This week represents a joyous time for Griffey, who was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday.
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As the oft-told story goes, the young Griffey Jr. and his brother Craig were among 14 children of Yankees playing in a clubhouse corridor when they were both singled out to quiet down.
Griffey is the first player elected to the Hall of Fame primarily because of his achievements as a Mariner, and his plaque will be the first showing a Mariners cap. Both men will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer.
“I figured I’d be long retired by the time he made it to the Major Leagues”, Griffey Sr. said.
But the elder Griffey did not get much of an opportunity to see his son play during his high school years because while he played at the famed Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, the elder Griffey was still in the majors.
During the news conference, Piazza also praised John Roseboro, Kevin Kennedy and Joe Ferguson, his first catching instructors in the Dodgers organization, saying they got him ready to play.
In fact, Griffey received a higher percentage of votes than any other player in history – he appeared on 437 of 440 ballots, good for a percentage of 99.3 in his first appearance on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot – almost becoming the first-ever unanimous selection.
“The last couple of days have been a whirlwind for me”, Griffey said. The numbers are astonishing, especially for someone taken in the 62 round of the amateur draft-a round in which clubs pad out their minor league rosters with guys who are basically paid to play catch with the prospects. I lived there eight years, lived there eight years back and forth, never went – well, I take it back, I take it back. “I spent most of my time in Seattle”. But there was a point in Griffey’s life when things seemed so bad he tried to commit suicide by swallowing 277 aspirin, by his count, according to a 1992 article in The Seattle Times.
Los Angeles drafted Piazza at the recommendation of then-manager Tommy Lasorda, a friend of Piazza’s father, Vince.
Also known as “The Kid”, Griffey hit 630 home runs – and may have broken the all-time home run record if not for the myriad of injuries that plagued the latter part of his career – to go with 1,836 RBIs, a. 284 batting average and 2,781 hits (including 524 doubles and 38 triples).
Growing up, I was a nominal catcher for three years under the direction of my dad, who let me pick the team name despite being a diehard Baltimore-bred Orioles fan. Piazza said it was an honor to meet Sandy Koufax with the Dodgers. Now that the a PED connected player is in, it opens up the possibility for fellow sluggers Barry Bonds and Jeff Bagwell to make the Hall – just another way Piazza’s changing the game.
Every team in baseball has retired the No. 42 in honor of Robinson, who helped break baseball’s color barrier on April 15, 1947.
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Before Schmidt’s induction ceremony, I visited the museum and was admiring the display of memorabilia from the 1980 World Series, which the Phillies won. “For them to say, ‘Hey, we don’t want anybody to wear this number, ‘ it’s overwhelming…and scary”.
