“Ken Griffey Jr. was the first player selected in the 1987 Draft, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, the first player in Hall of Fame history to amass over 99 percent of the vote and the first player to wear a Mariners cap on his Hall of Fame plaque”, Mariners president and CEO Kevin Mather said in a team press release. Both men will be i…
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Mike Piazza announced on Thursday that he’s going into the Hall of Fame as a New York Met.
The Mariners marked Griffey’s triumphant return Friday to Safeco Field as a Hall of Fame electee by announcing formalized plans to retire his No. 24. Some of the other baseball players attempting to get into the Hall of Fame that didn’t quite make the cut this year include Jeff Bagwell (who was short 15 votes), Tim Raines (who was short 23), and Trevor Hoffman, (short 34 votes in his first year of eligibility to be inducted).
Griffey is the 51st first ball Hall of Fame member and will enter the hall alongside Mike Piazza.
Griffey Jr. didn’t wear the hat backwards in games, but he wore it backwards all the time away from the field – enough that it looks odd to see him wearing a hat in the proper way.
I met Piazza in Atlanta. While Piazza spent most of his career in big cities and Griffey played in smaller towns like Seattle, there was actually an opportunity for the two greats to play together. I was rooting for Mike to go deep. Certainly, being the first player in Mariners’ history to have his number retired is how it should be.
“I think I did most of my damage as a Mariner, ” Griffey said.
Griffey was always a certainty to be elected at the first time of asking and the only point of intrigue was whether he would be the first player voted in unanimously. Neither player ever failed a drug test, but no one – and I do mean no one – believes that they played clean. Despite an injury-riddled second half of his career, Junior still pounded the sixth most home runs all time.
The much-loved Griffey’s accolades are right up with the best of them.
In seven seasons with the Dodgers, Piazza hit.331/.394/.572 with 177 HR, 115 doubles, and 563 RBIs. Piazza also played for the Marlins, San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics. “I feel blessed for all the support I received here”, he said.
Piazza is the greatest hitting catcher of all time, or at least that’s what was said last week.
Elected on the fourth try, Piazza joins Tom Seaver as the only players going into the Hall as Mets.
Piazza’s defining NY moment arrived the following year. The number 24 will go next to the already retired number 42 for Jackie Robinson, that was retired by all Major League teams in honor of Jackie Robinson.
“When we got in the auto, he said, ‘Don’t ever do that again”, Junior recalled his father saying.
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With these changes, Mussina stands a good chance in making the Hall within the next few years and can finally lose the “snub” designation when the discussion comes up.
