Former Atlanta Braves star Fred McGriff finally gets his due

Fred McGriff had been a victim of timing when it came to the Hall of Fame.

The former Atlanta Braves star was a steady power threat, someone who had ten seasons with 30 or more homers but never reached the 40 home run plateau. His peak ended just before the Steroid Era kicked into gear, his performance dwarfed by the video game numbers of the time. McGriff also missed time due to the 1994-95 strike, costing him his chance at 500 homers, a round number that the voters tend to like.

Atlanta Braves first baseman Fred McGriff finally immortalized

That time conspired to keep McGriff down on the Hall of Fame ballot. While he lasted all ten years, he never received more than 39.8% of the vote. However, that does not matter any longer as McGriff was voted into the Hall by the Veteran’s Committee. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reported that McGriff was unanimous, while Don Mattingly finished second with eight votes. The three biggest names – Curt Schilling, Barry Bonds, and Rogers Clemens – were not close. Schilling had seven votes while both Bonds and Clemens received fewer than four votes each.

McGriff had a steady 19 year career in the majors. A five time All Star, he produced a .284/.377/.509 batting line, hitting 493 homers and 441 doubles in his 10,174 plate appearances. He won three Silver Slugger awards and finished in the top ten of the MVP vote six times as he was a feared piece of the lineup.

But his numbers did not have that same luster when he found his way onto the ballot. Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire had made McGriff’s consistency seem pedestrian by their performances. He also just missed that 500 home run plateau due to circumstances beyond his control. Meanwhile, the same writers that bemoaned the Steroid Era penalized McGriff on the ballot for failing to reach those marks.

None of that matters any longer. The Contemporary Era Committee recognized what McGriff meant on the diamond and how good of a player he actually was. It is telling that, in a vote of his peers, not one voted against putting him into the Hall of Fame. It is an honor that is long overdue.

Former Atlanta Braves first baseman Fred McGriff has finally gotten his due. After far too long, he has been inducted into the Hall of Fame.