Konnor Griffin's unique connection to Pirates Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski
When Konnor Griffin enters PNC Park for the first time on Friday for his Major League debut, he’ll be doing so from Mazeroski Way. If he looks down the road toward the Allegheny River that flows by the ballpark, he’ll see the statue that immortalizes the Pirates' Hall of Fame second baseman and his celebratory trot following arguably the biggest home run hit in baseball history to topple the mighty Yankees in the 1960 World Series.
This is significant not only because Griffin should be up on his Pirates history, or that he now has every opportunity to join Maz on a short list of the franchise's all-time top middle infielders. It’s because he has Mazeroski to thank for his Pirates career, even though the two never met.
The Pirate great’s son, Darren, is the scout who signed Griffin when the team took him with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 Draft. So, as they often do, the baseball gods ensured Darren Mazeroski would be on hand for Griffin's debut.
Mazeroski and his brother, David, were already coming to Pittsburgh to be part of Friday’s on-field ceremony remembering his father, who passed away at the age of 89 in February. The Pirates will be wearing a Mazeroski patch during the 2026 season. News of Griffin’s callup broke as Darren was en route from his home in Panama City Beach, Fla., to attend the home opener.
“The whole thing is unbelievable; it’s another layer on a humbling and already emotional weekend,” said Mazeroski, who has been the Pirates’ southeast area scout for two decades. "I’m humbled with the honor and the patch they’re going to wear.”
It’s clear Mazeroski learned the virtue of humility that his father, who consistently deflected adulation for his Series-winning homer, was famous for. Worried that the confluence of the ceremony and Griffin’s debut would make the day more about him than appropriate, he went out of his way to mention family members of other recently lost former Pirates -- Dave Giusti and Elroy Face Jr. -- will also be in attendance, and that the Pirates will also pay tribute to Ed Acosta, Joe Coleman, Jim Marshall, Bob Oldis and Wilbur Wood.
Similarly, Mazeroski was quick to share credit for Griffin arriving at this moment. As a top-10 pick, this wasn’t an area scout pounding the table and convincing doubters. Griffin was very much a known quantity, and Mazeroski was far from the only scout in the region raving about him.
“Everybody in the southeast was in agreement,” Mazeroski said. “The athlete, the aptitude and the makeup were so intriguing. That’s not ground-breaking. He was quite famous in the southeast. There were 29 other area scouts who were constantly seeing him and talking about him. We just got very fortunate that things fell our way.”
Griffin being available at No. 9 when the Pirates selected is one thing. The Pirates taking him is another. While he was the top-ranked high school talent in the class, there was some perceived risk. Not everyone loved his swing, and there was some concern about the hit tool translating to the pro game. The organization could have very easily passed on the risk, opting for someone who, at least on paper, would move faster and join Paul Skenes in the big leagues. But all the arms of the front office came together to go for the best talent on the board.
“If people knew the amount of voices involved in making a decision like this, the higher-up scouts, the analytics guys, the development staff that watched him and gave opinions ... I wish the average fan would have an idea with how much went into it. A lot of conversations across several departments went into this one.”
The 2024 Draft has already been a fairly productive one, with 10 players from the class reaching the big leagues ahead of Griffin. But Griffin, now MLB's No. 1 prospect, is at least three years younger than his predecessors and he’s making his debut before three college players taken ahead of him and all but three first-rounders who were selected after him. Even Griffin’s biggest advocates, like Mazeroski, could not have seen that fast of an ascension, giving Mazeroski another chance to pass along credit to others.
“The scouting department does the work on our end, then you hand him off to the folks who are with him every day and see what makes him tick,” Mazeroski said. “Once he’s in the system, they’re with him every day, they get a feel for what he can and can’t handle and what he’s ready for. They made a lot of right moves with him.”
And, of course, Griffin has handled each challenge he's been given. Mazeroski not only loved the athlete and the tools when evaluating the high schooler in Mississippi, he had a very good feel for his makeup and work ethic, even if seeing him get to Pittsburgh as a teenager wasn’t something he truly considered.
“I would say this is a little faster than most of us expected, but if I say it’s surprising, it sounds like a slight to him,” Mazeroski said. “It’s a testament to his mentality and mindset. I don’t know if anyone had it coming this quickly, but the biggest thing was having the faith we could take a player like this and he would fit in our system.”
Griffin arriving so quickly allows the stars to align for the area scout who signed him to be in town to watch his debut. But don’t look for Mazeroski to try to take any of the spotlight.
“It’s so cool for Konnor and his family,” he said. “I’m just one small voice in the multitudes of voices in getting Konnor here. There were a lot of fingerprints on this one.”
At a different time, Darren’s dad would have been among the hands involved. For years, Bill Mazeroski traveled to Spring Training as a special instructor, the eight-time Gold Glove Award winner often working with young infielders on their defense. The last time he attended Spring Training was in 2020, but it’s not hard to imagine him passing the Pirates' middle-infield torch on to Griffin.
“That would have been so cool to have had them connect at Spring Training like he used to,” Darren Mazeroski said. “That would have been pretty neat. I think he would have said a shortstop didn’t look like that in his heyday.”