GRIFFEY GETS HIGHEST VOTING PCT. IN HISTORY
Gets highest voting percentage; Raines falls short at 69.8%
Ken Griffey Jr., superstitious as a ballplayer and unfailingly modest away from the game, has spent his life refusing to set foot in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Three times he was in Cooperstown, New York, playing in exhibition games, but never would he permit himself to even look at the front of the building, let alone walk inside and admire the plaques of the greatest to ever play baseball.
“The one time I wanted to go in there,” Griffey said, “I wanted to be a member of it.”
Now, the player simply called “The Kid” has no choice.
Griffey was elected Wednesday into the Hall, receiving the highest voting percentage in history at 99.3 with 437 of the 440 votes cast by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
There was an immediate socialmedia outcry about how three writers could leave Griffey off their ballot and that Griffey deserved to be the first unanimous player, but Griffey was his typical self when asked about the MTV (missing three votes).
“No, I’m not disappointed,” Griffey said. “I can’t be sad or upset. It’s truly an honor to be elected, and to have the highest percentage was definitely a shock.”
The answer epitomizes the class and graciousness Griffey displayed throughout his career.
Griffey joins Mike Piazza as the only players elected Wednesday, and he was thrilled to learn he’ll have company. Simply, Griffey didn’t want the stage to himself.
He becomes the first player selected No. 1 overall in the draft to reach the Hall of Fame, while Piazza, a 62nd-round draft pick, becomes the lowest selection.
Former White Sox outfielder Tim Raines earned 69.8 percent of the vote, a significant leap from the 55 percent he earned last year but still below the required 75 percent.
Next year will be his 15th and last year on the ballot, but history is on his side. Piazza had 69.9 percent of the vote last year. Raines will benefit from the elections of Griffey and Piazza clearing room on the 10-player ballot, and he’ll gain a boost from the sentiment of his final shot at election.
Griffey, relaxed and showing little emotion, never let his composure waver when asked several times in a conference call about playing in the steroid era.
He was a 13-time All- Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner who hit 630 home runs, but he was the only player with more than 500 homers during his era who never had a scintilla of suspicion that he used performance- enhancing drugs.
So when asked whether he believed that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens belong in the Hall of Fame, he tiptoed around the questions, talked about their achievements before any PED accusations and refused to answer whether he would vote for them if given the opportunity.
“It’s a no-win situation,” said Brian Goldberg, Griffey’s longtime agent. “That’s why Junior never wanted to say much publicly. Even in private, he never did dwell on it, saying, ‘Well, if these guys weren’t doing this, I’d have these many homers.’ It’s just not him.”
Sure, it privately bothered him to see so many of his
contemporaries use performanceenhancing drugs, but Griffey refused to succumb to pity. It was no different than all the plate appearances he missed because of injuries from 2001 to ’06, ruining any chance to break Hank Aaron’s career home-run record before Bonds. Or having a league-leading 40 home runs in the first 111 games of 1994, only to watch the strike wipe out the rest of the season, ending his bid to break Roger Maris’ homer record before Mark McGwire.
“It wasn’t that I had to have help,” Griffey said. “If you couldn’t do it on your own, so be it.”
He was the face of baseball for two decades who wore his baseball cap backward with a smile that lit up Mount Rainier and whose stature as the game’s most popular player was verified by his recordsetting voting percentage.
Remember, this is the guy who received 55 million All- Star votes throughout his career, was a write-in candidate for president in 1996 during Nike’s promotional tour, appeared on “The Simpsons,” was on the cover of Wheaties boxes, had a Nintendo video game, originated the idea of having every player wear No. 42 on Jackie Robinson Day and even hit seven career home runs on Mother’s Day in honor of his mom, Birdie.
Oh, yeah, and he happened to help save a baseball franchise.
“They say that Yankee Stadium is the house that Babe Ruth built,” former Seattle Mariners president Chuck Armstrong said. “Well, Safeco Field is the stadium that Ken Griffey Jr. built.
“We wouldn’t have baseball in Seattle, or Safeco Field, without Kenny. It’s hard to overstate the overall importance that he had on this franchise and the entire community.”
Armstrong, his voice cracking simply talking about Griffey, was the one in charge of the Mariners when they decided to draft and sign Griffey with the first pick in 1987.
He says he’ll be forever indebted to former general manager Dick Balderson and scouts Roger Jongewaard, Bob Harrison and Tom Mooney. They’re the ones who recommended the organization sign Griffey instead of pitchers Mike Harkey, Mark Merchant or Willie Banks.
His love affair with the Great Northwest and Seattle is why Griffey has decided to wear a Mariners cap into Cooperstown. He’ll formally announce his decision Thursday at the Hall of Fame news conference in New York.
The Mariners plan to honor him this summer and retire the uniform number he wore throughout his Seattle career: No. 24.
It just so happens to be the same date as the Hall of Fame induction ceremony: July 24.
NOTE: Former Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa earned 7 percent of the vote, just clearing the 5 percent cutoff to remain on the ballot.
Hewas on 6.6 percent of the ballots last year.