The retired Major League Baseball stars were added to the shrine Sunday in ceremonies that drew 50,000 people to the small town in upstate NY known as the birthplace of the American pastime.
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But a closer look revealed a couple of charming details: the words “Hall of Fame Class of 2016” were spelled out in the fabric.
“Thirteen years with the Seattle Mariners, from the day I got drafted, Seattle, Wash., has been a big part of my life”, Griffey said, punctuating the end of his speech by putting a baseball cap on backward as he did throughout his career. That was Junior being Junior, and the Cooperstown crowd cheered like insane. “I could look at anybody else and go, ‘All right, I’m good.’ I think those three are the only ones that can do that to me”.
Griffey, selected by the Seattle Mariners in 1987, became the first No. 1 overall pick in history to land in Cooperstown and if that seemed like an indictment of the draft process, it could not even begin to compare with Piazza’s insane story.
Griffey, who blasted 630 career home runs, was inducted into the Hall along with former Mets slugger Mike Piazza with 48 returning Hall of Famers present at the Clark Sports Center. “Well, Rickey, I know where you’re going to be July 2017, and I’m bringing my shorts”.
“Just because I made it easy doesn’t mean that it was. You have given me the greatest gift and have graciously taken me into your family”, he said before the familiar chant broke out.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t always the ups and downs of the baseball season that we experienced”, Piazza said, per The Score.
Then Griffey donned a ball cap, turned it around in his trademark style, and smiled.
During his enshrinement speech, The Kid dropped a fun story about his kid, Trey Griffey, a wide receiver at Arizona.
Griffey’s mom, Birdie, and his father, former Cincinnati Reds star Ken Sr., both cancer survivors and integral to his rise to stardom, were front and center in the first row.
“I stand up here humbled and overwhelmed”, said Griffey Jr. Addressing a crowd packed with former teammates as well as Mariners team personnel from his 13 years with the ballclub, he broke down nearly immediately as he began to reflect on what his Seattle days meant to him. Rickey Henderson. Rickey, I’m still looking for that rematch. I was joking with Ken a little bit before we went up on stage. “I’m (darn) proud to be a Seattle Mariner”. “I got up and bought a new TV”.
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“Absolutely nerve-wracking”, Piazza said with a laugh afterward.
