The relationship between Ken Griffey Jr. and the late Dave Niehaus was a special one in Seattle.
Griffey played 13 of his 22 major league seasons with the Mariners, with Niehaus on the call for the majority of the center fielder's games.
Niehaus, who died in 2010 of a heart attack at 75, received the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting achievement in 2008 from the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Today, Griffey will be inducted into the Hall of Fame and will be the first player to have a Seattle Mariners hat on his plaque.
"On this day of joy and reverence, there's just a tinge of sadness that Niehaus will not be there to see it. They are the two icons of Mariners baseball, and developed an unlikely but unbreakable friendship over the years that transcended their differences, generational and otherwise," Seattle Times columnist Larry Stone wrote.
"He would be thrilled to death, just like everyone else," said Marilyn Niehaus, Dave's widow. "I believe Ken was very saddened by David's passing, and he missed him."
"He'd cry like a baby, he really would," Mariners broadcaster Rick Rizzs mused about Niehaus, his longtime partner. "It's [like] one of his kids. He couldn't have been more proud of Junior than the success of Greta, Andy or Matt. They had that special relationship, that tremendous love for one another."
"I know it would be the equivalent of a family member graduating college or something," agreed Andy Niehaus, one of three Niehaus children, two of whom will be in attendance Sunday with Marilyn.
"It would be a proud Dad moment. He would feel the same way as Chuck [Armstrong, former Mariners president] and Ken's dad -- my baby boy is all grown up. He'd shed a tear. Probably say something like, 'You got a plaque, I only got a picture, you SOB.' "
"That was the essence of the Griffey-Niehaus relationship, constant teasing and good-natured badgering that worked because it came from a foundation of mutual respect and fondness."
Rock on
Mike Piazza was a metalhead who just happened to play baseball.
The former Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets catcher will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today along with Ken Griffey Jr.
When he played with the Mets, Piazza would go on the air with Eddie Trunk on his late-night heavy metal music show on WNEW-FM in New York.
One of the most memorable Piazza moments for Trunk was when Piazza came on his show after the Mets' game against the Atlanta Braves on Sept. 21, 2001. It was the Mets' first game in New York since the terrorist attacks in New York on Sept. 11. Piazza hit a two-run home run to lift the Mets to a victory over the Braves and a couple of hours after the big hit, he went on the air with Trunk.
"I knew it was a massive moment in the history of sports and New York and all of that. But we didn't really talk too much about that," Trunk told the New York Daily News. "We certainly acknowledged it, but he came to do my show very much as an escape from baseball.
"This was his way to blow off some steam and have some fun. So the last thing he wanted was to come on a radio show and do a dissection of that night's game. He'd just play music with me and we'd talk."
Maybe Cooperstown can play one of Piazza's most popular at-bat songs, Jimi Hendrix' "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" when he's inducted today.
SPORTS QUIZ
Of his 630 home runs, how many did Ken Griffey Jr. hit with the Seattle Mariners?
ANSWER
- Griffey played for the Mariners in 1989-1999 and 2009-2010.
Sports on 07/24/2016