The Fraze
06-02-2010, 11:35 PM
In my opinion, one of the greatest players to ever walk the planet, and an icon of my childhood, called it quits today. I'm not sad about it or anything. I just think it's a big deal.
Here's the story:
Back Where It Began With the Mariners, Griffey Calls It Quits
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: June 2, 2010
— Ken Griffey Jr., whose sweet swing launched 630 home runs and electrified a generation of fans, announced his retirement Wednesday after 22 major league seasons.
Griffey, 40, was hitting .184 with no homers in 33 games this season for the Seattle Mariners, the team with which he will always be most identified. Griffey, the No. 1 pick by Seattle in the 1987 draft and a Mariner for his first 11 seasons, is largely credited with saving what had been a futile franchise.
“I’d like to thank my family for all of the sacrifices they have made all of these years for me,” Griffey said in a statement. “I’d like to thank the Seattle Mariners organization for allowing me to finish my playing career where it started. I look forward to a continued, meaningful relationship with them for many years to come.”
Griffey joined the Mariners in 1989, at age 19, before the franchise had a winning season since it began play in 1977. Wearing his cap backward during practice and smiling often, Griffey was such a sensation that he quickly had a candy bar named for him.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/06/03/sports/ygriffey/ygriffey-articleInline.jpg
He led the Mariners to their first playoff appearance in 1995 and was named American League most valuable player two years later. In 1999, the Mariners opened Safeco Field, ending years of speculation that the team might move.
“Ken’s enduring legacy will be as the ballplayer most responsible for keeping Major League Baseball here in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest,” Howard Lincoln, the Mariners’ chief executive, said in a statement. “His achievements in baseball are well known and second to none. In the near future, I look forward to seeing Ken inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. For me, Ken Griffey is more than just a fabulous baseball player. He is a great man in every sense of the word.”
As weak pitching doomed the Mariners in the late 1990s, Griffey asked to be traded to the Cincinnati Reds, his hometown team. He was sent there in February 2000 amid much fanfare.
Ken Griffey Sr. had starred for the Reds’ championship teams in the 1970s, and even played briefly with his son for the Mariners; they hit back-to-back homers off Kirk McCaskill of the Angels in 1990. But the younger Griffey’s tenure in Cincinnati was marked mostly by frequent injuries, and the Reds never reached the playoffs.
Griffey returned to the postseason with the White Sox in 2008, but Chicago lost in the first round. Last season, Griffey signed back with Seattle and hit 19 homers, but this season signified the end.
Though he may be the greatest player to never reach the World Series, chances are Griffey will not be remembered most for that. Griffey played mostly during an era without steroid testing, winning four home run titles. As slugger after slugger has become ensnared in the scandal, Griffey’s achievements have stood out even more; he has never drawn a hint of suspicion of using illegal drugs.
“To each his own,” Griffey, who is married with three children, told The New York Times in 2003. “If people feel they need to do certain things, that’s fine. I don’t need to do those things. My thing is, when I’m 70 and 80 years old and I’m sitting on the porch with my grandkids and those guys are long gone, that’s the important thing. You either have a short-term reward or a long-term reward.”
Griffey came under criticism this season when The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., reported that he had been sleeping in the clubhouse during a game and was unavailable to pinch-hit. But this had long been a habit of Griffey’s and was generally accepted as an eccentricity of a player who was extremely popular among people who knew him well.
“Over the years my family and I have developed a close relationship with Ken and his family that we cherish,” the Mariners’ president, Chuck Armstrong, said in a statement. “Ken Griffey Jr. epitomizes all that is good and right about professional athletics. He is a role model for the youth of today.”
Griffey finished with a .284 average, and his 1,836 runs batted in rank 14th on the career list. His 630 home runs are fifth, behind Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Willie Mays (660).
Those accomplishments will almost certainly land Griffey in Cooperstown in the summer of 2016, as soon as he is eligible, but he never aspired to a Hall of Fame career. His role model all along, he has often said, was a man who hit only 152 home runs: his father.
Here's the story:
Back Where It Began With the Mariners, Griffey Calls It Quits
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: June 2, 2010
— Ken Griffey Jr., whose sweet swing launched 630 home runs and electrified a generation of fans, announced his retirement Wednesday after 22 major league seasons.
Griffey, 40, was hitting .184 with no homers in 33 games this season for the Seattle Mariners, the team with which he will always be most identified. Griffey, the No. 1 pick by Seattle in the 1987 draft and a Mariner for his first 11 seasons, is largely credited with saving what had been a futile franchise.
“I’d like to thank my family for all of the sacrifices they have made all of these years for me,” Griffey said in a statement. “I’d like to thank the Seattle Mariners organization for allowing me to finish my playing career where it started. I look forward to a continued, meaningful relationship with them for many years to come.”
Griffey joined the Mariners in 1989, at age 19, before the franchise had a winning season since it began play in 1977. Wearing his cap backward during practice and smiling often, Griffey was such a sensation that he quickly had a candy bar named for him.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/06/03/sports/ygriffey/ygriffey-articleInline.jpg
He led the Mariners to their first playoff appearance in 1995 and was named American League most valuable player two years later. In 1999, the Mariners opened Safeco Field, ending years of speculation that the team might move.
“Ken’s enduring legacy will be as the ballplayer most responsible for keeping Major League Baseball here in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest,” Howard Lincoln, the Mariners’ chief executive, said in a statement. “His achievements in baseball are well known and second to none. In the near future, I look forward to seeing Ken inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. For me, Ken Griffey is more than just a fabulous baseball player. He is a great man in every sense of the word.”
As weak pitching doomed the Mariners in the late 1990s, Griffey asked to be traded to the Cincinnati Reds, his hometown team. He was sent there in February 2000 amid much fanfare.
Ken Griffey Sr. had starred for the Reds’ championship teams in the 1970s, and even played briefly with his son for the Mariners; they hit back-to-back homers off Kirk McCaskill of the Angels in 1990. But the younger Griffey’s tenure in Cincinnati was marked mostly by frequent injuries, and the Reds never reached the playoffs.
Griffey returned to the postseason with the White Sox in 2008, but Chicago lost in the first round. Last season, Griffey signed back with Seattle and hit 19 homers, but this season signified the end.
Though he may be the greatest player to never reach the World Series, chances are Griffey will not be remembered most for that. Griffey played mostly during an era without steroid testing, winning four home run titles. As slugger after slugger has become ensnared in the scandal, Griffey’s achievements have stood out even more; he has never drawn a hint of suspicion of using illegal drugs.
“To each his own,” Griffey, who is married with three children, told The New York Times in 2003. “If people feel they need to do certain things, that’s fine. I don’t need to do those things. My thing is, when I’m 70 and 80 years old and I’m sitting on the porch with my grandkids and those guys are long gone, that’s the important thing. You either have a short-term reward or a long-term reward.”
Griffey came under criticism this season when The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., reported that he had been sleeping in the clubhouse during a game and was unavailable to pinch-hit. But this had long been a habit of Griffey’s and was generally accepted as an eccentricity of a player who was extremely popular among people who knew him well.
“Over the years my family and I have developed a close relationship with Ken and his family that we cherish,” the Mariners’ president, Chuck Armstrong, said in a statement. “Ken Griffey Jr. epitomizes all that is good and right about professional athletics. He is a role model for the youth of today.”
Griffey finished with a .284 average, and his 1,836 runs batted in rank 14th on the career list. His 630 home runs are fifth, behind Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Willie Mays (660).
Those accomplishments will almost certainly land Griffey in Cooperstown in the summer of 2016, as soon as he is eligible, but he never aspired to a Hall of Fame career. His role model all along, he has often said, was a man who hit only 152 home runs: his father.