He hit No. 597 tonight. It's really too bad he ended up with all those injuries when he went to Cincy. He would have ended up breaking the record Bonds set.
Griffey and the silent 600 By Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports May 22, 12:49 am EDT Printable View Return to Original Buzz Up Print Ken Griffey Jr. is in his 20th season. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam) GraphicGriffey’s home runs and analysis LOS ANGELES – Ken Griffey Jr., the 38-year-old man sitting on the equipment trunk in the corner of the clubhouse this evening, will hit his 600th career home run one of these days, more than all but five players, three of whom are beyond reproach. Yet, there is no buzz. Griffey, still The Kid at heart if not in legs, is going to swing long and true and elegantly. The ball will jump and fall indelicately into history, arriving alongside those struck by men we know, or know of. Yet, he will have played his entire career in an era whose story was written by George Mitchell, and co-authored by Henry Waxman. “I can only speak for this,” Cincinnati Reds teammate Adam Dunn says. “This is not a guy who is in any of those documents, who has been accused of taking steroids, a guy who everyone knows has taken something. What he’s about to do should be celebrated.” Yet, the panels in center field at Great American Ball Park will turn to 6-0-0 and the ovation might carry no further than the banks of the Ohio River. The appreciation for a career well spent will course the veins of the game but probably not reach the national consciousness, sodden as it is with suspicion. “Oh well,” Griffey said. “I don’t even worry about it. Go out there and win a game, go out there and hit a home run, don’t hit a home run. Maybe it’ll change. Maybe it won’t.” We have seen Barry Bonds reach 600, 700, then Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. Last summer, Sammy Sosa passed 600 and Alex Rodriguez, Frank Thomas and Jim Thome arrived at 500. Manny Ramirez and Gary Sheffield are nearing 500, while Chipper Jones approaches 400. We sigh over what we once lauded, Mark McGwire at 65 and 70 in a season, Bonds beyond even that. First, there is the volume of players reaching grounds where only legends lie. “Six hundred,” Reds manager Dusty Baker says, “now appears to be what 500 used to be.” Then, in some cases, there is the matter of how many of those hundreds are bullet-proof. Based on the lukewarm response to Griffey nearing a place that for decades held only Aaron, Ruth and Willie Mays, even the presumed innocent – such as Griffey – will not be entirely spared the apathy of a confused, wary or disgusted public. Reds officials report that Griffey’s approach on 600 has drawn less-than-expected attention even in Cincinnati, despite various promotions. Granted, Griffey went a month – and more than 100 plate appearances – without a home run, leaving him at 597. (Griffey hit No. 598 Thursday against the Padres.) And, also granted, Griffey hates to talk about it. (“I’m not a hype person,” he says. “So, it’s kind of tough to hype a guy who doesn’t want to be hyped.”) But, on April 24, the day after Griffey drew within three of 600, the paid attendance for a game against the Houston Astros was about 17,000. A week ago, a three-game series against the unsexy but first-place Florida Marlins averaged about 14,000 fans. Rodriguez undoubtedly will be the more celebrated story when he nears 600 in two or three years, because of the city in which he plays, the pinstripes he wears and the assumption that 600 will lead to 700 and eventually to Bonds. Conversely, Griffey does not have a guaranteed contract past this season (the Reds hold a $16.5-million option for 2009) and is an injury risk. He missed significant time in six of his past seven seasons. It is likely, then, that one of the three or four great players of his generation is bearing down on his final round-figure milestone to the sound of one city clapping. Mildly. Griffey shakes his head, refusing to address the response to him, his career, this number. “I’m not the guy who has to talk about it,” he says. “I just want to help this team win. If that’s getting a guy over instead of hitting a home run, that’s fine, too. I’ve done pretty much everything as a professional athlete except one thing – win a World Series.” Rangers officials said there wasn’t much to the Sosa run at 600 either, but Sosa has had to defend himself against accusations he took steroids. And Baker, who last season was an ESPN baseball analyst, even remembered that differently. “I don’t know why it’s different from last year or why it’s different for Junior,” he says. “I really don’t know why. Everybody likes Junior. They like and respect him.” Stadiums of fans remain emotionally connected to the home run, the moment of impact, its immediate influence on a game, the glory of 420 feet of bang and flight. They like the home run. But, perhaps, they have cooled on the notion of the amassment of home runs, no matter who holds the bat. We still appreciate the singular drama, but have turned on the gluttonous bulk, the process of sorting the real from the enhanced. That’s good, too, because at the current rate there will be almost 600 fewer home runs hit this season – the summer after Mitchell – than last season. Less sorting that way. But, also, less room in our baseball souls for Griffey, for what he’s done, presumably above all of that. “That’s a good question,” Dunn says. “I’ve been wondering the same thing. It’s a huge deal and it’s almost swept under the rug. I mean, 600. Six hundred! It’s unbelievable. This is so disappointing. He’s a great guy, first and foremost. What he’s done for the game of baseball, it’s sad. It’s a shame. And it’s sad.” This is the damage inflicted by the era. The numbers add up, but don’t make sense. That is the broad harm done, perhaps irreparably. In person, however, the harm is held in a bemused grin, a what-am-I-supposed-to-say shrug, an uncomfortable shift from his seat on top of an equipment trunk. “I can’t worry about that,” he says again. “I just can’t.” Tim Brown is a national baseball writer for Yahoo! Sports. Send Tim a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Griff was such an Icon with Seattle.. I obviously can't speak for everyone, but it just felt like, when I was younger, there wasn't a single kid who didn't idolize him. When I played little league, I had a magazine article that broke down his swing, and I tried my hardest to model mine after his. He should have been the Home Run King.
Well, I'm probably going to be the lone voice of dissent in this conversation. To begin with, I was never a big fan of Griffey. Firstly, he played for the Mariners, who at the time were just a better team than my Yankees, and they spanked the Yankees all the time. Secondly, he steadfastly refused to play for the Yankees, so that doesn't win points in my book. (I do understand he didn't like how his father was treated, and I'd probably do the same thing myself, but it doesn't change my opinion.) Beyond that though, I don't get the premise of the article. It's basically made out to be a "boohoo" piece to generate a good feeling for Griffey. Sorry, I don't have any boohoos for him. He wanted out of Seattle, a place that adored him. A place he helped build into a potential champion. He got it his wish. Then he got hurt. And then he got hurt again. Then he got hurt again. And again. And again. The guy got what he wanted, then turned to glass. Sure, had he stayed healthy he might have beaten Bonds, but he didn't, and in the end, the record book is going to show him as "one of" the best home run hitters of all time. And he's got no one to blame but himself.
I loved Jr Griff.... one of my alltime favorite players. I also have 2 pretty good friends that are Reds fans and they get the sniffles when talking about him and the HR record. Coincidently he shares the same birthday as my son. As I've gotten older it's become pretty apparent to me that he had tremendous talent and played the game the right way. I have grown to appreciate him more because IMO a large percentage of the injuries were caused because he did not take performance enhancing drugs. Had he taken the juice I think it's safe to say he'd likely be somewhere around 750 as opposed to 600. He missed at least 50 games in 6 seasons and more than half the games in 4 of those 6 seasons.
Get a photo opt with Griffey, autograph, talk with him for a little bit, and give him the ball. He's my favorite player, btw.
I'd give it to him. I'd probably keep anyone else's HR ball, but he was my favorite player as a teen, and I wouldn't want him pissed at me.
I don't understand why everyone feels free to say without any qualms that Junior "did it the right way" "naturally", etc. Who's to say he didn't use PEDs? To me the fact that he played in the 1990's is enough to cause overwhelming suspicion. Obviously theres no definitive proof he did or didn't, but theres as much known, documented evidence out there on Sammy Sosa as there is on Junior, yet everyone lumps Sosa into the juicer category while assuming Junior is/was clean.
Except Junior didn't break into the majors as a skinny banjo hitting singles guy. He was always a power threat, and he never bulked up like Bonds and Sosa.
Breaking NewsGriffey hits No. 600 Ken Griffey Jr. belted his 600th career home run in the first inning against the Florida Marlins.
If Griff makes the move to RF sooner he's probably at 3000 hits and moving in on 700 HR's... when people say he played the game the right way, I agree. He ran through walls for his team.
Good! Now my fantasy team only needs to hit one more home run this entire week (Mon-Sun) to equal my grand total of 2 from this past week!
Except not everyone on PEDs turns into giant masses of muscle. Plenty of the Olympics athletes and plenty of the fringe minor league guys that have been exposed are tiny, wiry guys. As a fan, nobody can ever say that any single player is/always was clean without taking an enormous leap of faith.
I had to go to the game tonight.. Just something about seeing your childhood idol doing something historic, foolish as it may be.
Griffey was the man And great pics vinsjets, ironically that stadium would be by far the easiest stadium to get an historic ball like that.
