Hall-time greats: Piazza, Griffey enshrined

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — To punctuate close to an hour of combined speeches by this year’s pair of inductees into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Ken Griffey Jr. turned around his cap to end the Sunday proceedings.

Mike Piazza spoke to his Italian immigrant father, Vince, in his native language, thanking him and Italy for giving him his dad.

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There were more than 50,000 people sprawled out on the lawns far and away beyond the tented stage behind the Clark Sports Center decked out in Mets blue and Mariners teal, tying the second-largest turnout in induction history.

And there were enough tears from the participants to easily fill a bucket.

“The actual thing about talking in front of 50,000 wasn’t bad,” said Griffey, the son of Ken Griffey Sr., a two-time World Series winner with the Reds in 1975-76. “The thing is I made the mistake of looking down at my kids in the front row. I remember everybody saying, ‘Don’t look at your kids, don’t look at your kids until you have to.’

“Nope, not me. You know what they say when you’re a kid? ‘Don’t do that, don’t do that.’ What do you do? You do it anyway.”

Griffey also said it wasn’t his idea to don a cap in the style that was his signature during a 22-year career when he hit 630 homers for the Mariners, Reds and White Sox. He gave the credit (or blame) to now Hall of Fame contemporary Frank Thomas.

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Thomas had the inspiration when the group arrived at the grounds just before the ceremony began. Griffey acquiesced and said he had to get a Hall of Fame fitted model that belonged to one of his sons.

“That really wasn’t my idea,” said Junior, the first No. 1 Draft pick ever inducted into the Hall. “That was from a guy who happened to play for Chicago and Oakland and cried the entire time through his speech. So him being a veteran of the Hall of Fame, I took his veteran leadership and decided to do it.”

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As far as Piazza was concerned, he paced his speech accordingly and decided to leave loving thoughts to his family for last.

Piazza praised Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda, the man who urged the Dodgers to pick him in the 62nd round — 1,390th overall — in the 1988 Draft when he managed that ballclub. He sent his best wishes to Bobby Valentine, a Lasorda …

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