With his signature smile brightening an already sun-drenched summer day, Ken Griffey Jr. became the first player to represent the Mariners in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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“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.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem as if the Hall induction of the former Reds outfielder has brought Cincinnati the joy of the city’s other baseball heroes, particularly those of Big Red Machine era stars who were teammates of Junior’s father.
He approached the end of his speech – which came just after fellow 2016 inductee Mike Piazza’s – on Sunday outside the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown with a tribute to the team that drafted him No. 1 overall in 1987. Griffey is one of just six players ever to hit at least 630 home runs in his career, along with Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez and Willie Mays. “One problem: How come when you won, all my friends knew about it, and we didn’t even have cellphones back then?” Instead, as Senior, sitting in the audience of families, hung his head and wept, Junior spoke of a more important feat. The 1993 N.L Rookie of the Year and a 12-time All-Star, named Game MVP in 1996.
“My father’s faith in me, often greater than my own, is the single most important factor of me being inducted into this Hall of Fame”, Piazza said. “Just because I made it look easy doesn’t mean that it was”.
Each speech contained both heartfelt and humorous moments recalled from years of baseball experiences and memories.
Like Yankees great Mickey Mantle before him, fans are left to wonder what more Griffey might have accomplished had his health not become a hindrance. My guess is the tide ran high in homes who watched on MLB Network, too. Griffey, who was their father’s favorite player, hit a home run in 2001 in honor of the firefighter at the request of his widow, Katrina Marino.
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“Unfortunately, it wasn’t always the ups and downs of the baseball season that we experienced”, Piazza said, per The Score. Add in a new slate of first time eligible performers, and there are any number of outcomes that could take place. Griffey’s plaque will show him with a Mariners cap, making him the first ever Hall of Famer to be wearing one. “Now it’s time to smell the roses”. You always sent me baseball equipment when I needed it. You convinced the Dodgers to draft me. See, he beat me in a game of horse when I was 14 years old, made a jump shot, drove off in his vehicle and never gave me that rematch.
