Marc Griffin

Marc Denis Griffin

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 170 lb.

• Born September 15, 1968 in Quebec, QC CAN

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Marc Griffin studied under Canadian Hall of Famer Richard Bélec and played on the Canadian Olympic team in 1988. He had previously represented Canada in the 1987 Intercontinental Cup and 1988 Baseball World Cup (.182/.217/.591, all of his hits going for extra bases, plus 3 assists in 7 games in right field). He also played in the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league system from 1989 to 1991 and in the Montréal Expos organization in 1993 and 1994. He stole 157 bases in his minor league career and hit .264. He was typically a lead-off hitter.

Griffin hit .282/.331/.350 for the 1989 Vero Beach Dodgers, with 35 steals in 50 tries and 8 triples. He split 1990 between Vero Beach (.189/.265/.226 in 31 G) and the Bakersfield Dodgers (.275/.333/.347 in 106 G). Overall, he had 89 runs scored and 49 swipes in 70 attempts. In a third season at Vero Beach, he put up a .240/.337/.303 line and pilfered 42 bases while being caught 12 times. After being traded to Montreal for P Ben VanRyn on December 10, 1991, he was injured for all of 1992, then split 1993 between the West Palm Beach Expos (.319/.401/.389 in 69 G) and Harrisburg Senators (.151/.258/.189 in 24 G), stealing 28 bases overall in 37 tries. He ended up in 1994, going 6 for 26 with 2 walks, a double, triple and 3 steals for the Senators. He played a few exhibition games for the Expos during spring training although he never played at a level higher than AA.

After baseball, he worked as a French-language baseball analyst for the Expos on TQS, SRC and CKAC for ten years. He was Jacques Doucet's partner for the Expos' radio broadcasts during their last seasons in Montreal. He spoke the final words of the final Expos' game broadcast, as Doucet was too choked up to finish reading the brief text he had prepared to mark the occasion. This episode is documented in "Le dernier lancer", ("The Final Pitch") a documentary produced by RDS a few years later, which focuses on the last days of the franchise in Montreal. He, Doucet, beat writer Serge Touchette and coach Claude Raymond all feature prominently in the program.

As of 2010, he was employed by Loto-Québec as a blogger for their sports-themed lottery and is the president of Rézo-Quebec, working in the Facilities Services industry. He was also active in a group trying to have a baseball stadium suitable for an independent league team built in the Montreal, QC area. In 2011, he was hired as a baseball analyst with RDS, the Quebec equivalent of ESPN. He partners with Alain Usereau on broadcasts of the weekly Sunday night major league game and other selected MLB games; the pair also worked baseball games at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics together. He published his autobiography in 2019.

Further Reading

• Marc Griffin: Griffin 26, Éditions de Mortagne, Boucherville, QC, 2019. ISBN 9782896629398

External Sites

• His Loto-Quebec blog (in French)
• His LinkedIn directory