Playing alongside his father, Ken Griffey, Sr., in 1990, he and his dad hit back-to-back home runs for the Mariners – the first time a father-son duo had accomplished the feat in baseball history.
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(AP Photo/Adam Nadel, File).
(AP Photo/Peter Southwick, File).
Piazza and Griffey will receive their plaques in Cooperstown, New York, at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in July.
This year, he joined the nine others (Hank Aaron, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Mel Ott, Frank Thomas, Ted Williams and Babe Ruth) by receiving 365 votes, 83 percent of the ballots cast and 35 more than needed for election.
Asked if he was disappointed to be so close to unanimous, he said: “I can’t be upset”.
I don’t think I can accurately describe what Griffey meant to the baseball fans of Seattle.
“He could have all kinds of high-level people watching him and Ken could care less”.
“Tremendous honor”, Piazza said.
Piazza was taken by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the 1,390th pick on the 62nd round in 1998; since the draft started in 1965, the lowest draft pick elected to the Hall had been John Smoltz, taken with selection 574 on the 22nd round in 1985.
One memory that stands out among Mets fans was the two-run homer Piazza hit off Atlanta’s Steve Karsay in the bottom of the eighth inning on September 21, 2001, at Shea Stadium.
Griffey said he and Bonds speak on the phone on average of five times a month but the conversation is usually about their shared love of mountain bike riding. “I couldn’t be prouder of him”. “They had never seen a ball hit that far”.
Former Expo Vladimir Guerrero will be eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time next year, while it will be the 10th and final chance for Raines. The big thing is to get into the Hall, not how, just to get in. Now, he’s one of 17 catchers in Cooperstown.
“This game has healed”, Mike Piazza said on a separate conference call.
Griffey and Piazza had contrasting treks to stardom.
“I wasn’t really sure”, he added.
Piazza’s unexpected rise to stardom, however, proved at first a blessing and later a curse. The cases for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are dicier, and the linked pair registered more modest bounces of 7-plus percent each. Just whispers about pimples on Piazza’s broad back.
“Now”, he said, “I’m going to do it”. He did acknowledge using androstenedione, amphetamines, Creatine, ephedra and a type of asthma medicine that made him more alert and focused. The rally and thrilling conclusion was a moment that some believe saved Major League Baseball in Seattle.
After being called out in Jose Canseco’s book, which claimed he took steroids, Clemens’ name surfaced two years later in 2007 as a part of the Mitchell Report, a document listing 77 baseball players-including fellow Hall of Fame candidate Bonds-who used PEDs.
But at least Griffey got in on his first try, unlike Berra, DiMaggio, Piazza, and many, many others. “All the emotions came into it every year, but again, knowing the history of the game and how many great players throughout this game had to wait a year, sometimes many years, it keeps it in perspective. I was just hoping to get in”.
Piazza’s total increased to 62.2 percent in 2014 and 69.9 percent a year ago, when he fell only 28 votes short.
A Ken Griffey Jr. flag waves from the Space Needle to honor to honor Griffey’s election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, in Seattle. Some favor. Still, one should expect Piazza to be wearing a Mets cap when he gets enshrined.
LM OTERO/AP Mike Piazza, 2005.
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It’s these events that are keeping the seven-time Cy Young Award victor out of the Hall of Fame.
