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Griffey: Ortiz ‘absolutely’ should be Hall of Famer
- Updated: July 23, 2016
3:15 PM ET
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — As Ken Griffey Jr. prepares to enter the Hall of Fame as a first-ballot inductee, he’s throwing his endorsement behind another left-handed slugger who played for the Seattle Mariners’ organization in the mid-1990s.
Griffey said that Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz, who broke into professional ball in Seattle’s farm system under the name David Arias from 1994 to 1996, “absolutely” merits a place in Cooperstown when he appears on the ballot five years after his retirement this fall.
“I got a chance to see him young,” Griffey said at a news conference Saturday. “He wasn’t Big Papi. He was ‘Thin Papi’ at that time. To watch him do the things he’s done over the years, he’s become one of the most feared hitters in all of baseball. He’s the one guy where you say, ‘If we’re up by two, let’s just walk him and go for the next guy.’ He’s got a chance to put a team up by three real quick.
Ken …
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