“He taught me how to play this game, but more importantly, he taught me how to be a man”, said Griffey, who failed hopelessly and delightfully his pre-speech prediction of coolness.
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A 13-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove Award victor in center field, Griffey hit 630 home runs, sixth all-time, and drove in 1,836 runs. He was the 1993 National League Rookie of the Year, a 12-time All-Star and won the NL Silver Slugger Award 10 straight years from 1993 to 2002.
Congratulations to Griffey and Piazza for being immortalized into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, a well-deserved honor.
In his Hall of Fame career, Piazza hit 427 home runs. Tommy, you were always there for me.
Despite heat that made some types of shoes stick to the asphalt, more than 50,000 people gathered, with many seated in folding chairs, on blankets and underneath umbrellas, and many others standing.
“I remember everybody saying “Don’t look down at your kids, don’t look down at your kids” until you have to”, Griffey said. Caught at least 100 games 11 times, leading N.L.in putouts on four occasions.
As we found out in January, Griffey was named on 437 of the 440 BBWAA ballots, meaning his 99.32 percent figure set a record, breaking Tom Seaver’s 98.84 percent, a mark that had stood since 1992.
Any omissions were the outcome of his taking the Hall of Fame’s suggestion on speech length – try to keep it in the 14-15 minute range, he was told – more literally than Piazza, whose lovely but long acceptance address included words for his father (spoken in Italian) as well as quotations from Pope Francis and Teddy Roosevelt.
Piazza’s ride to Cooperstown was less ordained as he rose from a 62nd round draft pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers to a hulking figure behind the plate. We won’t be confusing him for Johnny Bench, but we also shouldn’t act like he was made of teflon back there. Led Mets to the 2000 Subway Series, and helped rally a nation one year later with his dramatic home run in the first Mets game in NY following the 9/11 attacks. “I am damn proud to be a Seattle Mariner”.
Griffey played 22 years in the big leagues and finished with 630 home runs.
“The only way I ever thought I’d be here with you”, said Piazza.
“We do this every year but we knew we’d need more food than ever this year”, said Nick Marcantonio, one of the group’s organizers.
The speeches from Griffey and Piazza likely elicited some tears from the Mariners and Mets fans who trekked to upstate NY for a rare opportunity to see one of their own enshrined.
Piazza’s post-9/11 homer, which he hit on September 21, 2001, was a defining moment of his career.
“To witness the darkest evil of the human heart. will be forever burned in my soul”, Piazza said.
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“I’ve been watching him since the beginning”, Christopher Sanzone said. “I pray that we never forget their sacrifice”.
