“Here's Junior to third! They're going to wave him in! The throw to the plate will be ... LATE, the Mariners are going to enshrine a player in the Baseball Hall of Fame! I don't believe it!”

Yes, it's finally happened. Today, in Cooperstown, NY, the Seattle Mariners joined 25 other teams/franchises with an actual player in the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Missing teams: Angels, Rockies, Marlins, Rays.) The M's will have a few more in a few more. Ichiro will go in as a Mariner. Maybe Felix, if he pulls out of this slump. Maybe Edgar—he hit a career high 43% of the HOF votes this year. But today was Junior's day. He went in with the highest vote total ever: 99.3%. He's the only 99-percenter.

Thoughts on the plaque?

• They never get those face etchings right, do they? Junior was way more handsome than this. 
• I almost want the cap on backwards. But I want to see that Mariners logo, too.
• “Ken”? That's a nickname? What about “The Natural”?
• I don't think you need “...particularly in the Pacific Northwest.” Junior was one of those players beloved in almost every city he played in. Mr. B can attest. He'll tell you his “visiting Wrigley Field in '94” story, if you want to hear it. Or even if you don't.  
• “Easy-Going Nature”? Yeah, but he was also work.
• Maybe add “5 HRs in a five-game playoff series”? That was a record once.
• How about “Greatest player never to play in a World Series game”? That's the true sadness.

Extra credit:

• Junior's full HOF speech. A lot of tears. A few laughs. My favorite are the Jay Buhner recollections.
• Art Thiel talks up Junior and Senior. That's also one of the best quotes in Junior's speech: “He made a decision to play baseball to provide his family, because that's what men do.”
• Junior on the dash home on Edgar's double. Pretty funny stuff. Piazza's his hallelujah chorus.
• David Schoenfield's Top 10 Junior memories. I'd put more catches in there. I'd put the Opening Day HRs. I'd put in this general memory of heading out for the night and then saying, “Wait, just this Griffey at-bat.” And invariably something beautiful would happen.