Elder Griffey beams about son entering Hall of Fame

“We are really thrilled that Mike Piazza has taken his rightful place among the other greats in Cooperstown”, Wilpon noted. “I can’t be upset. I’m just thankful to be going in”. According to Brad Horn of the Baseball Hall of Fame, roughly 90 veteran voters who hadn’t covered the game in a decade or more were “purged”, which means this year’s electorate might have been the youngest in the history of the process.

Lennon and Griffey Jr. spent time together in the Instructional League in Florida during the winter.

Griffey, whose 630 home runs puts him sixth on USA baseball’s all-time list, was the 51st player elected in his first year on the ballot. The other overcame one of the worst possible draft pedigrees – the 62nd-round, mostly as a personal favor to his godfather, Tommy Lasorda – to become the most accomplished offensive catcher in baseball history. “I couldn’t be prouder of him”. In 1993 he won the Rookie of the Year award and over the course of his 16 year career, he made the All-Star team 12 times. Among the many muscled sluggers whose accomplishments were questioned during a time when chemists preyed on clubhouses, Piazza was made to wait to be inducted until his fourth appearance on the ballot. May Jr. was the 21st player chosen in the draft that year. Now, he’s one of 17 catchers in Cooperstown.

Prior to the announcement on MLB Network, analyst and former Mets pitcher Al Leiter stated that his best pitching seasons came with Piazza behind the plate, and he believes that his pitch framing played a part in that. Either way, the rumors were undoubtedly what kept him from gaining entry to the Hall in his first three tries, and his admission in 2016 could be a turning point in the museum’s attitude towards the steroid era. “This was a game he knew and he loved and he enjoyed playing”.

Piazza’s unexpected rise to stardom, however, proved at first a blessing and later a curse. The big lesson here, with no evidence to the contrary, is that Piazza has questionable judgment in friends.

That Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are still so far from election isn’t surprising. Just whispers about pimples on Piazza’s broad back. Piazza was on 57.8 percent of ballots in 2013, his first year.

It made him the hero for a generation of fans, who emulated his every move, including his trademark batting stance – upright, bat cocked and ready with a slight wiggle – while failing to replicate the flawless swing that followed and the record-setting results. “Major League Baseball is proud to congratulate Ken and his family on this well-deserved honor”. Relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman had a strong first-year showing at 67.3 percent, and right-hander Curt Schilling was named on a majority of ballots for the first time (52.3 percent).

Piazza responded to his induction with happiness, shock and admiration.

When asked if he felt the era delayed his induction, Piazza referenced how long it took Joe DiMaggio (four ballots) and Yogi Berra (two) to gather enough votes.

But it’s also about what people may have predicted when he broke into the big leagues as a 19-year-old phenom in 1989. “So for me, that was something that I was able to sort of draw from to just keep patience and just keep optimistic”.

On Wednesday, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America did what we all knew was coming, and elected Junior to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Although beloved there now, Piazza described how Mets fans “really choose carefully who they want to embrace”.