Sports fans are always looking for the next big thing, hoping on a special young player and attempting to foreshadow all-time greatness before credentials dictate that moniker.
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Every once in a while, that approach works and the future can be predicted or inferred based on the trajectory of a special group of players. With the announcement of the 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame class upon us, credit is due to Sports Illustrated for writing up the 25-or-younger stars heading into the 1994 season.
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Twenty-two years later, this cover looks prescient as Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza look poised to enter Cooperstown together in July.
Wonder if Sports Illustrated anticipated today when they put out this cover 25 years ago? #mariners #mets pic.twitter.com/jeWm1DXAt9
— Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) January 6, 2016
When diving deeper into the cover article in the 1994 Major League Baseball preview issue, the Griffey-Piazza cover is just the start. On the second page of the article, then-Tigers general manager Joe Klein delivers this quote about a crop of players that included Griffey, Piazza, Gary Sheffield and Mike Mussina—all on this year’s ballot: “It’s in place for these players to dominate the game over the next 10 to 15 years. You might be talking about a whole group of players that have Hall of Fame credentials.”
That’s exactly what happened.
Joe Giglio may be reached at jgiglio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoeGiglioSports. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
