It was announced on Sunday that Fred McGriff will be enshrined in Baseball’s Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2023. He was the only player voted in on the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Ballot and was selected unanimously. And for a lot of baseball fans, that news brought back memories of an old commercial.
For fans of a certain age, “Fred McGriff and Tom Emanski” go together like peanut butter and jelly. It’s nearly impossible to think of one without immediately going to the other. This is from an old commercial for Baseball World’s Defensive Drills video, which featured Emanski, then a scout. The commercial famously included McGriff, pointing at the camera and saying.
If you’re a sports fan in the age group spanning younger Generation X members and older millennials, there’s no way that you didn’t see that commercial at least a dozen times a week growing up. And while McGriff hasn’t been an active baseball player for 18 years, that commercial resonated with a lot of people of that age.
Because after McGriff was announced as the Hall of Fame’s newest member, Tom Emanski was a popular name on Twitter.
If Fred McGriff doesn’t have Tom Emanski give his Hall of Fame induction speech, he should have his induction revoked. pic.twitter.com/hneE3Y83Vv
— Korked Bats (@korkedbats) December 5, 2022
Fred McGriff can’t be introduced by anybody but Tom Emanski. https://t.co/ao2Zx5b96s
— Brandon Boyd (@brandoninstl) December 5, 2022
Congrats Fred McGriff. Well overdue for HOF induction. A great player plus an amazing Tom Emanski video commercial appearance. pic.twitter.com/WlWWJAE6Sl
— heyyoeddie (@heyyoeddie) December 5, 2022
Portrait de l'artiste sous les traits d'un moqueur, by Joseph Ducreux, 1793 https://t.co/nErcGxOrK6 pic.twitter.com/GvbCOt5fsh
— ArtButMakeItSports (@ArtButSports) December 5, 2022
He needs to go in with the Tom Emanski hat. https://t.co/xFbWDpTDnh
— Matt Clapp (@TheBlogfines) December 5, 2022
If we are keeping it 💯, Fred McGriff belongs in the Hall for those Tom Emanski/Baseball World commercials.
— RJ Kraft (@kraftdaddy85) December 5, 2022
Even McGriff got in on the fun.
Fred McGriff joked that he'd wear his blue cap from the Tom Emanski video in Cooperstown.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) December 5, 2022
If McGriff can’t go in with that blue hat and/or be inducted by Emanksi, we can only hope that he finishes his speech by holding the video up with one hand and with the other, pointing at the camera, saying “this is the instructional video that gets results.”
[Photo Credit: Ryan Van Dusen on YouTube]
