Ken Griffey Jr. hints he’ll advocate for former Mariners teammate in Hall of Fame speech

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – Ken Griffey Jr. hinted he’ll have the back of one of his former teammates, Edgar Martinez, during his Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech on Sunday.

He earlier told a Boston reporter that he believes Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz – who was signed by the Seattle Mariners as an amateur free agent in 1992 – will be a hall of famer.

So what about Edgar – the man whom MLB’s top designated hitter honor is named after?

“You see, I can’t talk about that,” Griffey said on Saturday from the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown. He’ll give his induction speech from outside the building on Sunday.

“Because I got to talk about that later.”

Martinez grew up in Puerto Rico before spending all 18 years of his major league career with the Mariners. He has a career batting average of .312, hit 514 doubles and 309 home runs and was a seven-time All-Star and won two batting titles.

Martinez has been on the Hall of Fame ballot the past seven years without earning the 75 percent of votes needed from the Baseball Writers Association of America to earn a spot in the Hall of Fame. He received 43.4 percent this past year.

He was inducted into the Mariners’ hall of fame in 2007. He is the organization’s all-time leader in batting average (.312), hits (2,247), doubles (514), walks (1,283) and games played (2,055).

Griffey shied away from alluding what else he might include in his speech. Though when asked about his first impression of Seattle and how that changed –

“I can’t talk about that, either,” he said. “Just hate to break it to you, but yeah.”

TJ Cotterill: 253-597-8677

@TJCotterill

This story was originally published July 23, 2016 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Ken Griffey Jr. hints he’ll advocate for former Mariners teammate in Hall of Fame speech."