Piazza, who will wear a Mets hat in Cooperstown, was voted into the Hall of Fame alongside Ken Griffey Jr. this week.
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The actual induction ceremony won’t be held until this Summer, but, nonetheless, congratulations are certainly in order for Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza.
Just days after he received the highest number of Hall of Fame votes on the first ballot, Griffey made the trip to Seattle to spend the weekend in the Emerald City. Griffey’s Hall of Fame whirlwind came back to where it all started, when he spoke at Safeco Field, the stadium built in part because of him. Another surprise was revealed to him Thursday night when he was told that the Mariners were retiring his number. “I’m blessed to have played here”.
Already age 30 by then and a member of baseball’s All-Century Team, Griffey Jr. seemed intent on moving closer to home in Cincinnati. “Every time I’ve come back, I’ve been so incredibly honored from the response”.
Not only will no one wear number 24 at the Major League Baseball level, but no one in the entire organization will wear the number 24 in honor of Ken Griffey Jr.
There had been speculation Griffey could become the first unanimous selection. After falling 28 votes shy past year, he was selected on 365 (83 percent). “Fortunately I was able to get better and work harder and, at least, as I said, improve to where I was able to be a pretty good major league catcher”. A week later in his first at bat in Seattle, he thrilled Seattle fans hitting his first home run.
“That’s the freedom we have”, Piazza maintained.
Note: Others receiving votes on this year’s ballot were Jeff Bagwell (71.6 percent), Tim Raines (69.8 percent), Trevor Hoffman (67.3 percent), Curt Schilling (52.3 percent), Clemens (45.2 percent), Bonds (44.3), Edgar Martinez (43.4), Mike Mussina (43 percent), Alan Trammell (40.9 percent), Lee Smith (34.1 percent), Fred McGriff (20.9 percent), Jeff Kent (16.6 percent), Larry Walker (15.5 percent), McGwire (12.3 percent), Sheffield (11.6 percent), Billy Wagner (10.5 percent), Sosa (7 percent), Jim Edmonds (2.5 percent), Nomar Garciaparra (1.8 percent), Mike Sweeney (0.7 percent), David Eckstein (0.5 percent), Jason Kendall (0.5 percent) and Garrett Anderson (0.2 percent).
As I was doing my usual morning thing of checking to see what is going on in the world of golf that people might be interested in I ran across this article by Golf Digest talking about Ken Griffey Junior’s golf swing being remarkable like his baseball swing and it is. We all know that Griffey was a lock first-ballot Hall of Fame player.
“I could never play for the Yankees”, Griffey Jr. told the Daily News in December of 1995, two months after he hit five home runs in the AL Division Series against the Yankees and raced home from first base with the winning run in the deciding fifth game.
Griffey Jr. played in baseball’s steroid era, and he had great stats. “I was like, Yeah, we went back-to-back”. He again dismissed any issue with the three voters who did not choose him, even if others were wondering why.
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You’ve no doubt heard by now that Junior will be the first Mariner – as in wearing the Seattle team’s cap – when his bust is enshrined in Cooperstown.
