Baseball Hall of Fame 2016: Time, TV schedule, live stream, inductees for enshrinement ceremony

Jul 24, 2016, 12:01 PM UTC

Gregory J. Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza will be immortalized Sunday afternoon, with the duo officially enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in its 2016 induction ceremony in Cooperstown, New York.

MLB Network will provide television coverage of the ceremony and speeches, which will also be streamed online at MLB.com and BaseballHall.org.

The pair was elected to the Hall of Fame in January, with Griffey receiving a record 99.3 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America in his first year on the ballot. Piazza, in his fourth year on the ballot, was elected with 83 percent of the vote, well above the 75 percent required for induction.

Griffey seemed destined for greatness from the beginning, the son a 19-year major league outfielder, three-time All-Star and member of the Big Red Machine. The younger Griffey was drafted first overall in 1987 by the Mariners, owner of one of the most beautiful natural swings in baseball history, and would later help Seattle to its first two playoff appearances in franchise history in 1995 and 1997.

Griffey hit .284/.370/.538 in 22 seasons with the Mariners, Reds and White Sox. His 630 home runs rank sixth all-time. Griffey was a 13-time All-Star, a 10-time Gold Glove Award winner in center field, and won the 1997 American League MVP for hitting .304/.382/.646 while leading the American League with 56 home runs, 147 RBI and 125 runs scored.

Piazza did not have the pedigree of Griffey, but his father grew up with Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, so when many scouts were not interested in the slugger out of Miami Dade College, LA picked Piazza in the 62nd round in 1988 as a favor to Lasorda.

Boy, did that payoff.

Piazza hit right from the start in the majors, setting a rookie record for catchers with 35 home runs in 1993. He made the All-Star team in each of his first 10 seasons, and 12 times overall, and won 10 Silver Slugger Awards as the best-hitting catcher in the National League.

In his 16-year career, Piazza hit .308/.377/.545 with 427 home runs, including a record 396 hit as a catcher.

Piazza finished second in MVP voting in both 1996 and 1997 with the Dodgers, peaking in 1997 by hitting .362/.431/.638 with 40 home runs and 124 RBI as a catcher. Traded to the Mets in 1998, Piazza played parts of eight seasons in New York and led the Mets to the World Series in 2000.

Griffey, who played 13 of his 22 seasons with Seattle, will be enshrined in Cooperstown as a Mariner, the first in the Hall of Fame. Piazza will wear a Mets cap on his bronze plaque.

MLB Network coverage begins at noon ET with MLB Tonight, with hosts Brian Kenny and Greg Amsinger, along with analysts Peter Gammons, Al Leiter and Harold Reynolds. The induction ceremony begins at 1:30 p.m.