The 2023 Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held on Sunday in Cooperstown, New York. The two player selections for this year's class were Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen. Both were present to give speeches in front of a nice-sized, live crowd in Cooperstown.
Also, for the baseball nuts out there, both plaques were revealed. Most notable here was Rolen going in with a Cardinals logo on his cap. McGriff's cap was blank.
Rolen spent seven years with the Phillies, six with the Cardinals, four with the Reds and two with the Blue Jays. He was on two Reds playoff teams and three postseason runs with the Cardinals, including two pennants and a World Series championship. Here's the plaque:
The text reads: PAIRED ELITE GLOVEWORK WITH FORMIDABLE BAT TO BECOME A DOMINANT TWO-WAY THREAT AT THIRD BASE, NEVER APPEARING AT ANOTHER POSITION IN HIS BIG LEAGUE CAREER. FOLLOWED UNANIMOUS 1997 N.L. ROOKIE OF THE YEAR SEASON IN PHILADELPHIA WITH FIRST OF HIS EIGHT GOLD GLOVE AWARDS IN 1998. BLASTED THREE HOME RUNS IN N.L.C.S. TO HELP CARDINALS WIN THE 2004 PENNANT AND TWO YEARS LATER LED ST. LOUIS TO THE WORLD SERIES TITLE, BATTING .421 IN THE FIVE-GAME SET. SEVEN-TIME ALL-STAR AND INTELLIGENT BASERUNNER RETIRED AS ONE OF ONLY THREE THIRD BASEMAN WITH 300 HOME RUNS, 500 DOUBLES AND 100 STOLEN BASES.
And here is part of Rolen's speech:
McGriff played for the (Devil) Rays, Braves, Blue Jays, Padres, Cubs and Dodgers with five years each for Tampa Bay, Atlanta and Toronto. As such, the blank cap makes sense. Here's the plaque:
And the text reads: CRUSHED THE BALL WITH CONSISTENCY FOR 19 SEASONS, USING SMOOTH LEFT-HANDED SWING TO AMASS 493 HOME RUNS AND 1,550 RBI. HIT 30-OR-MORE HOMERS 10 TIMES, THE FIRST TO DO SO FOR FIVE DIFFERENT TEAMS. FINISHED AMONG HIS LEAGUE'S TOP FIVE IN LONG BALLS AND OPS IN SEVEN STRAIGHT SEASONS, 1988-94, TOPPING THE A.L. IN HOMERS IN 1989 AND THE N.L. IN 1992. DELIVERED HEROICS AS CLEANUP HITTER FOR 1995 WORLD SERIES CHAMPION BRAVES AND HIT .303 IN 50 CAREER POSTSEASON GAMES. THREE-TIME SILVER SLUGGER AT FIRST BASE AND FIVE-TIME ALL-STAR EARNED 1993 ALL-STAR GAME MVP HONORS.
Here's a section of McGriff's speech:
Both worthy Hall of Famers, it took McGriff a bit longer to make it. He topped out at 39.8% of the vote in his 10 years on the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot, but the veterans committee this past December voted him in. He's now 59 years old. Rolen, 48, got 76.3% of the vote this past January in his sixth try on the BBWAA ballot.
