Jeff Foster, owner of Legends Are Forever, believes the inductions will bring more business to Main Street and he says he is ordering heavy.

"This is an induction that only comes around every eight to 12 years," he said. "The next big induction will probably be when Derek Jeter gets inducted, which will probably be another 12 or 13 years."

Bob Tricomi has owned the On Deck Circle for five years and also believes this year’s induction will be bigger than ever.

``People have been waiting for this for years,’’ he said. "They have been anticipating for a while."

Tricomi, along with many other local merchants, says he will be ordering more merchandise for the big weekend. He says he will be ordering a lot of Ripken and Gwynn stuff, but will be ordering a lot of other stuff as well.

Manager of the Cooperstown Baseball and Souvenir Shop Tim Greer says he expects an extra large crowd for induction day. However, he says he really does not have a plan besides for hoping to have enough merchandise and he is planning to have an extra staff member working.

"We may have four people on that day," he said. "We normally have three."

Greer says he believes the majority of the people coming to the inductions are coming for Ripken, but unfortunately the shop does not have too much team oriented merchandise. He says the shop mostly has t-shirts that are Cooperstown and baseball themed, not anything specifically team or player oriented.

This will be the first year Greer has worked during inductions. However, he said the streets and business were "insane" when the Boston Red Sox were in Cooperstown right after winning the World Series in 2004."

"It should be interesting," Greer said about the upcoming induction.

Many merchants agreed that the last really big induction they could recall was when Nolan Ryan was inducted into the Hall in 1999. Owner of Safe at Home Ballpark Collections Andrew Vilacky is anticipating the equivalent of that this year and says he will be stocking up for the big event.

"Naturally you would have to," said Vilacky. "More people mean more business."

Hall of Fame communications director Brad Horn said the biggest induction was in 1999, with 50,000 people. However, he does anticipate the record being broken this year and says he expects this year’s ceremony to be the largest in history.

Horn says the exact numbers cannot be totaled because the event is free and is held outdoors. Nevertheless, Horn says 200 busses are committed to Sunday’s ceremony.

According to Horn, the Baseball Hall of Fame produces its own merchandise that features Hall of Fame branding. He says the Hall of Fame’s gift shop will have both larger quantity and selections of retail items because crowds are anticipated to be much more numerous than in the past. He also says the shop will have a larger selection of Ripken and Gwynn merchandise.

To prepare for the anticipated crowd, Horn says the Hall of Fame will have more staff and will have 100 volunteers working. Horn says he wants to make sure visitors have a chance to enjoy the museum and have a wonderful experience.

There is one shop on Main Street that is not expecting this year’s induction to be any different from any other year. A staff member at F.R. Woods House of Pro-Sports, who asked not to be identified, says she doesn’t think any of the shops will be doing anything differently and believes everyone will be at the gym, not down on Main Street. She says it is just another year and is not that big of a deal.

The Baseball Hall of Fame induction is July 29.