Mel Antonen - Inducted 2017

The 1974 Hamlin High and 1979 Augustana grad was a national baseball reporter for USA Today for 24 years (1986-2010).

The Lake Norden native covered numerous history-making accomplishments – including Cal Ripken’s Ironman streak, the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa Home Run Derby, eight players reaching their 3,000th hit, labor negotiations, the players' strike of 1994, the 1989 Earthquake Series, the closing of Yankee Stadium and dozens of stories on Hall of Famers, including Bob Feller, Yogi Berra, Stan Musial and Joe DiMaggio. He also was a contributor to many baseball radio and TV shows.

He is a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America and is a Hall of Fame voter. He has covered nearly every World Series since 1980. Also for USA Today, he covered the Super Bowl and three Olympics, including the Tonya Harding knee-bashing incident.

Antonen writes baseball columns for SI.com and hosts a pregame baseball show on MASN-TV, the network that covers the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals. He also is a baseball analyst for Sirius-XM Radio.

Before USA Today, he was a sportswriter and news reporter for the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. He played Legion baseball at Bryant and amateur baseball at Lake Norden and Renner. Mel joins his dad, Ray, in the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame.