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Not long after receiving a call from the Baseball Hall of Fame letting him know that he would be joining Ken Griffey Jr. in Cooperstowns class of 2016, Mike Piazza returned to his parents home and rooted through a bunch of boxes on a combination scavenger hunt and nostalgia tour.Two mementos stand out as springboards to Piazzas career: A day after the?Los Angeles Dodgers?chose him in the?62nd round of Major League Baseballs 1988 amateur draft, Piazza received a Mailgram making the news official. And shortly after signing his first professional contract, he made a photocopy of the $15,000 bonus check that paved the way for 12 All-Star Game appearances, 10 Silver Slugger Awards and roughly $120 million in career earnings.Piazza is confident the copy of the check is somewhere in his possession. A search for the Mailgram would require the kind of time investment thats been a luxury since the January phone call from the Hall that changed his life.Its just been so hectic, you know? Piazza said on a recent conference call. I cant seem to locate [the Mailgram]. Its probably in a shelf somewhere, or some drawer. Eventually, Ill go through it and maybe it will turn up.Piazza enters the Hall of Fame with 427 home runs and a record 396 as a catcher, but his arrival in Cooperstown was replete with intrigue. He lingered on the ballot for four years, in part because of suspicions among some baseball writers regarding performance-enhancing drugs, before going over the top with 83 percent of the vote. Amid a flurry of speculation, the Hall of Fame, with significant input from Piazza, announced that he would enter the shrine with a?New York Mets?cap rather than as a Dodger.Sundays two inductees come from opposite corners of Pennsylvania and disparate ends of the expectations spectrum.Griffey, who was born 20 miles south of Pittsburgh in the old steel town of Donora, was ticketed for greatness as a sweet-swinging, defensively gifted center fielder at Moeller High School in Cincinnati. Since the MLB draft began in 1965, hes the only No. 1 overall pick to reach the Hall of Fame.Piazza, the bookend in this mismatched pairing, embodies the hazards that befall scouts who discount young players because of knee-jerk assessments and the readings on a stopwatch. He titled his autobiography Long Shot for a reason.I think its very unique and very exciting that you have the two of us, Piazza said. Its like the top of expectations and maybe the bottom of expectations.The pride of NorristownLook back at that 1988 draft and it seems almost inconceivable: Piazza sits unobtrusively in the 1,390th spot, right behind San Jose State pitcher Al Bacosa, who spent a year in the Pioneer League with the?Atlanta Braves?organization before moving on to the family photography business. ?Three rounds before the Dodgers called Piazzas name, the?Philadelphia Phillies?chose a California high?school pitcher named Bubba Smith and the?Pittsburgh Pirates?selected the?mellifluously named Troy Trollope, a junior college outfielder from Washington state.The Dodgers 1988 draft crop was a mixed bag. Pitcher Bill Bene, the franchises top pick, walked 489 batters in 445 minor league innings before retiring at age 29. We dont know whether his pitches are going to hit the catchers mitt or someone in general admission, a minor league PR man once said of Bene. Third-round choice Billy Ashley was renowned for his light-tower power, but the holes in his swing outweighed his batting practice exploits, and he was stuck in independent ball by age 28.Nevertheless, the Dodgers hit pay dirt in the sixth round with UCLA first baseman Eric Karros, who won a rookie of the year award and hit 270 home runs in a Los Angeles uniform, and they got lucky with Piazza, whose myriad achievements far surpassed his modest roots.Piazza was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He played high school ball in Phoenixville, about 30 miles from Philadelphia, where coach John Doc Kennedy sent eight players to professional ball in 20 years with the program. The list includes catcher Creighton Gubanich, a former?Oakland Athletics sixth-round pick who had a big league cameo with the Boston Red Sox, and pitcher Steve Shoemaker, who went to the New York Yankees in the fourth round in 1994 and peaked in Triple-A ball with the Colorado Rockies.Piazza could always swing a bat, and he would hack away for hours on end at the cage that his father, Vince, built in the familys backyard in Norristown. Ted Williams, who was in the area doing a card show, came to the house to watch a teenage Piazza and raved about the kids swing in a conversation that was captured on videotape. Williams even signed a copy of his book, The Science of Hitting.But Piazza seemed out of his element as a high school first baseman, and for much of his amateur career he was a hitter in search of a position. After the 1986 draft came and went without a call, he spent a year in anonymity at the University of Miami before giving junior college ball a whirl at Miami Dade-North.Piazza was fortunate to have a tireless advocate in Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who was a close friend of Vince Piazza and pestered the Dodgers to give the kid a look. But even after the Dodgers selected Piazza at No. 1,390, they viewed him as a courtesy pick and appeared to have no sense of urgency to sign him. It wasnt until Piazza flew to Los Angeles for a batting practice session and drove balls to the nether regions of Dodger Stadium that the team finally sprang into action. The Dodgers offered $15,000, and Piazza reported to Salem in the Northwest League the following summer and was on his way.Multiple setbacks and bouts of self-doubt ensued. Piazza was so discouraged by his lack of progress that he walked away from the Class A Vero Beach Dodgers in 1990, and the team had to dispatch former big league outfielder Reggie Smith to talk him into returning. In an effort to learn the art of catching, Piazza played winter ball in Mexico and traveled to the Dodgers academy in the Dominican Republic.All the while, the folks who supported him in his formative years never stopped believing in him. Doc Kennedy enjoyed one of the most gratifying moments of his coaching career on June 12, 1999, when he flipped on a nationally televised Red Sox-Mets game and saw Gubanich catching for Boston and Piazza behind the plate for New York. While Gubanichs big league career lasted all of 18 games, Piazza went on to make history.For Mike to achieve what he did for 16 years, it was like trying to win that lottery, Kennedy said. It was one-in-I-dont-know-how-many-million. When you see all the hurdles he had to cross, right from the high school disappointment of not being drafted, he never gave up on his determination and attitude of what he wanted to accomplish.When Piazza gives his speech on Sunday, a travel party from his hometown will be on hand to cheer him. A contingent of 50 players from Phoenixville Area High School and their parents are making the trip, and Kennedy will be there with six members of his family. Im just worried that when I get there, Ill be close enough to see him, Kennedy said, laughing.Its all about the workEven players at opposite ends of the expectations food chain can derive lessons from Piazzas story. As a baseball prodigy, Griffey grew up listening to cautionary tales from his father, a former 29th-round draft pick of the?Cincinnati Reds?who amassed 2,143 hits over 19 MLB seasons.My father has always told me there are more second, third, fourth and [lower] draft picks in the big leagues than first-round picks, Griffey said. So if you work hard and do the things that youre supposed to do, you get rewarded.With Mike, people talk about, Oh, he was just a favor to Tommy Lasorda. Well, he took an opportunity and showed everybody it was not just a favor. He went out there and showed that he can play this game and played at the highest level. And look at what his reward is right now: Were going to be on the same stage together.Judging from his autobiography and other public comments, Piazza kept meticulous track of the slights and critical scouting reports that preceded his rise to prominence. Now that he has reached the pinnacle of his profession, its easier to take a step back and philosophize.The greatest thing about baseball is there are so many positions and so many opportunities, Piazza said. You dont have to be the tallest or the fastest or throw the hardest or have the best hands. You just have to have one or two above-average major league tools and try to refine those. When I was able to turn from a slow-footed first baseman into a slow-footed catcher who can hit, my opportunities increased.Its just a testament to hard work and perseverance and trying to find your niche. Its very important. I want to implore people that just because you run up against a wall or a door that closes, you may not see the one that opens if you dont have a great attitude.As Piazza mingles with Griffey and 51 returning Hall of Famers this weekend, the search for Mailgrams and canceled signing bonus checks can wait. The door to Cooperstown has swung open, and hell find his destiny inside. 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The two roads connecting Marathon and Athens in Greece are equally arduous. One is longer by four miles, the other is short, but mountainous. In 490 BC, Phidippides endured the distance from the Marathon battleground to deliver an important message -- the long-distance courier collapsed upon reaching the finish line, but only after announcing Athenss victory over Persia. So goes the story of the first marathon runner who ran not simply because he could but because he needed to.Centuries later, marathon runners across the globe take to the long road for the sheer joy of it -- some with more purpose than others. Rahaf Khatib, a Muslim-American from Michigan, is one such runner.Like Phidippides, Khatib also carries a weighty message through her course.Were just as much a part of this as everyone else, she says. And were all going to be crossing the same finish lines at the end.It is a counsel worthy of notice, now more than ever.Khatib, the daughter of Syrian immigrants and a self-described average but persistent runner, has been running for four years. What began as a cursory participation in the local 10K in Dearborn, Michigan, transformed into an enduring passion.I literally jumped from zero running, to a 10K to a [half, then] full marathon, she says.She completed six marathons in just two years, as well as 12 half-marathons and two sprint-triathlons. Shes done two of the six World Major Marathons since. That is no minor feat for someone without a robust history of athleticism.Unlike many athletes, Khatib did not take part in after-school sports clubs and programs during her growing years. Like many immigrant parents, hers also focused less on athletics than on academia and overlooked its benefits without a presenting talent.Equipped with only an app on her phone to record her pace and distance, Khatib took on the 10K Martian Marathon in Dearborn, Michigan.I was wearing cotton even, at the time, she says, laughing. And you know what they say? Cotton is rotten!With her first run done, Khatib returned for a half-marathon before attempting a full one in 2014. Experience became her gradual, but willing, teacher. Without a coach or a plan, Khatib learned how to train for a run through her own research using library books, the internet and social media groups.Running became a lifestyle, and one she learned to balance with the resilience of a stay-at-home mother of three elementary school-aged children. Finding time to run between school drop-offs, adopting greener dietary habits and training religiously disciplined Khatib to become a more seasoned runner.Immersion into the running community became relatively fluid. Despite the inclusion, however, she was not spared the occasional scrutiny. Her fully-clothed appearance, complete with a hijab, elicited stereotypical reactions:?Are Muslim women allowed to run? How could she run with all that on? Was she not boiling in there? On particularly hot days, the inquiries surpassed curiosity.Khatib countered the questions with calm reassurance. No, the layers did not exacerbate the heat. The long sleeves, in fact, kept her cooler and added SPF protection. Yes, she was totally fine.Besides, she says, running in a bra doesnt necessarily make you cooler. Ninety degrees is 90 degrees for everybody.The negative perceptions prompted Khatib to post a pertinent comment under a cover-girl call for Womens Running magazine. Why were female Muslim-American athletes underrepresented in the fitness world? To bridge this gap, Khatib entered the contest. And in an unprecedented move, the magazine responded by choosing her as the face of its October 2016 cover. Khatibs message was delivered. And the response was surprisingly heartening.Though naysayers attacked the magazine and its new covered-girl with mounting hate mail, Khatib persisted, undeterred by the abuse.Nobody, not politicaal or religious figures, should be given control of peoples thoughts, she says.ddddddddddddWe need to [think and] speak for ourselves.Her historical cover, she believes, depicts the beauty of her faith that allows women the freedom to pursue whatever they want no matter what they wear. Its a positive spin to crafted negativity. Khatibs image on Womens Running illustrates her point evocatively. Flanked by soft-selling captions, she leans against the backdrop with her arms crossed and not a hair out of place, flashing a knowing smile thats both humble yet unyielding. Its difficult to ignore her appearance, which challenges conventional perceptions of what a fit American woman can look like.Once she begins to run, Khatibs only focus is the run itself.Im totally in my zone, like any other runner out there, she says.Having veiled since high school, Khatib finds the dearth of more modest athletic wear a bigger deterrent than her hijab. Her concern signals a lack of representation in the mainstream, where sports brands cater to only one type of athlete. And its not her.Through her recent réclame, Khatib hopes to change prevailing attitudes and perhaps even grab the attention of fitness brands to feature more women like her. Longer tops, for example, or an athletic hijab from Nike, she says.?By questioning the consistent oversight in featuring women like her or addressing their needs, Khatib highlights a more pervasive problem in American society -- its failure to recognize its own diversity.Khatib, whose parents fled a repressive Syria in the 1980s to seek freedom and higher education, takes pride in her layered identity. To the broader Syrian-American community, she manifests the dream that brought them here in their escape from dictatorship. To everyone else, she embodies the hope they still have in the belligerent now.Her achievements as a Muslim-American woman, mother and marathoner are showcased by her very visibility. People from different backgrounds can live and work together tirelessly as part of this society, she believes, no matter the race, religion or orientation.This is what America is made of, she says. And the running community reflects it.While she accepts the publicity that has accompanied her magazine feature, Khatibs grace and humility is admirable. Her conversations rarely meander from their path, and she refuses to court controversy to communicate her point. Instead, she accentuates the ordinariness of American-Muslims who are professionals and athletes living regular lives and often participating in various activities such as running, lifting and playing sports.Khatibs approachability makes her relatable. Her blog and Instagram handle, Run Like A Hijabi, normalizes modesty in the active world.With a slew of runs under her belt, Khatib now works with a coach and trains by running 24 to 45 miles a week. Her recovery phase incorporates strength-training and yoga. She aims to complete all the World Major Marathons, a few more triathlons, and tackle the ambitious Half Ironman. For now.Her personal goal as a runner eclipses the more immediate ones. Like Phidippides, Khatib does not run to win. She races only against herself and the barrier of time set by her own pace. Moving swiftly past the obstacles, she runs along the steady stream of bodies with her faith on her head and a singular purpose in her stride. As she reaches each finish line, Khatib delivers her message to the world. Not because she needs to, but because she can.Nasha Khan is a freelance writer with a graduate writing degree from the University of Southern California. She has studied under noted writers at the University of Cambridge. Her work was recently featured in The Tempest and Blue Minaret.? ' ' '