Griffey: Ortiz belongs in Hall of Fame

“They give you 14 minutes”.

“He’s a superstar, and not just because of his numbers and his stats, but because of his personality”, former teammate Ichiro Suzuki said upon learning of Griffey’s Hall-of-Fame enshrinement. “I’ve been a dad to Trey for 22 years, Taryn 20 and Tevin 14, and I’ve told them that I will be a dad a lot longer than I will play baseball”.

“When he is on the screen”, Scheinman said of Griffey, “your eyes just naturally go to him”. “I think he’s hitting 750, 800 home runs”.

Now, they’re living, breathing legends just like the players they idolized growing up, joining the same fraternity. Both also had to suffer through Wade Boggs’ rendition of the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin”.

“I knew it was a massive moment in the history of sports and NY and all of that”.

“It’s incredibly powerful”, said Piazza, by far the lowest draft pick in history elected to the Hall.

Griffey will be the first Seattle Mariners player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and Piazza will be the second to be inducted as a New York Mets player, joining Tom Seaver.

Piazza’s also told this story Saturday, saying his wife Alicia once said to him, “This Hall of Fame is a big deal?”

“That’s a huge part of my history with the city, ” Piazza said. Griffey said that his father, Ken Sr., who had played for the Cincinnati Reds and other teams, advised him, “You’re only a No. 1 draft pick for one year”. Griffey was the No. 1 pick.

“There are two misconceptions about me – I didn’t work hard and everything I did I made look easy”, Griffey said. “You take the things he does in the clutch, he is the one guy who, when you’re facing him, you don’t want him to beat you no matter what”. “Yes, you may get another look because of the higher round, but they’re not going to hand it to you”.

“The one thing I love about Mets fans is that it’s tough being in the same town as the Yankees, obviously all their World Series and their accomplishments, but there are no better fans, so this is obviously emotional for me, ” he said. “As a ballplayer, to go to NY and be somewhat successful is truly an fantastic part of my career”. “If you were just going to see and evaluate performance, you could read that in the box score”.

“Many of you give me praise for the two-run home run in the first game back on September 21st, but the true praise belongs to police, firefighters, first responders that knew that they were going to die, but went forward anyway”.

“I still remember that because it was the mid ’90s, back when the Cleveland Indians had really good teams, pennant winners with a bunch of All-Stars”.

Happy induction, Junior. You’ll always be my favorite, and there’ll never be another.

Nearly 30 years after the Mariners drafted Griffey with the first draft pick, Mooney will be present to watch Griffey’s induction into into the Hall. Mike was an offensive catcher. “I grew up about 65 miles northeast of Cleveland, a small town where the local newspaper would cover events like Little League baseball”. There are so many great guys here, so much history.

Piazza ranks third on the Mets’ all-time lists for home runs and RBIs. “The last time I was in NY, a guy in an elevator grabbed me and told me he’d lost a cousin in Tower 1, and he went to the game and didn’t know what to expect and it helped him heal a little”.