One of the all-time baseball greats has announced his retirement. Cincinnati native Ken Griffey Jr called it quits today, ending an illustrious 22 year career. He will be a first ballot hall-of-famer and was already voted to the All-Century team earlier in his career.
Maybe most importantly, Griffey will be remembered not for what he did, but for what he did not do. In an era where the greatest players took performance enhancing drugs, Griffey has never even been accused of using PEDs. One could argue that players who used steroids did so to try to keep up with the numbers Junior was putting up. Griffey's statistical career followed the bell curve that one would assume is the natural progression of a player not on steroids.
Griffey spent 13 seasons playing for the Seattle Mariners (1989-1999; 2009-2010) sandwiching 8 years spent in Cincinnati and a half year with the White Sox.
I remember when it was announced Griffey was coming to Cincinnati. I remember the exact moment. I was in English class in highschool. It came after the season they kind of almost sort of made the playoffs in '99. Without a doubt, the Reds would be in the World Series the following year. I, like many boys my age, grew up idolizing Jr. His 1989 Donruss Rated Rookie Baseball Card was more valuable to me than my '95 Hustler magazine and a month's worth of soda and candy bars from Ameristop. I even remember the first time I bought a pack of baseball cards and got a Ken Griffey Jr. card. It wasn't even a solo card of Jr. It was one of those Topps cards where it had two players on it. I forget who the other player was, probably because I never looked an inch left. I was so happy. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out the Reds were getting what would soon be The Greatest Player of All Time. Junior would break Hank Aaron's all-time home-run record in Cincinnati and choose to enter the Hall of Fame in his hometown uniform.
Ah, the dream that never came to be.
Quickly comparing some of Griffey's average stats per year during his first stint as a Mariner and his time in Cincinnati:
Seattle: .297 avg, 36 HR's, 105 RBI's, 140 games played
Cincinnati: .265 avg, 19 HR's, 60 RBI's, 95 games played
I'm not going to bash on Griffey right now, but needless to say, he was not the savior Cincinnati hoped he would be. Maybe it's because he wasn't taking steroids and couldn't keep his numbers up. Or maybe it was because he refused to lift a weight and work out off the field and his body just gave up on being young. Or maybe it's because he made a terrible decision in coming to a cursed sports town. A part of me feels sorry for Junior, and a part of me feels hatred for him.
Regardless, Griffey, in his prime is one of the top 5 players that has ever played the game. A 13 time all-star, 10 gold gloves, 1997 AL MVP, and 4th in all time home runs with 630 (4th because I throw out Barry Bonds).
It was a pleasure growing up watching him play and Major League Baseball definitely deserves to honor a player who has stayed clean and steered clear of MLB's black eye.
Greg "I'm digging up all my old Griffey cards to admire them again" R.
No comments:
Post a Comment