At 6 pm yesterday, the voting of the Hall of Fame was announced. It was Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza who would be enshrined this coming July in Cooperstown–the mecca of baseball.
The two players, aside from both growing up in Pennsylvania and being icons in the 1990s, took very different paths to the big leagues. Griffey was the son of a baseball star, Ken Griffey Sr., who starred for the Cincinnati Reds teams of the mid 1970s, known as the “Big Red Machine”. Griffey Jr., or just Junior as he was referred to, graduated from Archbishop Moeller HS in Cincinnati, an all-male, college-prep Catholic school. He was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1987 draft by the Seattle Mariners. He debuted as a teenager in 1989 and became arguably the best No. 1 pick ever (along with Alex Rodriguez and Chipper Jones).
Griffey retired with 13 All-Star appearances, 10 Gold Gloves, 630 Home Runs, 7 Silver Sluggers and an MVP Award in 1997.
Piazza was the complete opposite in terms of his ascension. Piazza is the son of a car dealership owner who achieved massive wealth. Mike was always small for his size and because of that, he went to Miami-Dade Community College and was considered too small for first base and not equipped to be a catcher. He was selected in the 62nd round (1,390th overall pick) by the Los Angeles Dodgers as a favor by Tommy Lasorda.
After begrudgingly switching positions to catcher at the urging of Lasorda, Piazza began to mash the ball and was called up in September 1992. In 1993, he had a tremendous rookie season finishing with 35 home runs, 112 RBI and a slash line of .318/.370/.561. During his six full seasons in Los Angeles, he never finished below 14th in the NL MVP voting and finished in second twice. In 1998, he was dealt to the Florida Marlins but just one week later was dealt to the New York Mets.
Over the next eight seasons, he averaged a slash line .296/.373/.542 with 220 home runs and 655 RBI. He brought the Mets to back-to-back playoffs while finishing in seventh and third in the NL MVP voting.
He played with the Mets until the end of 2005, where he eventually played one year with the San Diego Padres and one year with the Oakland Athletics.
Piazza retired with the most home runs for a catcher, highest slugging percentage, highest OPS+, highest offensive WAR, fourth in RBI and eighth in hits.
Here’s what the locals had to say…
I would love to see those 3 writers who didn’t vote for Griffey to stare him in the eyes and tell him why they didn’t vote for him
— Matt Seelinger (@Lou_Redwood) January 7, 2016
Are you even a Griff fan if you don’t know what the “Junior flip” is …
— Chris Scura Jr. (@ChrisScura) January 7, 2016
Piazza? #HOF
— Kyle Young (@BigPhAt_Kahhlee) January 6, 2016
How do you not vote Griffey into the Hall of Fame, most exciting player ever
— PJ Contreras (@Pedro_JoseIV) January 6, 2016
GOAT? https://t.co/9Yfxy3FgY7
— Richie Ciufo (@RChoof15) January 6, 2016
Congrats @mikepiazza31 #HOF #LGM #31
— Mike Cranston (@M_Cranston15) January 6, 2016
