With Mike Piazza getting inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday alongside Ken Griffey Jr., it's interesting to note that Piazza is the lowest-drafted player to make it to the Hall of Fame. The Dodgers selected him in the 62nd round in 1988.

Griffey, on the other hand, was the Mariners' No. 1 pick in the 1987 draft and faced immense pressure from the first day of his pro career to live up to the hype.

The son of former major leaguer Ken Griffey, “Junior” received 437 out of a possible 440 votes in his first year on the ballot. Playing with a squeaky-clean reputation in the steroid era, he stood out from the pack.

Griffey was always one of the more approachable superstars, perhaps learning to be available to the media from growing up in the Reds clubhouse when his dad played.

One day at the Kingdome in early 1996, I asked Griffey about a Gentlemen's Quarterly cover story that touted him as the player who could “save baseball.” This was the first full season after the players strike and the game was having trouble regaining fans' trust.

“There are 1,000 major-league ballplayers who have to save the game, not just one player,” Griffey said. “Anyone who deals with baseball every day has to save baseball, from the front office on down to the clubhouse guys. There's not one person who is not important if baseball is to survive.”

The game survived. Ironically, it wasn't Griffey but the '98 home run race between juiced-up sluggers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire that was credited for its revival. Neither Sosa nor McGwire has come close to gaining election to the Hall.

Back in the '90s, Griffey was so tied to Nike he wore a pullover jersey in batting practice with the Nike swoosh instead of a Mariners logo. (“This one's a little heavier, and I like to sweat,” he explained.)

Nike ran a “Griffey for President” ad campaign in '96 and he admitted to me that he even registered to vote so he could vote for himself.

“Some people were asking me what my stand on abortion is and stuff like that,” he said. “That's not fair to me. It's a campaign to let everyone know it's time to vote and you can make a difference.”

Griffey ultimately lost to Bill Clinton, but no matter. He was one of those rare players who transcended the sport and was recognized by those who didn't even follow baseball.

“I don't think there will ever be another Ken Griffey Jr., somebody who comes into the game and just changes it,” Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “He changed it for the better.

“Every single day he played, he was smiling, laughing, enjoying the game — the hat backward, going onto the field and doing everything possible to have fun and be one of the best players out there.”

What might have been: The Cubs tried to land Piazza early in the 1998 season.

The Marlins acquired Piazza from the Dodgers in May of '98 but were in the midst of a fire sale after winning the World Series the season before and put him back on the market immediately. He wound up going to the Mets a week later.

Piazza's agent, Dan Lozano, said after the trade the Mets and Cubs were the final two teams in the running.

“I don't know about that,” then-Cubs President Andy MacPhail said when apprised of Lozano's comment. “We'll never know how close we came.”

The Marlins had tried to package Piazza and third baseman Todd Zeile to the Cubs in a deal for prospects. But the Cubs had no interest in reacquiring Zeile and his $3.2 million salary, even though Kevin Orie was struggling at third.

The Cubs simply were looking to “rent” Piazza for the rest of the season, knowing they had no hope of re-signing him to a six- or seven-year deal for $100 million or more. MacPhail and then-general manager Ed Lynch also refused to part with top catching prospect Pat Cline and top pitching prospect Todd Noel, neither of whom made it to the majors.

The Mets wound up dealing three young players, including outfielder Preston Wilson, for Piazza, who led them to the World Series in 2000 and is regarded as the best-hitting catcher in history.

Bad blood: Diamondbacks honcho Tony La Russa was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014, while baseball analyst and chronicler Peter Gammons won the Spink Award for excellence in sports writing in 2004.

Recently the two giants of the game were at odds over a Gammons tweet that quoted an unnamed National League general manager, who suggested La Russa sent reliever Brad Ziegler to the Red Sox because of his relationship with Boston President Dave Dombrowski, an old friend from their early days together in the White Sox organization.

La Russa was irked at the implication.

“The clubs that are complaining, we looked at their prospects and there (wasn't) anything there that we liked for Ziegler,” he told a Phoenix radio station. “I'm really offended by somebody like Peter putting it out there because he has known me since my first day in uniform. Since then he has apologized.”

psullivan@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @PWSullivan