This was explained by John Feinstein of The Washington Post as: "Making the All-Star team the hard way: Major league baseball pays the expenses for each player here and for one guest.

When the Tigers' Alan Trammell hurt his arm and could not play tonight, Manager Joe Altobelli named Griffin to the team, partly because he's a fine player, but mostly because he was here.

He was traded after the 1984 season to the Oakland Athletics, where, despite his reluctance to draw walks and a tendency to be overaggressive on the basepaths, he began to harness the offensive promise that he showed in 1980.

A Dwight Gooden fastball broke Griffin's hand in May 1988, causing him to miss some time, but he returned to start all 12 of the Dodgers' postseason games at shortstop in 1988, winning his first World Series title.

Griffin was the first player in major league history to have started three times for the opposing line-ups in a perfect game: against Len Barker (Cleveland) in 1981 for the Toronto Blue Jays, then against Tom Browning (Cincinnati) in 1988 and Dennis Martínez (Montreal) in 1991, both for the Los Angeles Dodgers.