Fred McGriff

McGriff was born in Tampa, Florida. His mother, Eliza, was a schoolteacher and his father, Earl, was an electronics repairman. As a child, he hung out at Al Lopez Field during Cincinnati Reds spring training and worked as a vendor at Tampa Stadium.[3]

McGriff went out for the baseball team at Jefferson High School as a sophomore but was cut. He made the team the following year after undergoing a growth spurt. He first attracted the attention of professional ballclubs after hitting a long home run off of Hillsborough High School's Doc Gooden with scouts in attendance to watch Gooden pitch.[4] McGriff accepted a scholarship offer to play college baseball for the Georgia Bulldogs.[5]

McGriff signed with the New York Yankees after being selected in the 9th round of the 1981 amateur draft. He received a $20,000 signing bonus.[4] In 1982, the Yankees dealt McGriff, Dave Collins and Mike Morgan to the Toronto Blue Jays for Dale Murray and Tom Dodd. The trade is now considered one of the most one-sided deals in baseball history; in 2006, Rob Neyer wrote that the trade looked particularly lopsided because it was one of the few instances that a player of McGriff's stature was traded before getting to the majors.[6]

At the time, the trade appeared to make some sense from the Yankees' perspective, since McGriff was blocked from first base by Don Mattingly. Nonetheless, the Yankees didn't get nearly enough in return. Murray won only three games in three years with the Yankees, and was out of baseball by 1986. Dodd was released at the end of the season, and apart from a month with the Baltimore Orioles in 1986 spent the remainder of his career in the minors.[6] Before McGriff became a regular major leaguer, baseball great Ted Williams took note of his power at a batting practice session during spring training. Williams was drawn to McGriff when he heard the sound of the ball leaving McGriff's bat.

McGriff played two innings at first base on May 17, 1986, and the next day started his first career game as the designated hitter. His first at bat was in the bottom of the second inning against Don Schulze, during which he hit a line drive to left field for his first career hit. McGriff played in only one more MLB game that season.[7]

McGriff reached the majors full-time in 1987, and hit 34 home runs the next year, his first of seven consecutive seasons with over 30 homers. He emerged as the top power hitter in the American League in 1989, leading the league with 36 home runs, including the first home run hit at the SkyDome, helping the Blue Jays win the AL East division title. His power numbers remained steady in 1990, as McGriff batted .300 and established himself as a consistent producer.

On December 5, 1990, McGriff was traded to the San Diego Padres along with Tony Fernández in exchange for Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter – two players who would be integral in Toronto's back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.

His numbers remained consistent in the National League, where he hit .278/.396/.474 for San Diego in 1991. He made his first All-Star appearance the following year and led the NL in home runs in 1992, three years after he had accomplished the same feat in the AL.

On July 18, 1993, the Padres, out of contention and seeking to unload their high-priced veterans, dealt McGriff to the Atlanta Braves for prospect Vince Moore, Donnie Elliott and Melvin Nieves. McGriff hit a home run in his first game with the Braves, who acquired him to replace the struggling Sid Bream at first and to provide an offensive spark, and was a key player in the Braves' 51–19 finish to overtake the San Francisco Giants and claim first place in the National League West for a third consecutive season. He finished with a career high 37 homers and fourth place in the NL MVP voting.

In the strike-shortened 1994 season, McGriff was batting .318 and had 34 home runs when play ended in August 1994. He won the All-Star Game MVP Award that year after hitting the game-tying home run for the National League, after the NL trailed, 7–5, in the bottom of the ninth inning. McGriff was runner-up to Ken Griffey Jr. in the 1994 Home Run Derby.

McGriff remained with the Braves in 1995 and continued to be a successful cleanup hitter. He hit two home runs in the 1995 World Series en route to his only World Series championship ring. McGriff hit .295/.365/.494 with a career-best 107 RBIs on his way to another World Series appearance in 1996.

With 22 home runs in 1997, McGriff appeared to be in decline. He was called out on strikes by umpire Eric Gregg on a pitch thrown by Liván Hernández during the 1997 NLCS, which was the last significant event for McGriff as a member of the Braves. The team allowed him to be picked up by the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays after the season.

McGriff, playing for his hometown team, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, batted .278 with 19 home runs in his first season with the Devil Rays. His numbers experienced a minor renaissance in 1999 when he hit .310 with 32 home runs the following season. After another solid season in 2000, McGriff got off to a good start in 2001 and was heavily pursued by the contending Chicago Cubs around the trade deadline. He waived his no-trade clause to allow himself to be dealt to Chicago on July 27, 2001. He hit .282 with 12 homers in 49 games with the Cubs, but the team did not reach the postseason.

McGriff had 30 home runs during a strong 2002 campaign, which earned him a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2003 season. Twenty-two homers shy of 500 for his career, the forty-year-old McGriff only hit 13 with a .249 batting average and spent a significant amount of time on the disabled list.

During spring training in 2004, the Devil Rays re-signed McGriff in hopes of letting the veteran ballplayer hit 500 home runs.[8] He ended up with a .181 average and had hit just two home runs in his sporadic play from the end of May until mid-July. The Devil Rays released McGriff on July 28, 2004, seven home runs shy of 500. Although McGriff only played in Tampa Bay late in his career, he collected 66 win shares as a Devil Ray, the team's all-time record.

McGriff was released by the Devil Rays and officially declared his retirement during spring training of 2005 when he received no calls from any teams requesting his services. He became eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2010. He received 21.5% of the vote in his first year of eligibility, falling short of the 75% requirement for induction.[9] Over the next four elections, McGriff's vote percentage ranged from a high of 23.9% (137 votes) in 2012 to a low of 11.7% (67 votes) in 2014. As a player who received more than 5.0% of votes cast, McGriff remained eligible for induction by the Baseball Writers' Association of America until 2019, when his time on the ballot expired after 10 unsuccessful appearances. On his final ballot, McGriff achieved his highest vote total ever of 39.8% (169 votes), still falling short of the necessary 75% for induction. Excluding those players either associated with alleged steroid use and those not yet eligible for the Hall of Fame, McGriff has the most career home runs of any player not in the Hall of Fame.

McGriff ended his career having 10 seasons with at least 30 home runs. He and Gary Sheffield are the only players ever to hit at least 30 home runs in one season for five different teams, with McGriff accomplishing the feat with Toronto three times, San Diego twice, and Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and the Chicago Cubs once each.[10][11][12]

McGriff appeared in commercials for Tom Emanski's Baseball Fundamentals training videos in 1991. In the ad, McGriff deadpans the merits of the videos while wearing a "Baseball World" mesh cap perched high atop his head. The commercials ran for over a decade on ESPN, making them some of the longest running commercials on television.

He now hosts a radio show in Tampa.

He fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in 2019 after not receiving the 75% of votes required to make it in during his 10 years of eligibility.[13] He will be eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the Today's Game Committee in 2022.

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)