Understated McGriff deserves Hall call

So why isn’t Fred McGriff in the National Baseball Hall of Fame? As somebody who votes for Crime Dog every year, I haven’t a clue. OK, maybe I do.

It’s that cliche thing.

Remember the one about the squeaky wheel always getting the grease along the way to reaching Cooperstown someday? All I know is that historically quiet McGriff turned into suddenly noisy McGriff the night of July 12, 1994, inside of Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

I was there, and I still can’t believe it. First, McGriff ripped a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning off splendid closer Lee Smith to push the All-Star Game into extra innings for his National League team.

Nothing strange there for McGriff. Ever since he slammed a game-tying homer in Atlanta a few hours after he stepped off a flight to join the Braves from the Padres following a trade in the middle of the 1993 season, he’d become baseball’s Mr. Clutch. Over 19 Major League seasons, his formula never changed: He got to opposing pitchers with his smooth left-handed swing, and then he went about his business without a hint of flash.

Anyway, the NL won in 1994 in the 10th, with much help from McGriff’s homer in the ninth, but that’s not where I’m going.

Let’s move to what happened later, after McGriff received the 1994 All-Star Game’s Most Valuable Player Award in the home clubhouse. He formed the biggest smile of his life, which was shocking enough, but not as much as this: He turned to those of us standing nearby with pens, notepads and cameras, and he shouted to the top of his lungs, “I’m a hero!”

Wait a minute. Did Crime Dog say that?

We need MORE of that.

That’s what I thought to myself, trying to determine if this was McGriff …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com