HOF voter Hal McCoy's Ballot: Besides Griffey, who gets the Hall's call?
HOF voter Sean McClelland's Ballot: Most Hall choices obvious
That will become official at 6 p.m. Wednesday night when Griffey is expected to receive a call from the Hall of Fame in his first season on the ballot. He will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 24, becoming the first Red since Barry Larkin to be enshrined.
Here are five things to know about Griffey’s career:
1. Early years: Griffey grew up around his dad Ken Griffey Sr. and the Big Red Machine and graduated from Cincinnati Moeller High School. The Seattle Mariners took him with the first pick of the 1987 draft.
Junior and Senior made history on Aug. 31, 1990, when they became the first father and son to play in a game together. They both scored after hitting back-to-back singles in the first inning.
“It seemed like a father-son game,” Griffey Jr. said then. “It seemed like we were out in the backyard playing catch.”
2. Peak power: Griffey hit a career-high 56 home runs in 1997 and matched that total a season later. Those totals are tied with Hack Wilson (1930) for the sixth most in Major League history.
Griffey finished his career with 630 home runs. That ranks sixth in baseball history behind Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), Alex Rodriguez (687) and Willie Mays (660).
3. Hometown team: The Reds acquired Griffey on Feb. 10, 2000, in a trade with the Mariners. Seattle got Mike Cameron, Brett Tomko, Jake Meyer and Antonio Perez.
The Dayton Daily News headline the next day read, “New king in Queen City.” At his first press conference, Griffey told reporters, “Well, I’m finally home.”
For Griffey, that meant playing in front of his family more often than ever.
“”My grandmother, who lives in Cincinnati and has seen me play about three times, can come to games,” Griffey said.
4. Memorable moment: Fans in Cincinnati may remember one Griffey home run better than the others, and he didn't hit it out of the park. His walk-off, inside-the-park home run on Aug. 20, 2001, against the Cardinals gave the Reds a 5-4 victory and led to a wild celebration at home plate.
5. Painful memories: Injuries limited Griffey to 70 games in 2002, 53 in 2003 and 83 in 2004. He went on the disabled list eight times from 2000-08.
Griffey played 145 games in his first season in Cincinnati and 144 in his last full season with the Reds in 2007. In between, he never played more than 128.
The Reds traded Griffey to the Chicago White Sox on July 31, 2008, for Nick Masset and Danny Richar. Griffey retired in 2010 with his original team, the Mariners.
“I’m proud of what he did and he doesn’t owe anybody anything,” Griffey Sr. told Hal McCoy, of the Dayton Daily News, after the trade in 2008. “I know what he went through. There is no doubt in my mind that without the injuries he would be right there with Barry Bonds … in home runs. I told him he had a great eight-year run in Cincinnati, nothing to apologize for. With the injuries, it was amazing he reached 600 homers.”
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