Congratulations to Griffey and Piazza for being immortalized into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, a well-deserved honor. When former team president Chuck Armstrong introduced Griffey to the dinner guests, he broke down before speaking a word.
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It was a joyous day for baseball, and an estimated crowd of 50,000 made the trek, the second-largest crowd for an induction.
“The only way I thought I’d be here with you is if I bought a ticket.”
Trey Griffey added, “He did great”. The tears were evidence of how much a man once perceived as carefree actually cares.
The elder Ken Griffey, who had a solid major league career that included a stint with the Yankees, said, “I’m just a happy camper right now that’s all I can say”. “But fans had come from all over”. These guys were part of a baseball brotherhood that birthed Griffey’s generation of Black diamond minors and had a supreme influence on him throughout his career.
“There are two misconceptions about me – I didn’t work hard and everything I did I made look easy, ” Griffey said. Ironic isnt it? I was just a kid, but he was ideal in my eyes.
“Out of my 22 years, I learned that only one team will treat you the best, and that’s your first team”, he said. “Don’t do that?’ And you do it anyway?”
“I stand up here humbled and overwhelmed, ” Griffey said, staring out at his family and tens of thousands of fans.
“Would I do it all over again?”
Griffey now belongs to the baseball immortals.
One of the career highlights Mike Piazza recalled in his speech was catching Al Leiter’s one-hitter in the one-game playoff against the Reds in 1999.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. As a young man growing up in baseball, Neil Herman always liked the Los Angeles Dodgers as his favorite Major League Baseball team.
Griffey, who becomes the first player enshrined as a Seattle Mariner, is a father of three who stepped back into his playing days role as “The Kid” one more time, thanking the Mariners as well as the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds “for making this kid’s dream come true” as his voice broke.
“My father’s faith in me, often greater than my own, is the single greatest factor to me being inducted into this Hall of Fame”, said Piazza. Little did they know, they were getting a franchise legend and a Hall of Famer. “I’m (dang) proud to be a Seattle Mariner”. It was Frank Thomas’ idea.
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Here are the top five MLB Hall of Fame candidates for 2017. And more after Griffey finished. Although he regarded every aspect of his induction weekend as the thrill of a lifetime, the relief on his face afterward was palpable. “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.
