As great as Griffey was in those days, he seemed even greater because of the smile he had on his face, the youthful exuberance of his game. He was hardly the first big league player to be called Kid... but he wore the nickname best. He was The Kid, Junior, the very essence of youth. | | | | | The Kid in 2005. (Ryosuke Yagi) | | | | |  | “As great as Griffey was in those days, he seemed even greater because of the smile he had on his face, the youthful exuberance of his game. He was hardly the first big league player to be called Kid... but he wore the nickname best. He was The Kid, Junior, the very essence of youth.”
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| | rantnrave:// In an era in which some of the greatest players in baseball history wear steroid asterisks around their neck, the HALL OF FAME induction ceremony in COOPERSTOWN, N.Y., can feel heavy and hollow, an annual reminder of that which can never be. But let's try to forget that this weekend as the HALL inducts two beloved and fully deserving men (OK, there may be certain corners of LOS ANGELES and certain rooms in ROGER CLEMENS' house where one of them is not completely beloved) who arrive in COOPERSTOWN at the end of two very different paths. KEN GRIFFEY JR., was the first pick in the first round of the 1987 amateur draft. He was the son of a baseball great, dripping with destiny. A true five-tool player, he earned every one of his HALL OF FAME votes (437 of 440 possible votes; the other three voters should be permanently barred from all MLB properties) in that first astonishing decade with the MARINERS, after which he was never quite the same. Then again, hardly anyone who's ever played the game was quite the same as KEN GRIFFEY JR. in his twenties. The words GRIFFEY and steroids have never, ever appeared in the same sentence (this one doesn't count). MIKE PIAZZA was drafted a year after GRIFFEY, in the 62nd round, which means about twice as many people were picked before him as actually play in the major leagues. It's possible I was picked before PIAZZA (it's also possible I was not). He was drafted not as a prospect, but as a favor. Favors are underrated. He turned into the greatest hitting catcher of all time and became a folk hero in both LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK. His actual catching was nothing to write home about and the words PIAZZA and steroids appeared in enough sentences together to fill several BELLE AND SEBASTIAN albums, but not one of those sentences has even been proved true. Still, that's probably why it took him four tries to get into the HALL. But he skated in in the end. As a catcher, PIAZZA wore his cap backwards by necessity. GRIFFEY wore his backwards by choice in one of the most iconic style statements in baseball history. Check out our REDEF SportsSET "BASEBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2016" as baseball prepares for a particularly stylish HALL OF FAME weekend... The NBA takes a strong, meaningful stand in NORTH CAROLINA. The WNBA punishes its players for taking a stand on behalf of Black Lives Matter (while, strangely, expressing pride for the players' "engagement and passionate advocacy")... Women's softball player KELSIE WHITMORE gets her first career hit for men's pro baseball team the SONOMA STOMPERS but refuses to get too excited because, "That's just one hit. I need more"... SNOOP DOGG watches a CFL game and has some things to say about it... REDEF is looking for sports, fashion and music curators. CVs to jobs@redefgroup.com. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Sports Illustrated |
| Young Ken Griffey Jr., son of a baseball star, is already the kind of player that candy bars are named after. (Originally published May 7, 1990.) | | |
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| Sports Illustrated |
| Rookie catcher Mike Piazza brings a hot bat, a fiery intensity and a touch of the paisano to Tommy Lasorda's lineup. (Originally published July 5, 1993.) | | |
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 | Awful Announcing |
| Duke vs. Syracuse. The battle for ACC Lacrosse Championship glory. Both teams are contenders for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Let's just say, its about to go down. Thousands of fans are tuned in to ESPNU to root for their alma mater. | | |
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 | WSJ |
| Expanded TV coverage and declining age of the peloton is forcing riders in the Tour de France to abandon the race’s long-held gentlemanly agreements. | | |
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 | The Hardball Times |
| Deep knee bends for a second or two ten times every evening is probably good for you. However, crouching behind the plate for five to ten seconds about one hundred and fifty times a night can’t be healthy. | | |
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 | Bleacher Report |
| Gay referee Jesus Tomillero vows to work again. | | |
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 | The Undefeated |
| Coach Dianna Williams and her dedicated Dancing Dolls are about practice, Mississippi pride — and winning. | | |
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 | Complex |
| This is the year of the Adidas Gazelle, but the history of the shoe isn't as well-known. From celebrity co-signs to its design change, here's the story. | | |
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 | FOX Sports |
| LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Porter Maberry just keeps going up. The crowd at K-Mart's Rise Challenge event in downtown Los Angeles is fixated and confused by him-this tiny human who, with a few short steps, launched his 5-foot-5, 145-pound frame high into the air, possibly for good. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Social activism is coming at a cost for WNBA players. The WNBA has fined the Liberty, Phoenix Mercury and Indiana Fever and their players for wearing black warm up shirts in the wake of recent shootings by and against police officers. All three teams were fined $5,000 and each player was fined $500. | | |
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| | | griffey, seattle center fielder |
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 | ESPN.com |
| The NFL's removal this week of the doctor who oversaw the league's now-discredited concussion policies comes as another top NFL health adviser is under scrutiny for allegations he tried to influence a major government study on football and brain disease. | | |
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 | Adventure Journal |
| Like gentrification, the elitism of outdoor sports is pushing out the common participant. | | |
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 | Vice Sports |
| Here we go again: Rob Manfred has a wacky idea to fix baseball. | | |
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 | SportTechie |
| This year, English Premier League teams have been venturing into burgeoning eSports industry by signing professional gamers to represent their respective teams during FIFA tournaments. Next in line looks to be teams in the NFL, where, according to Bloomberg, three have mentioned the possibility of signing top gamers from EA's Madden NFL video game. | | |
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 | BBC |
| An interview with Van Phillips, inventor of the prosthetic blade used by Paralympians. | | |
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 | Arctic Ice Hockey |
| Bobby Hull is being inducted into the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame. It's a lot more complicated than him being good at hockey though. | | |
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| ESPN.com |
| Steph was back. Six minutes and 2 seconds into Game 4 of the Golden State Warriors' second-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers, Stephen Currysauntered off the bench for his first live action in two weeks and into the epicenter of the most exciting game of the year. | | |
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 | The Players' Tribune |
| I remember my first day of organized football so clearly - it's almost as if the last whistle of practice blew only a few moments ago. I had just passed my physical, and my uncle rushed me to Hub Stine Field at Plainfield (N.J.) High for Pop Warner practice. | | |
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 | New York Post |
| The television executives had gathered the crew and the talent in a room that afternoon of Sept. 21, 2001. They were solemn and serious and wanted the men who would broadcast the Mets game that night to follow a firm, formal plan. | | |
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| Bleacher Report |
| They sit across the negotiating table as adversaries, but Rob Manfred and Tony Clark are also partners. As the commissioner of Major League Baseball and the head of its players union, respectively, Manfred and Clark have significant differences, but also common goals. | | |
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 | via YouTube |
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