HOF: Griffey Jr. and Piazza

This week in baseball is the start of when we can start to smell spring training. Just about a month and a half remains until pitchers and catchers report to their respective camps in either Arizona or Florida. But of course I will talk about that more later on. This week brought lots of excitement to two individuals - two great baseball players who pitchers feared for about two decades. They are Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza. Griffey finished his career with some very impressive numbers. Two in particular include his home run total and gold gloves. He finished with 630 career home runs and 10 gold gloves as a center fielder (although it is my personal opinion that the better hitter you are, the higher probability it is that you will receive the gold glove). Ken Griffey Jr. was unfortunately bitten by the injury bug a lot throughout his career. If it was not for that, then I believe he could have broken the career home run record. Out of 440 ballots, Griffey appeared on 437 of them, a 99.3 percent rate that is higher than any other member of the hall of fame. Piazza shined as a hitting catcher with the Dodgers, Mets and Padres. Though his defense was questioned a lot throughout his career, he was a phenomenal leader in the dugout and had many iconic moments at the plate. I remember one instance when he was with the Padres in 2006 when we were playing the Cubs at Wrigley field, Piazza hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning. We went on to win the game and won the division that season on the last day of the regular season in Arizona against the Diamondbacks. So if Piazza did not hit that home run, we would not have won the division. Thanks, Mike. You were a great player. To all the Padres fans out there, Trevor Hoffman did not make the hall in his first year of eligibility. He did receive 67 percent of the vote, however, which is a good sign for next year. A player only needs 75 percent of the vote to make it into the hall of fame, which is now more difficult with voters only allowed to vote for ten players per ballot. If Hoffman does not make the hall next year, chances are high for 2018. Do you think players linked to PED use should be in the Hall such as Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens? Leave a comment for your opinion.

Here we go! The college football playoff national championship! This Monday, Clemson and Alabama will duel in Glendale, Arizona for college football world supremacy. It will broadcast at 8:30 ET on ESPN. Clemson will sure have its hands full going up against Alabama's crippling defense. To shutout a very talented Michigan State team is mind-boggling to say the least. Though Clemson does have a potent offense with Heisman finalist Deshaun Watson, they will have a lot of work to do if they are to advance the ball down the field. Alabama, meanwhile, wants to rely on RB Derrick Henry as much as possible, though Clemson's defense is also very dominating. I love games filled with great defense. We will get that this coming Monday.

The NFL playoffs begin this week as well with some hot teams coming to show their true colors. The Kansas City Chiefs have won their past ten games and face a vastly improved Texans team in Houston that took advantage of an unimpressive Colts team to win the division. Here are the notable games this weekend:
-Saturday: Chiefs at Texans, 4:20 ET, ABC
-Saturday: Steelers at Bengals, 8:15 ET, CBS
-Sunday: Seahawks at Vikings, 1:05 ET, NBC
-Sunday: Packers at Redskins, 4:40 ET, FOX
That Steelers and Bengals game looks very intriguing now that Andy Dalton has been ruled out. The Steelers beat their division rival Bengals in their latest matchup with each other. It was also in Cincinnati. Let's see what will happen this time. Say, um, would you like to come play some football with me in zero degree weather? Yeah, that's what I thought. But that is exactly what the Seahawks and Vikings will be doing this Sunday in Minneapolis. It could get as low as -10 degrees without the wind chill. This should be fun to watch....

In the NBA, there are five teams in particular that have really pulled away from the rest of the pack and are clear favorites in winning the title. These teams are the Warriors, Spurs (who have a 30-game home winning streak), Thunder, Cavaliers and Bulls. The Warriors, Spurs and Cavaliers have been impressive all season, but the Thunder have really showed who they can be as they have won 17 of their past 20 games. The Bulls have moved on from Derrick Rose as the face of the franchise and have now moved Jimmy Butler into that position. Though Rose is still a starter, Butler has been very impressive all year. Could this be the year when LeBron finally misses out on the NBA finals? He's only getting older. But we will just have to wait and see when the playoffs begin in April.

Thank you again for reading! I hope you have a great week! Next week I will go over the title game and fill you in on who the potential top-10 could be come next September.