COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame together Sunday, started their professional lives in starkly different ways: Griffey as the No. 1 overall pick in the amateur draft by the Seattle Mariners and Piazza as the 62nd-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yet, Griffey said, they essentially followed the same road.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza, who will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame together Sunday, started their professional lives in starkly different ways: Griffey as the No. 1 overall pick in the amateur draft by the Seattle Mariners and Piazza as the 62nd-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yet, Griffey said, they essentially followed the same road.
“We got drafted, we worked hard in the minor league system, and we had an opportunity to become a big league ballplayer and produce,” Griffey said Saturday during a preinduction news conference at which he and Piazza sat side by side. 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.”
Piazza talked about the pressure to prove that, as a so-called courtesy pick who was converted into a catcher, he belonged in the major leagues.
“I knew I had to play well because I didn’t have much leeway to fail,” he said.
Each player produced well enough to be elected to the Hall, but Griffey’s route was faster. He was elected in January on his first try, appearing on 99.3 percent of the ballots, having been left off by three voters. He beat the record of Tom Seaver, who was elected in 1992 with 98.84 percent of the vote.
Piazza had to wait until his fourth attempt, when he received 83 percent of the vote, after three tries in which his vote percentage rose successively but did not exceed the 75 percent required for election. It is believed that suspicions that he used steroids were responsible for the reluctance of some members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to vote to induct him. Piazza has denied using steroids, but he has admitted taking amphetamines and androstenedione.
Perhaps having had to wait his turn colored his response when he discussed the Hall of Fame qualifications of David Ortiz, the Boston Red Sox designated hitter who, in what he has said will be his final season, is hitting .326, with 24 home runs and 79 RBIs, entering Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Twins. Ortiz tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, when the results were supposed to have been anonymous but were leaked. Ortiz said he had never knowingly used banned drugs.
“I believe there is a process you have to respect,” said Piazza, whose bronze Hall of Fame plaque will depict him with a New York Mets cap. “Speaking for myself, I know there will be debates on numbers. Not one size fits all. It’s really an individual choice.”
Piazza is celebrated for hitting the eighth-inning home run that propelled the Mets to a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves in their first game after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“It’s something that’s so special to me and something I take extremely serious,” he said. “The last time I was in New York, 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. These stories — they’re tough at times. I let the people paint the picture. I don’t let me paint the picture. It’s extremely touching and very much an honor.”
While Piazza and Griffey have chosen not to return to baseball in any official capacity, Piazza recently acquired the majority share of A.C. Reggiana 1919, a third-division soccer team that plays in Reggio Emilia, Italy. He has been traveling to Italy since playing for its team in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
“I fell in love with soccer,” Piazza said. “I looked at various opportunities and decided to jump in the water and experience what it’s like to be a club owner.”