The Hall Of Fame Is Open To The Idea Of Ken Griffey Jr. Wearing His Hat Backwards On His Plaque? What The Hell?
(Score) – Ken Griffey Jr. became a huge star in Seattle, then beelined back home to play in Cincinnati. Now that he’s capped off his career with a trip to Cooperstown, a juicy question: Will Junior wear a Mariners or Reds hat on his Hall of Fame plaque? That’s how Griffey often flipped his lid, having fun while getting ready for games. ”I haven’t really thought about the hat backwards,” Griffey later said on a conference call. As to his preference, he added: ”I’ll think more about it tomorrow.” The Hall of Fame actually makes the final call on caps. New inductees can express their wishes and talk it over with the Hall staff, but they don’t get the last say. According to ESPN’s Jim Bowden, the Hall of Fame left open the possibility of Griffey Jr.’s hat being on backwards on his plaque.
What hat Ken Griffey Jr. will wear in the Hall of Fame is a juicy question? Why? He only played for one team in his career. I guess “technically” he played for a few, but Ken Griffey Jr. only played for the Seattle Mariners. I don’t care if he had a few good years in Cincinnati, he never played there (or Chicago, obviously). Griffey never even played for the royal blue and gold Mariners, just the with the compass over the S and the teal brim. That’s absolutely the only hat The Kid ever wore.
But what’s this hullabaloo about George (that’s actually his name) getting to wear his hat backwards on the plaque? The Hall of Fame saying they’ll think about it is definitely like your parents saying they’ll “consider” letting you go on vacation with your friends in high school, even though they know they’re gonna say no later. The Hall just didn’tt feel like delivering bad news yesterday. Griffey wearing his hat backwards would be cool, unique, and modern. None of those words are adjectives used to describe the baseball Hall of Fame. Ever. It’s for old, stuffy, boring white guys and even though Griffey invented the backwards hat there’s no way in hell they’d ever let him wear it on his plaque. They don’t let in gamblers or steroid users but they’re going to promote something urban? Ha! Maybe you can take that hip hop culture and head on down to the Negro League wing, bud, but that shit ain’t coming around where dads take little Johnny on father-son weekends. Don’t need you poisoning their young minds with all that originality. Just do things the right way, follow the unwritten rules, and respect the game.