Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen accomplished their momentous go to to Cooperstown, N.Y., on Monday morning, chatting with MLB Network’s Jon Morosi in entrance of an excited crowd at historic Doubleday Field. Welcomed with cheers and congratulations, the pair of inductees arrived moments after viewing their plaques on show within the Museum for the primary time.
“It was beautiful,” McGriff stated of seeing his bronze plaque on show after Sunday night’s set up. “And better than that, yesterday, my older brother [Dexter McGriff] put in the [mounting] screws and everything, and so it was great for him to be able to have that opportunity. This morning, to go in there and for my family to take pictures with it — it was beautiful.”
Family has been a significant theme all through the weekend for each inductees.
“My dad [Ed Rolen] was able to go in with my family last night and turn the last screw on the plaque,” Rolen added. “That means the world to him and to our family for sure.”
Looking again on their careers, McGriff and Rolen every mirrored upon some game-changing moments. For “Crime Dog,” it was his first-pitch house run off Cleveland’s Orel Hershiser in his first World Series at-bat that Morosi stated “is still flying somewhere over Atlanta.”
“I’m usually an aggressive hitter,” McGriff stated as he relived the second that sparked the Braves’ 1995 World Series victory. “My first World Series appearance — you’ve got your butterflies. So the best way to get rid of butterflies is to swing at that first pitch. It was a huge moment.”
Finishing his profession with 493 house runs, McGriff had 10 seasons with no less than 30 homers and was the primary participant in AL/NL historical past to report a 30-homer season for 5 totally different franchises.
In Game 7 of the 2004 National League Championship Series, Rolen lit a fireplace of his personal, tagging Houston’s Roger Clemens with a two-out, two-run, tiebreaking huge fly within the backside of the sixth to assist clinch the NL pennant for the St. Louis Cardinals. Replaying the state of affairs, Rolen took the viewers via his strategy within the late stage of the sport.
“I was on deck and I was coming up. The [Astros’ manager] came out and they had a little meeting and they talked to Clemens,” the often reserved Rolen started. “I said to myself at the time, ‘If you leave him in, you lost.’ First-pitch fastball and there it was. I could’ve popped it up to the catcher, who knows? But it worked out pretty well.”
Rolen’s reliability on the plate and within the discipline helped earn him seven All-Star Game appearances and eight Gold Glove Awards over his 17-year profession.
The Hall of Fame Class of 2023 had loads of recommendation to impart on audiences and younger baseball gamers this weekend, however simplicity and consistency stood out as main keys to their success. In an age when superior metrics and analytics are sometimes used to higher one’s sport, these Hall of Famers careworn the significance of going again to the fundamentals.
“Simplicity is always the key,” Rolen stated. “But there’s nothing simple about [baseball]. And to compound it and make it harder doesn’t make any sense to us, because we’re always trying to make it as simple as we can. What’s wrong with a ground ball up the middle? Nothing!”
During the occasion, the relaxed environment gave McGriff and Rolen time to reply some enjoyable questions submitted by the viewers at Doubleday Field, similar to: “Who was the biggest prankster you played with?”
“Greg Maddux,” McGriff answered immediately. “You always had to keep your eye on him. Yesterday, I’m talking to somebody, and I feel someone trying to snatch my binder with my speech, and it was Maddux.”
“He tried to steal my binder yesterday and I didn’t even play with him,” Rolen added.
One Pennsylvania native requested Rolen about his time taking part in within the Minors for the Phillies in Reading, Pa.
“That’s down home baseball right there,” Rolen answered, remembering the sights, sounds and smells of his days at a Minor League ballpark. “We had some really good teams. I loved Reading.”
McGriff, who grew to become the fifth member of the World Series champion 1995 Atlanta Braves to enter the Hall of Fame, was requested how he developed his iconic helicopter swing.
“It started the first couple years in the bigs,” McGriff replied. “Hitting that little baseball is hard, and it’s probably the toughest thing to do in all of sports. You’re constantly making changes, so it developed through the years.”
In a busy weekend, this 12 months’s inductees nonetheless had the prospect to fulfill some new faces, as Rolen was excited to fulfill Cal Ripken Jr. (Class of 2007) and Jim Thome (Class of 2018), whereas McGriff was capable of have some nice conversations with Dave Winfield (Class of 2001).
With the weekend behind them and the remainder of their lives to spend as members of baseball’s biggest crew, Rolen and McGriff look ahead to spending time with household and stress-free for the remainder of the summer season.
“I’m looking forward to getting some sleep now,” McGriff laughed. “I got a big birthday coming up in October, so we’re going to take a little trip. It’s a beautiful thing.”
The Legends of the Game Roundtable closed the ebook on Hall of Fame Weekend 2023. The 2024 Induction Ceremony is scheduled for July 21.
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