This evening the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2016 were announced and receiving the nods were Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza.
The two were drafted a year apart- Griffey Jr. was the first overall pick in the 1987 Draft by the Seattle Mariners and Piazza was the Dodgers 1,390th pick in the 62nd round. Yet almost 30 years later they both wound up in the same spot, Cooperstown.
According to MLB.com, Griffey is the first No. 1 pick to make it, while Piazza is the lowest pick to do so. Griffey was named on 99.3% of the ballots (437 of 440), breaking Tom Seaver’s 1992 record of 98.84% and just falling short of becoming the first player to be unanimously elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Piazza received 83 percent (365 of 440) in his fourth year on the ballot.
Below is the video of Griffey receiving the call from Jack O’Connell from the BWAA. For the full story, read here.
