McGriff, Rolen inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame
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Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff Writer
Baseball’s two newest Hall of Famers, Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen, joined the ranks of the immortals on Sunday in the same understated manner that marked both players’ long careers.
McGriff and Rolen were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday during a ceremony on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, New York, when two players who often shunned the limelight were tasked with speaking to a throng of fans in attendance as well as a national television audience on the MLB Network. Both responded with eloquent speeches.
“This is baseball’s biggest honor,” McGriff said. “This is like icing on the cake. You see, my goal was simply to make it to the big leagues.”
Now McGriff has made the biggest league of all after his long wait for enshrinement finally ended on Sunday. Passed over during his 10-year stay on the BBWAA ballot, McGriff was unanimously voted in at the winter meetings in December by one of the Hall’s era-based veterans committees.
McGriff finished with 493 career homers, likely missing the ballyhooed 500-dinger club because of the 1994-1995 work stoppage that cost him part of two seasons when he was producing the best numbers of his career. His speech recounted his childhood in the Tampa, Florida, area, not far from the spring training complex of the Big Red Machine-era Cincinnati Reds teams.
His words built on a theme of continuing to work in pursuit of your dreams, an ethic McGriff embodied from the time he was cut from his 10th grade team.
“I was on a mission to improve as a hitter,” McGriff said. “It was time to work. That meant becoming a student of the game, reading books, watching videos about hitting. Charlie Lau’s ‘The Art of Hitting .300’ became my go-to book. It was like my bible.”
It was a Hall of Fame moment: The player featured in Lau’s seminal work was his most famous pupil, George Brett, who was among the greats seated behind McGriff on stage.
Perhaps the part of McGriff’s speech that encapsulated his journey the best came when he thanked members of his family, including his late parents, siblings and children. He finished with his wife of 34 years, Veronica, who he noted has been with him “since we worked together at Burger King.”
Known for consistency, McGriff played for six teams during his career and twice was traded at midseason to contenders hoping the slugger would put their club over the top in a title pursuit. He hit 30 or more homers in a season for a record five different teams.
A member of the 1995 World Series champion Atlanta Braves, McGriff’s Hall plaque will not feature a team logo. If the delayed entry bothered McGriff, he wasn’t showing it Sunday, especially after he was greeted with unusual enthusiasm by fellow Hall of Famers when he walked onto the stage.
“I’m humbled to be standing on a stage with some of the greatest players to ever play this game,” McGriff said. “Honestly, I would have been happy just playing one day in the big leagues.”
While Rolen didn’t have to wait as long as McGriff — he was voted by the BBWAA in his sixth year of eligibility — his starting point was historically low. In 2018, the first time Rolen’s name appeared on the ballot, he received just 10.2% of the vote, the lowest initial percentage for a player who eventually was inducted. His rise from a ballot afterthought to a Hall of Famer was as startling as it was unlikely.
“I assumed that this group would be quite intimidating,” Rolen said in acknowledgment of the thousands of fans gathered across the vast lawn on which the ceremony is held every summer. “It is, but way more intimidating is the group behind me and standing here in front of these legends. On this stage is baseball greatness.”
Rolen becomes the 12th Hall of Famer to feature a St. Louis Cardinals logo on this Hall plaque. Rolen was traded to the Cardinals from the Phillies at the 2002 trade deadline. He went on to play in four All-Star Games and win three Gold Gloves during his time in St. Louis for his highlight-reel work at third base. He was a member of two pennant-winning Cardinals teams (2004 and 2006) and won a ring in 2006.
A small-town standout from Jasper, Indiana, in both baseball and basketball during his prep days, Rolen stayed true to his roots at the very beginning of the speech by recognizing two attendees who are members of the Indiana Bulls, the youth team he coaches.
Most of Rolen’s speech went on to celebrate the work ethic and simple values of his small-town background, manifested in the support and guidance from his parents, including his father urging him to focus on what he can do, not what he can’t, with the words “do that, then.”
“‘Do that, then’ carried me into the minor leagues and gave me a simple mindset that I would never allow myself to be unprepared or outworked,” Rolen said. “‘Do that, then’ put me on this stage today.”
Rolen finished his speech by taking out a Hall of Fame cap and tipping it to his family and everyone else on hand.
If there was one overriding connection between Rolen and McGriff, it might simply be that after years of uncertainty, both stars entered the Hall despite many moments of wondering if Sunday would ever arrive. The days of wondering are over.
“At no point in my lifetime did it ever occurred to me that I’d be standing on this stage,” Rolen said early in his speech. “But I’m glad it occurred to you, because this is unbelievably special.”
In addition to Sunday’s induction, the Hall held its annual awards ceremony at Doubleday Field on Saturday.
Among those honored were 96-year-old former pitcher Carl Erskine, the last surviving key member of the famed “Boys of Summer” Brooklyn Dodgers teams from the 1950s. Erskine received the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award.
Also honored was John Lowe, who won the BBWAA Career Excellence Award, marking his work covering the Detroit Tigers for the Detroit Free Press. Longtime Chicago Cubs broadcaster Pat Hughes was honored as this year’s Ford C. Frick Award winner.
Former Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George was named the next head coach at Bowling Green on Sunday.
George agreed to a five-year deal, sources told ESPN.
His hiring came two days after George, who spent the past four seasons as the head coach at Tennessee State, was one of three finalists to interview for the position.
“Today, we add another transformative leader to this campus in Eddie George,” Derek van der Merwe, Bowling Green’s vice president for athletics strategy, said in a news release. “Our students are getting someone who has chased success in sports, art, business, and leadership. As our head football coach, he will pursue excellence in all aspects of competition in the arena. More importantly, beyond the arena, he will exemplify what excellence looks like in the classroom, in life, in business, and in relationships with people.”
George emerged as a successful head coach in the FCS at Tennessee State. This past season, he led the program to the FCS playoffs and a share of the OVC-Big South title, the school’s first league title in football since 1999.
“I am truly excited to be the head coach at Bowling Green State University,” George said in the news release. “Bowling Green is a wonderful community that has embraced the school and the athletics department. We are eager to immerse ourselves in the community and help build this program to the greatness it deserves. I am overwhelmed with excitement and joy for the possibilities this opportunity holds.”
George returns to the state where he rushed for 3,768 yards over four seasons as a running back for Ohio State, winning the Heisman Trophy in 1995.
George went on to star in the NFL for nine seasons, rushing for more than 10,000 yards. He was a 1996 first-round pick of the Houston Oilers and made his name by playing seven seasons in Nashville for the Titans, becoming the franchise’s all-time leading rusher. The Titans retired his jersey in 2019.
Tennessee State hired George despite his lack of traditional coaching experience, with the school president at the time calling the move “the right choice and investment” for the future of TSU. George has worked as an actor and entrepreneur and earned an MBA from Northwestern.
George paid back the administration’s faith by building Tennessee State into a winner, including a 9-4 season in 2024 that culminated in its first FCS playoff appearance since 2013. Tennessee State lost to Montana in the first round.
George’s hire at TSU continued the trend of former star players being hired at historically Black colleges and universities. Jackson State made the biggest splash in hiring Deion Sanders, who went on to a successful stint at Colorado. Michael Vick’s hire at Norfolk State and DeSean Jackson’s hire at Delaware State continued that trend in the current hiring cycle.
George will replace Scot Loeffler, who left the school to become the quarterbacks coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Bowling Green has become one of the top coaching springboards of this generation, with Urban Meyer, Dave Clawson and Dino Babers all advancing from the school to power conference jobs. Loeffler went 27-41 over six seasons, a run that included bowl appearances in each of the past three seasons.
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Eli Lederman
Defensive end prospect Richard Wesley, one of the nation’s top recruits in the 2027 high school class, has reclassified into the 2026 cycle and will sign with a college program later this year, he told ESPN on Friday.
A 6-foot-5, 245-pound pass rusher from Chatsworth, California, Wesley completed his sophomore season at Sierra Canyon (California) High School this past fall. His move marks the latest high-profile reclassification in the current cycle, following wide receiver Ethan “Boobie” Feaster (No. 21 in the ESPN Junior 300), tight end Mark Bowman (No. 23), running back Ezavier Crowell (No. 29) and cornerback Havon Finney Jr. (not ranked) in the line of the elite former 2027 prospects to reclassify into the 2026 class since the start of the new year.
ESPN has not yet released its prospect rankings for the 2027 class, but Wesley is expected to slot in among the nation’s top five defensive line recruits in 2026. He took unofficial visits to Oregon and Texas A&M in January and holds a long list of offers across the SEC, Big Ten and ACC.
Following his reclassification, Wesley told ESPN he will take trips to Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Miami, Oregon, USC, Ole Miss and Texas A&M across March and April before finalizing a slate of official visits for later this spring.
“I really can’t say what the future holds for me,” Wesley said. “I’m excited for more opportunities to go talk with these coaches and see what they’re about. I’m really open to everyone that’s offered me and who really wants me in their program.”
Wesley emerged as one of the nation’s most coveted high school defenders after he totaled 55 tackles and 10 sacks in his freshman season at Sierra Canyon in 2023. He followed this past fall 44 tackles (16 for loss) with nine sacks and four forced fumbles as a sophomore.
The rash of reclassifications into the 2026 class comes after a series of top prospects opted to reclassify during the 2025 recruiting cycle, headlined by five-star recruits Julian Lewis (Colorado) and Jahkeem Stewart (USC) and Texas A&M quarterback signee Brady Hart. Wesley told ESPN that his decision to enter college early was motivated by conversations with college coaches and his belief that he will be physically ready to compete at the next level by the time his junior season ends later this year.
“All the colleges I talk to have shown me their recruiting boards and told me I’m at the top of their list at the position regardless of class,” Wesley said. “They’ve told me good things and they’ve told me the things I need to work on. I need to work on my violence. I’ve been grinding at that every single day.”
Wesley now joins a talented 2026 defensive end class that features 11 prospects ranked inside the top 100 in the ESPN Junior 300.
Five-star edge rusher Zion Elee, ESPN’s No. 1 defender in the class, has been committed to Maryland since this past December and closed his recruitment last month. JaReylan McCoy, a five-star prospect who decommitted from LSU in February, and four-stars Jake Kreul (No. 19 overall) and Nolan Wilson (No. 54 overall) stand among the cycle’s top uncommitted defensive ends.
IRVING, Texas — The Big 12 has moved six of its conference football games to Friday nights next fall, along with another matchup of league teams that won’t count in the standings.
Those were among the 10 games involving Big 12 teams selected Friday by the league’s television partners, ESPN and Fox, for Friday night broadcasts. There will be two games on three of those nights.
On the opening weekend of the season, Baylor will host SEC team Auburn and Colorado will be home against ACC team Georgia Tech on Aug. 29. Arizona plays at Arizona State and Utah is at Kansas on Nov. 28, the day after Thanksgiving.
There will also be two games Sept. 12, with Colorado at Houston and Kansas State at Arizona. That matchup of Wildcats won’t count in the Big 12 standings since it was part of a preexisting schedule agreement between the two teams before the league expanded to 16 teams last year.
The other four Friday night games are Tulsa at Oklahoma State (Sept. 19), TCU at Arizona State (Sept. 26), West Virginia at BYU (Oct. 3) and Houston at UCF (Nov. 7).
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