The Rattler Baseball great will be inducted in March
NORFOLK, Va. (Nov. 11) –Former Florida A&M University and Major League Baseball star Marquis Grissom has been selected for induction into the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame, the league office announced on Tuesday.
He will be inducted along with footballers Antoine Bethea of Howard and Justin Durant of Hampton; administrator Dr. Hallie Gregory of Maryland-Eastern Shore, and volleyball stalwart Breshawn Harris of Howard, at the league's Hall of Fame Luncheon in March during the MEAC Basketball Tournament in Norfolk, Va.
Grissom, was the Most Outstanding Player during the 1988 MEAC Baseball Championships, hitting .643 with four home runs, while pitching two complete games in the tourney.
He played two seasons at FAMU in 1987 and 1988, finishing his career with a .408 career batting average and a stunning .909 slugging percentage, leading Division One in runs scored per game (1.62) and triples (0.26) in 1988.
In the majors, the talented outfielder played 17 seasons with six teams, breaking into the Big Show with Montreal lin 1989, just a year removed from FAMU. He played with Montreal, Atlanta, Cleveland, Milwaukee, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco.
During his scintillating career, the Atlanta, Georgia native was a two-time Major League All-Star (1992, 1993) in the National League while with the Montreal Expos, who drafted him out of FAMU in 1988.
Grissom was a four-time Gold Glove winner as an outfielder in the National League (1999-96), was a two-time winner of the Lou Brock Award for winning the National League's stolen base title (1991, 1992) and was the Most Valuable Player in the American League Championship Series with the Cleveland Indians in 1997.
He appeared in three straight World Series between 1995 and 1997, two coming with his hometown Atlanta Braves in 1995 and 1996, and the other the following season while in Cleveland.
Grissom hit a nifty .272 in over 2,1000 major league games, with 227 home runs and 967 runs driven in with 429 stolen bases and 1,167 runs scored.
In 1999, he was cited for his community service work while with the Milwaukee Brewers, being named the recipient of the Michael Harrison Award.
Then in 2003, the San Francisco Giants honored him with the Willie Mac Award, named in honors of Giants' legend Willie McCovey, which goes to the player who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership shown by McCovey throughout his career.
