Exit 24
The greatest Mariner of All Time has finally reached the end of the road.
While his career ended in 2010, he was still in the public’s eye as everyone knew he was going to be voted into the Hall on first ballot. He is now enshrined forever in Cooperstown.
On July 24th, 2016, George Kenneth Griffey Jr. was officially enshrined in baseball’s hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York. Before I go any further, the irony is not lost on me that the greatest player to wear 24 was inducted into the hall on August 24th.
It is easy to see why he was elected into the hall when I look solely at the stats.
Griffey finished his 22-year career with 630 home runs, even though he considers himself not a home run hitter, which puts him 6th in the All-Time List.
While his home run numbers alone should put him in the hall, it’s his awards that really set him apart.
He was elected to 13 All-Star games, won 10 Gold Glove awards and a member of the Rawlings Gold Glove All-Time Team, won seven silver slugger awards and was the 1997 MVP by unanimous decision. Griffey really brought home the hardware in his HOF campaign.
However, Griffey had something more than stats. He had a personality and a smile that were truly infectious. The Kid played the game just as his name would say, as a kid. He had a natural love of the game that was easy to see whenever he outran a gapper in the outfield or when he would smack a homer into the upper deck. His smile is even mentioned in his HOF plaque as one of his main traits.
I would also be remiss to not mention Griffey’s sweet, sweet swing. He had the kind of swing that his father Ken Griffey Sr. said was a “swing you can’t teach.” His swing captivated a nation and inspired a generation of to-be baseball players. It even earned him a new nickname, “Swing Man.”
While being in the HOF is the largest of these achievements, being inducted wasn’t the only way Griffey was honored recently.
Although the Mariners have already inducted Griffey into their own HOF, Seattle decided to give Griffey the highest honor they could bestow. They decided to retire the number 24 from the entire Mariner organization making him the first number to be retired besides for Jackie Robinson’s 42.
As a bit of an homage to Griffey’s part in getting Jackie Robinson’s number retired from all of Major League Baseball, the team put Griffey’s number next to Jackie’s.
As one more way, the team has decided to honor Griffey, they are going to make a statue for him inside the stadium that will unveil sometime next year. My main question is: where is the statue going to be located? I just want to know if it will be near the Dave Niehaus statue or somewhere else.
Griffey was an icon for all of baseball and his ability will be remembered for generations. As a Griffey fan myself, I can honestly say that his ability is one of the main reasons why I got into baseball as a child. He is the man, the myth, the legend, The Kid.
