Ken Griffey Junior, arguably one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball history, made history January 8, 2016 by having a Hall of Fame voting percentage of 99.3 percent. That number, marking him the first player inducted in the 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame, was the highest percentage of any Major League Player of all time inducted into the Hall. The second highest percentage was from Mike Piazza, who was a catcher for the New York Mets, having an 83 percent ballot sheet.

Why he wasn’t a unanimous vote for 100 percent? We may never know. Also what we may never know is what went through the minds of the three people on the ballot who did not have him on their lists. It could have been silliness, stubbornness, payback or politics, but we will never know. Jack O’Connell, who counts the ballots for the Hall of Fame, had some interesting things to say to Tim Sullivan, who is an MLB insider.

“I will say this about unanimity: I don’t think it will ever happen, and am not sure that it should,” said O’Connell. “What is wrong with dissent? Isn’t that part of the American character? Not everybody voted for George Washington or Abe Lincoln, a couple of slam-dunk Hall of Famers, if you ask me. At the risk of being blasphemous, even Jesus did not get a unanimous vote at the Last Supper.”

Griffey, who was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, wanted to play in Seattle and it was where he wanted to stay. Griffey was drafted by the Seattle Mariners and played eleven seasons with the team before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds, the team his father, Ken Griffey Senior, spent most of his career with. After eight and a half seasons with the Mariners, he was shipped to Chi Town to play for the Chicago White Sox. Then, in the end of his long career, his last wish was granted. Griffey was traded back to Seattle where his journey began to play his final few seasons. Starting his career in Seattle as a 19 year old kid, leaving was something Griffey had a hard time doing. When he got back to Seattle, he felt like a kid again.

“I think I did most of my damage as a Mariner,” Griffey said. “Want to be the first in a lot of things, and to be able to wear a Mariners’ hat and to go into the Hall of Fame as a Mariner, that’s also one of the decisions I needed to make. I felt being 19, they gave me an opportunity to play the game that I love. I spent most of my time in Seattle.”

Griffey will be the first player ever to be wearing a Mariner cap on his plaque in the hall. When Griffey was asked if he wanted his plaque to portray a backwards hat, how we wore it so often in his playing years, his answer was simple. He wanted it to be known that we is sporting a Mariner’s hat. That shows just how much respect he has for the city of Seattle and the team he loved ever so dearly. Not only did he love his city, his city loved him just as much, maybe even more.

Shortly after Griffey was elected into the Hall of Fame on Wednesday, the city of Seattle and Safeco Field, the Mariners home stadium, raised a giant banner with the number 24, Griffey’s number, on top of the iconic Space Needle. Jay Buhner, Griffey’s old teammate, hoisted the banner up shortly after Griffey broke Tom Seaver’s record breaking ballot percentage of 98.8 percent, thus making one more record in not only in Major League Baseball, but in Seattle as well.