The 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame class was enshrined during Sunday’s ceremony in Cooperstown, NY, with what was an incredibly large crowd on hand. However, prior to the ceremony, he a photo to his Instagram account with a zoomed in look at the suit and the details are incredible.
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But Griffey wasn’t done.
He ended his speech by putting on a Mariners hat and turning it backward, a trademark of a great playing career that was derailed in its latter stages by injury. Some saw it as a sign of disrespecting the game.
Piazza, who was inducted along with Ken Griffey, Jr., gave one of the best, thoughtful, wide-ranging speeches I’ve ever heard. He and Ken Griffey Sr. became the first father-son duo to hit back-to-back home runs. Griffey praised the Mariners and the Seattle fans.
“Greatest teammate I ever had”, Griffey said, per Baseball Hall.
He said he hopes he’s remembered for how hard he played – both as a Silver Slugger at the plate and a 10-time, wall-crashing Gold Glove center fielder.
If you were a kid growing up in the 1990’s and you played baseball, you mimicked Griffey’s swing. “You are a great hitting coach, but the biggest lesson that you taught me was how to get through the game of life, and to never quit”, Piazza said, thanking Smith. Out of my 22 years in the majors, I learned only one team will treat you the best, and that is your first team. “Now is the time to smell the roses”. “Absolutely. He has done an incredible job in that city”, Griffey said yesterday at a press conference for the new inductees.
“Just because I made it easy doesn’t mean that it was”. So popular, he was named to MLB’s All-Century team in 1999 though he was just 11 years into his career.
There really was only one way Ken Griffey Jr. could go into the Hall of Fame, and always the fan favorite, he didn’t disappoint. “The race is over”, Piazza said.
Piazza and the Mets were front and center in that effort, with the highlight coming when he blasted a decisive home run in the first game back at Shea Stadium after the attack.
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“Many of you give me praise for the two-run home run in the first game back on September 21, but the true praise belongs to police, firefighters, first responders that knew that they were going to die but went forward anyway”. Among the estimated 50,000 fans in attendance was 98-year-old Homer Osterhoudt, who attended the first Hall of Fame induction in 1939. “Between the two of us, we have a sense of pride when he talks about me, or I talk about him”.
