fred mcgriff is in my hall of famer collection

we will find out in a couple of days if anyone was voted in to the baseball hall of fame as part of the class of 2023. there is already one member who will be inducted later this year, and that is fred mcgriff. i've added him to my hall of famer collection with this card:

that's a 2016 panini pantheon milestone scripts autograph card, numbered 37/99 (here's the back)

and it is a whole lot of blue!

i bought the card just before the announcement of his election in an attempt to avoid a spike in prices, although i am not sure if that is actually happening. i chose a card of mcgriff as a blue jay because it was during his tenure in toronto that i became a fan of his.

my american league allegiances were originally for the angels, and then i bought in to billyball and the oakland a's teams of the early 1980's. by the time 1987 came along, i had sort of gone back to the angels but also had an affinity for the blue jays. with my canadian roots and their success in 1985, i was ready to fully back them once the '87 pennant chase got going.

and, while i was disappointed that the blue jays blew their lead in the al east during the final weekend of the season , i stuck with them as my american league team in 1988, which is when mcgriff really broke out. over the next three seasons, mcgriff played at a superstar level for the blue jays, hitting 34, 36, and 35 home runs, with his 36 bombs in 1989 leading the league and serving as the focal point of the card above. i was definitely a fan, and was shocked when he was traded to the padres prior to the 1990 season.

i still followed mcgriff as a national leaguer, but certainly wasn't rooting for his teams to win. i got to see him play in person finally during the 1991 season on april 12 (dodgers' home opener) and august 19. mcgriff had hits in each of those games - 3 in the latter - but the most memorable thing to me from those games was tommy lasorda coming out of the dugout and instigating the home crowd toward the end of the august 19 game. the crowd responded and the dodgers rallied thanks to mitch webster of all people and won the game in extra innings.

i saw mcgriff play in person a couple more times during his tenure with the braves, and then a couple of times during his first stint as a devil ray. he didn't do anything memorable in those games, unfortunately. the lone dodger game i attended in 2003, his only season with the club, came late in the season after he had played his final game that year.

when mcgriff joined the dodgers, i was excited because i thought for sure he would hit his 500th career home run wearing dodger blue as he was only 22 shy of the milestone, and he had hit 30 in 2002. i remember telling a friend of mine at the time that i figured mcgriff would play a couple of seasons in la and hopefully hand the reins over to james loney when he left. as it turned out, mcgriff only hit 13 with the dodgers and they did not re-sign him following the season, instead moving shawn green to first base. mcgriff closed out his career with a partial season in tampa bay, 7 homers shy of 500.

i have to believe had mcgriff reached 500 home runs, the writers would have voted him in to the hall early on in his candidacy, but who the heck knows. i am glad he is finally getting his due while he is still around to enjoy the accolades.

you can see all of the players and their cards that comprise my hall of famer collection here. i am looking forward to the announcement on tuesday - maybe there will be another player for me to add to the collection - stay tuned!