By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
This is the third in a series profiling this year's inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame, which will be posted every week at baylorbears.com.
 
Former NFL coach Bill Parcells is credited for saying "the best ability is availability." But there's maybe no better example of this than one Michael Joseph Griffin.
 
From his second game at Baylor to his last, a 4-3 loss to eventual national champion Texas in the 2005 College World Series, he was in the lineup every day. Still the school record-holder for career games played (259) and at-bats (1,076) and top 10 in virtually every offensive category, Griffin is part of the 2024 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame class that will be inducted Nov. 1. 
 
"That's the reason I still have the most at-bats is because I found a way to be in the lineup, to stay healthy and be competitive enough every year as younger talent came in," Griffin said. "Somehow, I gained the respect and had the ability to stay in the lineup that whole time. That's probably my proudest moment. Once they gave me a shot until I was done, I was out there for every pitch, every inning."
 
He didn't just stay in the lineup, Griffin produced every year. A career .306 hitter, he belted 35 home runs with 66 doubles and 14 triples, drove in 200 runs and scored 190 in his four-year career (2002-05) with the Bears. 
 
And to think, he almost never made it here. 
 
Headed to Louisiana Tech for an official visit the next day, the Cedar Hill High School product shined in a game against 2001 second-round draft pick Trey Taylor from Mansfield on a night when "every scout in the world was there to see him, including Baylor."
 
"I'll never forget, I was getting on the bus to go back home, and Trey runs over to me and my dad," Griffin said. "He knew I was going to Louisiana Tech the next day, and he said, 'Whatever you do, do not commit. I will go back and get you what you need to come to Baylor.' And sure enough, he went back to Coach (Steve) Smith and worked it out and came back with a really good offer."
 
Recruited as a pitcher and middle infielder, Griffin didn't end up pitching in a game until late in his pro baseball career. 
 
"I always knew I had it in me," he said. "Same thing when I was playing professionally. When they saw me pitch, they said, 'Hey, he's done this before. He throws pretty hard.' I like to tell everybody, I think I could have pitched in college, it just didn't happen."
 
The Bears also happened to be loaded with "plus arms" at that time, including Taylor, Mark McCormick, Jared Theodorakos and Cory VanAllen, along with relievers Ryan LaMotta and Abe Woody. 
 
Coming off the bench in the 2002 season opener against Rice in the Astros College Classic when the starting third baseman committed two errors, Griffin "got the start at third base the next day, hit a double and a home run, and the rest is history."
 
"I never missed a game for the rest of my career," said Griffin, who had actually warmed up in the bullpen in the seventh inning of the opener, "and I never saw an inning on the mound."
 
Entrenched in the lineup, Griffin had his best year as a sophomore in 2003, when he hit .350 with 11 homers and 76 RBIs to earn first-team All-Big 12 honors and a spot on the USA Baseball National Team. He was the everyday leftfielder on a 45-win team that won a regional at Southern Miss before losing Game 3 in the Super Regional at LSU. 
 
"We were five outs away from going to Omaha (for the World series)," Griffin said. "That environment playing at Alex Box (Stadium) at LSU, people don't understand this. We had a great team, we were in control of the game. But when you get in arenas like that and fields like that, it becomes very difficult. Once the momentum started to shift, the pressure really mounted, let's put it that way.
 
"Outside Rosenblatt in Omaha, that was the coolest place that I ever played at collegiately."
 
After a difficult 2004 season that included 16 one-run losses, Baylor bounced back with arguably the best season in program history. Loaded with veterans, the Bears won 13 one-run games, finished as co-Big 12 champs with Nebraska and made their first CWS appearance in 27 years. 
 
"You go to. '05, a more mature team where you've got seniors returning – me, Paul Witt, Josh Ford, Abe Woody – people that had been around for four years," Griffin said. "And all of a sudden, all those close games turn into wins. Nobody had a really stellar season individually in '05, it was more of a team deal. But that's what made the season so special."
 
Homers by unlikely heroes Seth Fortenberry and Jeff Mandel led the Bears to a 4-3, 12-inning win over Stanford in the Waco Region final, and then BU rebounded from a Game 1 loss to beat Clemson, 7-1 and 6-1, in the Super Regional. 
 
"That is the ultimate goal," Griffin said of Baylor making just its third overall CWS. "It's like playing in the World Series in the Major Leagues. You never know when your (baseball) time is over. So, at that particular moment, it is the pinnacle of your career. It's the one time you see the big stage. Everybody's goal is to get there."
 
After winning four-straight from Texas during the season, Baylor dropped the opening game of the World Series to the Longhorns, 5-1. 
 
In two of Baylor's most memorable postseason victories, the Bears defeated eighth-seeded Oregon State, 4-3, on Mike Pankratz's walk-off bloop RBI single in the bottom of the 10^th inning; and then came back from a seven-run deficit to stun top-seeded Tulane, 8-7. 
 
"I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it right now," said Griffin, who was 2-for-5 with a double and three RBIs out of the leadoff spot, "because the way it happened exactly summarized our season. Whole bunch of scrappy juniors and seniors coming together, one cause, until the last pitch. 
 
"I know myself, I had two three-hop groundballs on the left side that ended up getting through for three RBIs. . . . It was the seventh inning when we kicked it in. We were like, 'Hey, it's not over. Let's just keep chipping away.'''
 
The thrill of victory was followed by the agony of defeat one day later, when the Longhorns' Chance Wheelis walked it off with a leadoff home run in the ninth to beat the Bears, 4-3. 
 
"Just the feeling of one, it was over for us seniors," Griffin said. "But then two, it's the Longhorns. They're our rivals; I think everybody's rival in the Big 12 at the time; the big brother. We played so well against them all season, and then on the big stage, they got us. They got us when it counted, at the end."
 
A 14^th-round draft pick by the Cincinnati Reds, Griffin was a two-time all-star in the minors and hit .265 with 33 home runs, drove in 227 runs and scored 283 in stops at Billings, Daytona, Sarasota, Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville. At 27 years old, he signed a free-agent deal as a pitcher and made it back to Double-A Pensacola before retiring after the 2012 season. 
 
"Would I have loved to have had a cup of coffee in the big leagues, or even played 10 years?"" he said. "Absolutely. But at the end of the day, it was a great journey. And actually, when I got done, I never missed a beat. I wasn't sad. It was a closed chapter, and I moved on with my life."
 
Earning his degree from Baylor in business administration in 2005, Griffin worked his way up at a couple staffing and recruiting companies before branching out and starting his own Houston-based firm, OmniForce Solutions, nearly seven years ago. 
 
Mike and his wife, Bailey, "my college sweetheart," have three children: Allie, 9; Bryson, 7; and Blakely, 5. 
 
"My daughter Allie, we call her Gator, she's a really good softball player," Mike said. "I told her, 'Obviously, you need to go to Baylor. However, if you do go anywhere else and play sports, the best place would probably be Florida, so they can do the Gator chomp and your name in front of 18,000 people.'''
 
Joining Griffin in the 2024 Baylor Hall of Fame class are Brittney Griner and Odyssey Sims from women's basketball, Ekpe Udoh from men's basketball, softball's Whitney Canion Reichenstein, football's Mark Cochran, Nina Secerbegovic from women's tennis and Ronnie Allen from track & field.

The Hall of Fame banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 1 in the Grand Ballroom of the Hurd Welcome Center on the Baylor University campus. Tickets are $50 per person, with table sponsorships available for $600 (green level) or $800 (gold level). 
 
Registration is available at 2024 Baylor Hall of Fame Banquet.