her step-father’s famous tagline.

Saturday was also marked by the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the movie, “A League of Their Own.” The movie, about the World War II era women’s baseball league, was not only partially filmed in Cooperstown, but it was directed by a woman, Penny Marshall.

“So Penny Marshall made an amazing film, and I found myself leaning into the movie,” said Thomas Tull, “42” producer and Hall of Fame Board Member “and instead of thinking about even the life lessons, I found myself routing for the Rockford Peaches.”

The 55 Hall of Fame members in attendance, including Sunday inductees Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, Ivan Rodriguez, John Schuerholz and Bud Selig gave standing ovations to Robinson and Smith, two African-American women who were trailblazers in the sport.

But the women had their own list of trailblazers to credit, from Jackie Robinson to Frank Robinson, from Larry Dolby to Roberto Clemente. Smith even brought a hat, she said, only so she could take it off to honor baseball’s pioneer female executive, the late MLB executive, Katy Feeney, who died last year.

Smith, who became baseball’s first female beat writer in 1982, covering the New York Yankees for the Hartford, Connecticut Courier, also had former Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres first baseman Steve Garvey stand as she thanked him for his help.

In 1984, the Padres tried to bar Smith from their clubhouse after a playoff game. Smith called on Garvey, who helped her get the quotes she needed and gave her advice that carried her through the ordeal.

“When he saw me being emotional after becoming manhandled, he uttered the most important words an athlete ever said to me,” she said. “‘I will stay here as long as you need me, but remember, you have a job to do.'”

After the ceremony, Garvey teased Smith for calling him out.

“I’ll get you back for this,” he said.

“I know you will,” she said, beaming.

Smith, who grew up in Philadelphia, said she had dropped out of Temple University, when her family encouraged her to follow her dream of being a sportswriter. She re-enrolled in college, and started her career at the Bucks County Courier Times. She worked her way up in the business, ultimately abandoning the daily-beat for a position as an at-large baseball writer, covering the larger games, first with the New York Times, and since 2007, as a producer with ESPN.

Smith is the first woman and fourth African American to win the Spink Award, which is given by the Baseball Writers Association of America. She said she had no idea how the honor would resonate with the generation of women writers who followed her path.

“Talk about missing the lead,” she said. “Somehow I must have touched something within these youngsters, and I never knew it.”

Robinson is the fourth winner of the O’Neil Award, which is given sporadically, but not more than once every three years. Robinson was selected not just for being witness to and participant in history – she and Jackie were married in 1946, the year before he broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier with the Dodgers – but for her decades of work giving college scholarships through the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

“We are so proud of the nearly 100 percent graduation rate of our Jackie Robinson Foundation scholars,” she said.

She said work has begun on the Jackie Robinson Museum in New York City, and although she just turned 95, “I hope to see all of you there when it opens in 2019.”

Tull assisted Robinson around the stage and said she has dealt with everything with grace.

“All I can tell you is that with someone that went through things that would have made, I think, any of us in this stadium bitter and angry, she’s the exact opposite,” Tull said. “She is the personification of what’s good, and I think in this day and age, we can learn a lot from that.”

King was known not just for baseball, or his “Holy Toledo” exclamation, but was a sentimental favorite for fans of three Bay Area teams: the A’s, the Oakland Raiders and the Golden State Warriors. He and 2004 Frick winner Lon Simmons became the voice of the A’s for several generations. King’s baseball career spanned from Billy Ball to Money Ball, and included Rickey Henderson’s records, the Bash Brothers’ home runs and Tony LaRussa’s 1989 World Champions.

Lowenthal said when her step-dad died, after the 2005 season, she was stunned with how hard the fans took it.

“It was as if the fans had lost a family member,” she said. “The grieving went on for weeks, and in the newspapers, especially on talk radio shows, it was inconceivable that Bill’s voice could be silenced.”

Klein writes for the Cooperstown, New York Crier.