Griffey Jr. on dad, Mariners and Reds in HOF speech

i would like to thank the hall of fame and their staff for an unbelievable weekend here in cooperstown i'd like to also thank commissioner manford and his leadership towards in baseball i'd also like to thank jane clark and her staff also like to thank the writers for writing it for for this prestigious honor i'd also like to thank the families and friends and the thousand people thousands i got a couple of these somewhere i've probably got them thousands of baseball fans who traveled all over the country and who are also watching us on mlb network like to point out one fan rob who drive with six thousand miles to get here i wanna just say thank you stammed up i stand up here humbled and overwhelmed the last couple months have been a blur from the call from the hall to the calls from all the hall of famers that are sitting here behind me i can't describe how that feels but i can tell you that i was more nervous talking to them than i am now there are a lot of people out here who who made me the person i am today now i can't name them all and i apologize for that but i will talk about my high school baseball coach mike cameron and smitty when i decided to play baseball high school baseball instead of going to spring training i went to batting cage and i swung and missed seven or eight times and i still remember to look at coach smith's face and cameron's face saying and he's supposed to be good i told him i said just wait till we get outside a couple weeks later we were able to go outside and hit the first couple balls in the trees and i can remember smitty going wow i think we've got something here i want to thank them for being true coaches for being honest and fair thank you but it's really ironic that i get drafted by a team that plays all their games indoors we have papa joe hayden coach of the midland redskins papa joe treated everybody fair he taught us more about life lessons than baseball he was more concerned about us being good players i mean good people than players and winning a championship he brought together kids of all colors background and financial status papa joe is no longer here he's up there in baseball heaven coaching third and smoking a cigar and he also wears shorts to my dad who taught me how to play this game but more like more importantly he taught me how to be a man how to work hard how to look at yourself in the mirror each and every day and not to worry about what other people are doing see baseball didn't come easy for him he was a 29th round pick and had to choose between football and baseball and where he's from in donor pennsylvania baseball is king but i was born five months after he his senior year and he made a decision to play baseball to provide for his family because that's what men do and i love you for that to my mom the strongest woman i know raising two boys having to be mom and dad spending time including time to go to one another's games me and my brother she was our biggest fan and our big biggest critic she sat up and did homework with us stayed up all night when we were sick and i tell people that i'm more scared of my mom than my dad just because she didn't play and if you don't if you don't believe me there are a couple of my friends here who can contest today she's the only woman i know that lives in one house but runs five others i don't know how you do it to be able to put your hopes and dreams just to raise two boys and never complain about it i love you mom to my brother craig my biggest competitor day and night we had these epic battles whether it was football basketball and baseball but no matter what you never gave up never gave in i just have one problem with you how come when you want all my friends knew about it and we didn't even have cell phones back then you're one of the hardest people you wanted you're one of the people who pushed me the most and i always love you for that thank you ryan goldberg you've been there since day one we've had a great journey even though there were some ups and downs but i can't think of a better friend agent that i would want by my side other than you thank you we have i also have lynn mayer i can remember the first thing he said to me is that i can't do nothing for you now but in a few years if you keep doing what you're doing i'll keep in touch that was february of 1991 and look at us now you've been a big brother uncle and on some rare occasions the voice of reason a lot of people don't know lynn tray taran and tevin words can't describe how much i love you and would do anything for you trey you're my little man my partner in crime and one day sitting there on the couch you took a bat and hit the tv and your mom got mad at you and then got mad at me and said ask me why i was not mad and i said girl you can't teach that swing so i got up and bought a new tv there's a song by will smith it's just just the two of us there's a partner song where it talks about i'm driving home after you were born in the car and all these cars are passing us out and he talks about how mad he was i felt like that on the way home taryn daddy's little girl from the first time you were born i knew that i had to go into protect mode i didn't even like my teammates who had boys you taught me how to share and i think i've eaten more french fries over the years than you so no matter if i went four for four over four to hear those words when i came home daddy made my best days better and my bad days not so bad even to this day when you call me on the phone my day's a little brighter tevin seeing you for the first time made my life complete all my friends called you a mini denzel because you didn't cry or make a sound you have a great sense of humor your caring and thoughtfulness watching you grow up has not been nothing but a pleasure and never a dull moment around you i know your brother and sister is at school i know your brothers and sisters are school but you don't have to keep us that busy like they're still a home so let's make a deal only two sports at a time not three and four people always that say that you're the lucky one but no me and your mom are the lucky ones melissa my wife my best friend you wear so many hats at the at our home i can't tell you how much i appreciate you and all the things that you've done and continue to do for this family you are the glue that holds this family together and the light one is dark people say that you're lucky well that's not true i'm the lucky one for the first time i saw you i knew you were gonna be my wife now it took you a long a little longer to realize that i was gonna be your husband but i'm okay with that now i love you i now like to thank the seattle marital organization for taking a chance on a 17 year old kid allowing him to con continue to play this great game of baseball see in the winter of 86 i remember being in my garage and bobby told him saying to me hey the seattle mariners have the first pick and they're looking at you i walk in my house look at my dad and say hey dad where's seattle at that time they were a young franchise and i really only cared about where my dad was at so if he was in the yankees i played you know i was a yankee fan he went to atlanta i was atlanta fan the only the only person i knew on that team was bobby brown not the singer and not the american league president and the only reason why i knew him is because he played with my dad with him with the yankees in 1989 i made the team out of spring training not sure what kind of player i would be but at 19 all i want to do is survive even though i've been around baseball all my life doesn't mean that i've arrived some some of the men who helped me are here today ricky henderson now ricky i'm still looking for that rematch see he beat me in a game of horse when i was 14 years old made a jump shot drove off in this car and never gave me that rematch well ricky i know where you're going to be july 2017 and i'm bringing my shorts ozzy smith the wizard dave winfield as my dad referred to him as big blood we have eddie murray i met eddie when i was 12. and it was in the backfields in fort lauderdale and my dad introduced me is this is one of the hardest switch-hitting guys in baseball i stuck my hand out and he shook it and he didn't smile see eddie had a beard a goatee and a fro and where as we're walking off i asked my dad does he smile my dad replied back he did smile he is smiling and i turn around and i look back at my dad and i go i hate to see him mad we have randy johnson now every lefty wanted to take a day off when he pitched even we did but you guys think it was bad we had to face him when he had no control in spring training today i got more friends alvin davis harold reynolds dave valley jeffrey leonard mickey brandley darnell coles chilly davis and kirby puckett these guys are like my big brothers they took me out to lunch and dinner made me share rides with them in the cab and drill me on life problems the only problem is is you tell me what 19 year old in the big leagues has life problems then we have j bunner as we refer to each other is our brother from a different mother he was the greatest teammate i ever had a guy that gave you everything on the field and the guy that spoke the truth even though you didn't want to hear it and i love you for that looking back i got to do and say things that have never been said i got a chance to play with my dad i got to yell at him and tell him to get a hit and in baseball there's certain things of you can call somebody a fossil grey beard grandpa dad pops but i got a chance to say it and mean it we hit back to back home runs we're the first father and son we're the first father and son to win mvps an all-star game hitting the warehouse in baltimore winning a home run derby in pittsburgh in my home state the 95 series randy johnson's no-hitter jay bien are hitting for the cycle and edgar martinez winning his first batting title and yes he belongs in the hall and there's barry larkin who at the time i was in the clubhouse when he hit his first grand slam getting hot chocolate but i've known his family all his slow down i've known his family since i was 12. his younger brother byron took care of me as a freshman and then i had to take care of his younger brother stephen i want to thank them for being opening up their homes and making me who i am today i got to play this game for 22 years and i wouldn't trade it in for anything i spent eight years with the reds i got to put on the same uniform as my dad run around the same outfield i got a front row seat to the greatest team ever assembled the 1975 and 76 reds as a member of the reds i was often teased by my teammates saying that my dad played for the big red machine and you're the engineer to the little red caboose chicago white sox got a chance to be in a pennant race and play meaningful games day in and day out what else can you ask for from a player thank you 13 years with the seattle mariners from the day i got drafted to my first abatement kingdom to the 95 playoffs my first trip back to seattle is a member of the reds and then my return to see out in 2009 to my retirement in 2010 seattle washington has been a big part of my life there are so many things great things that i could talk about but we'd be here all day but i'm going to leave you with one thing out of my 22 years i learned that only one team will treat you i learned that one team will treat you the best and that's your first team i'm damn proud to be a seattle mariners the two misconceptions of me are i didn't work hard and i mean and everything i made look easy just because i made it look easy doesn't mean that it was and you don't work hard and become a hall of famer by not working it working day in and day out i want to thank my family my friends the fans the reds the white sox and the mariners for making this kid dream come true thank you you

Channel: MLB

Views: 138,790

Keywords: Ken Griffey Jr., Major League, Seattle Mariners, MLB Network, Hall Of Fame, Major League Baseball, MLB Vault, Baseball, Speech, MLB, Cincinnati Reds, 2016, MLB Hall of Fame, Classic, Full speech, Cooperstown

Id: 6G8YaJ6my-k

Length: 21min 16sec (1276 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 02 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/Parks1993]

Hey I mean that's not too much longer