Ken Griffey Jr.

Ken Griffey, Jr. Ken Griffey, Jr. in 2004 Position Center Field Team Cincinnati Reds Years of Experience 16 years Age 36 Height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Weight 218 lb (99 kg) Bats Left Throws Left College N/A Nickname "Junior", "The Kid" 2005 Salary $10,365,692 Place of Birth Donora, Pennsylvania Selection Amateur draft, 1987 Drafted by Seattle Mariners Major League Debut April 3, 1989

Ken Griffey Jr. (born George Kenneth Griffey, Jr. on November 21, 1969 in Donora, Pennsylvania) is a Major League Baseball player. Griffey shares not only the same birthday, but also the same birthplace as Hall of Famer Stan Musial.

Youth and early career

Griffey was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, where his father, Ken Griffey, Sr. played for the Cincinnati Reds. The younger Griffey played baseball at Moeller High School, a Catholic school in Cincinnati better known for its football program. While he was in high school, he drew raves from Major League scouts for his batting swing, widely regarded as the best of his generation, and effortless fielding prowess.

In 1987 Griffey was selected with the first overall pick of that year's amateur draft by the Seattle Mariners. As a big leaguer, he was well on the way to the Rookie of the Year award but was thwarted when he slipped in the shower and broke a bone in his right hand in late July, 1989. While with the Mariners, Junior, as he is often called, established himself as one of baseball's premier players, and during the '90s, and indeed, by some today, Griff is considered one of the best players of his era, and perhaps one of the best ever. Before injuries cut into his production, he was habitually a top run producer and the best center fielder, bar none, in the big leagues. Griffey hit for a high average, batting over .300 for seven of the years of the '90s, and hit with power as well, slugging 422 home runs during the decade. Additionally, his defense in center field breeched no rivals during that decade. Thanks to his impressive range, Griffey frequently made spectacular diving plays, and he often dazzled fans by making over-the-shoulder basket catches (a la Willie Mays' "the Catch" in the 1954 World Series) and by robbing opposing hitters of home runs at the wall — leaping up and pulling them back into the field of play. For all of these reasons, Ken Griffey Jr. was one of baseball's most respected and well-liked players during the 1990s. He was featured on the Wheaties cereal box and, because of his popularity, was an effective pitchman. Also because of his all-around excellent play, he was a perennial participant in the All-Star Game, particularly during the 1990s. Junior has led the league many times in hitting categories and was awarded Gold Gloves for his defensive excellence from 1990 to 1999. Griffey also became one of a very small number to have played on the same team as his father, Ken Griffey Sr in 1990 and 1991. In 1997, he won the American League Most Valuable Player award, hitting .304, with 56 home runs and 147 runs batted in.

Perhaps the single most memorable moment of Griffey's career with the Mariners came during the 1995 American League Division Series (ALDS) against the New York Yankees. After falling behind in the series 0-2, they came back to take the next two games and create a must-win Game Five. In the bottom of the 11th inning of Game 5, Griffey scored from first base on an Edgar Martinez double, giving the Mariners the win and seeing them through to the American League Championship Series (ALCS). Although the Mariners lost the ALCS to now-Mariners manager Mike Hargrove's Indians, the moment is one of the most memorable in Mariners history, and the series has been credited with "saving baseball in Seattle", given speculation that the Mariners might move. A video game for Super NES, "Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run" commemorates the moment.

In 1999, he ranked Number 93 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. This list was compiled during the 1998 season, counting only statistics through 1997. It was argued by some that, had the voting been done after 1998, he almost certainly would have ranked higher: at age 29 (going on 30), he was easily the youngest player on the list. That same year, Griffey was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. However, when TSN updated their list for a new book in 2005, despite having surpassed 400 and 500 home runs, Griffey remained at Number 93. He is currently tied for 11th place on the all-time home runs list with Mike Schmidt.

File:Griffey artwork.jpg

Ken Griffey Jr. painted on a wall in downtown Seattle, 1994. The tick marks indicate how many home runs he had hit up to that point.

Departure from Seattle

Despite Griffey's elite performances and seemingly bright future in Seattle, he nonetheless became disenchanted with playing for the Mariners. Publicly, he expressed frustration over what he believed was a lack of commitment to winning on the part of Seattle management.

Also, there was speculation that Griffey was very unhappy with Seattle's new park, Safeco Field, a stadium in which it was much harder for hitters to produce runs than in the Kingdome. It has been reported that Griffey — along with other Seattle players — requested that the architects of Safeco Field bring the fences closer to home plate, but that, much to the players' chagrin, the designers built a park with deeper-than-average dimensions (especially in center field). This, combined with Safeco being at sea level and Seattle's typically dense, moisture-laden atmosphere, helped create a "pitcher-friendly" ballpark where power hitters like Griffey would see their batting statistics suffer. In the summer of 1999, it was reported that Griffey hit a ball that would likely have been a home run in the Kingdome, but turned into a long fly-out to center in Safeco. Griffey then stormed angrily to the Mariner dugout telephone, called the Mariners' general manager, and demanded to be traded that day. Although Griffey has always denied his concern with baseball records, that year it appeared that he had his ambitions set towards eventually breaking Hank Aaron's all-time home run record.

Griffey ultimately got his wish, and following the 1999 season, he was traded to father's former team, the Cincinnati Reds, for Mike Cameron, Brett Tomko, and Antonio Pérez. Initially, the future looked extremely bright for him in Cincinnati. It was the city in which he had grown up, and Griffey was reportedly very pleased to be playing on his father's former team — on the open market, Griffey could have made several million dollars more than the contract offered by the small-market Reds. However, his contract apparently includes backloaded payments which will be paid until 2024[1].

Injury-plagued tenure in Cincinnati

The 2000 season began what has generally been seen by the media as a decline in Griffey's superstar status. Although his statistics during this season were respectable, they were far below his previous level of play: in 145 games, Griffey hit .271 with 40 home runs, but his .942 On-base plus slugging was his lowest mark in five years. Additionally, from 2001 through 2004, Griffey was plagued by a seemingly endless string of injuries, including season-ending injuries in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Worse yet for Griffey, the cumulative effects of the injuries lowered his bat speed, resulting in less power and fewer home runs (he slugged only .426 before succumbing to injury in 2002, his lowest output in seven years). Some speculate that Griffey's myriad injuries are a result of a decade of playing on the Kingdome's artificial turf, which players claim is essentially like playing the game on asphalt. Others suggest that Griffey's lack of commitment to physical fitness while he was in his twenties (relative to other Major Leaguers like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, both of whom played effectively well into their forties) opened him up to injury problems as he got older. Whatever the causes, though, injuries forced Griffey to miss 260 out of 486 games from 2002 through 2004, diminishing both his skills and his star reputation. Consequently, he is not nearly the ubiquitous presence he once was on cereal boxes, television commercials, and the All-Star Game.

In 2004, Griffey avoided major injury during the first half of the season, and on June 20 became the 20th player to hit 500 career home runs. His 500th home run came, fittingly, on Father's Day in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, with his father Ken Sr. in the stands; the homer also tied Ken Jr. with his father for career hits with 2,143. However, the injury bug bit again just before the All-Star break, when Griffey, Jr. suffered a partial hamstring tear, knocking him out of the All-Star Game and putting him on the disabled list yet again. He did get his 500th home run ball from a fan who was also there for Father's Day with his dad. The fan received many rewards from Griffey Jr.

Griffey finished the 2004 season on the disabled list after suffering a complete rupture of his right hamstring in San Francisco on August 11. The play in question occurred at SBC Park in a game against the San Francisco Giants. Griffey was starting in right field for the first time in his 16-year Major League career when he raced toward the gap to try to cut off a ball before it got to the wall. He slid as he got to the ball, but in the process hyperextended his right leg. He later came out of the game, complaining of "tightness" in the hamstring exacerbated by chilly conditions in San Francisco. But there was far more to it than anyone realized at the time.

Shortly after this injury, the Reds' team physician, Timothy Kremchek, devised an experimental surgery dubbed "The Junior Operation" that would use three titanium screws to reattach Griffey's hamstring. For several weeks, Griffey's right leg was in a sling that kept the leg at a 90-degree angle, and he was not able to move the leg until late October. After an intense rehabilitation period, he returned for the 2005 season. In April, he hit only .244 with only one homer (on April 30) and nine RBI.[2]

Starting May 1, the 2005 season saw the resurgence of a healthy Griffey. The fluid swing, which depends heavily on excellent lower body strength, returned to its original form, now that Griffey's hamstring and calf problems appear behind him. Junior's 35 home runs were his highest since his first year with the Reds as Griffey slowly moved up the career home run list. He ended the season tied with Mickey Mantle, after having passed Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Willie McCovey, Ernie Banks, Eddie Mathews, and Mel Ott in 2005.

Early in September, he strained a tendon in his left foot (an injury unrelated to his past hamstring and calf problems), and was listed as day-to-day for several weeks. On September 22, with the Reds out of playoff contention, the team decided to bench him for the rest of the season so he could immediately have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and a separate operation to repair scars from his 2004 hamstring operation. Still, his 128 games in 2005 were the most he has played since 2000. Griffey's resurgence was recognized when he was named National League Comeback Player of the Year.

If his health remains intact, Junior could reach 600 home runs sometime in the 2007 season, at age 37. Had the chronic injuries of 2001-2004 not limited his astronomical progress, the question would have been when, not if, Griffey would surpass Hank Aaron's record of 755 career home runs.

Griffey also played in the Inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the United States, where he was one of the team's biggest contributors, notching three home runs during the event.

During the second game of the 2006 season, Griffey hit home run #537 to pass Mickey Mantle and took over 12th all time on the list.

Griffey and his wife Melissa have 3 children: George Kenneth III ("Trey"), daughter Taryn Kennedy, and adopted son Tevin Kendall. When Trey was born, then-Mariners' G.M. Woody Woodward sent him a player's contract dated 2012. Griffey switched his uniform number in 2006, from 30 to 3, to honor his three kids.

Griffey returned on May 11, 2006 from an injury he suffered to his knee on April 12, 2006 to hit a walk-off 3 run home run in the bottom of the 11th inning against the Washington Nationals. On June 5th, 2006 Jr tied Fred McGriff's record of homeruns hit in different ballpark with his 43rd, at the St. Louis Cardinals' Busch Stadium. On June 19, 2006 Griffey hit career home run 548, tying him with Mike Schmidt.

Famous quotes

"And when he comes to Cincinnati, I'll take Barry Bonds out. I fly my mom in because Barry loves the way she cooks macaroni and cheese and fried chicken. That's the kind of relationship we have. It's not just about baseball."

"Ken Griffey Jr is the best talent in our generation."-David Cone describing Griffey

Griffey in other media

Griffey has starred in four Nintendo videogames: 1993's Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball and 1996's Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as the Nintendo 64 games Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey, Jr. in 1998, and Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest in 1999.

Griffey also had a memorable guest turn on The Simpsons, in the third-season episode Homer at the Bat, along with fellow stars José Canseco, Wade Boggs, Darryl Strawberry, Don Mattingly, Roger Clemens, Steve Sax, Ozzie Smith, and Mike Scioscia. Of all the major league players who guest starred in that episode, Griffey and Clemens are the only players still currently active.

Griffey also has had a candy bar name after him called the Ken Griffey Jr. Bar. Unfortunately, he is allergic to chocolate so their manufacture soon ceased.

Griffey also had an appearance in "Love Hurts", an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, in which he out throws Will Smith at a local carnival. In 1994, he was featured in the major motion picture Little Big League, directed by Andrew Scheinman. In the 2001 baseball movie, Summer Catch, Griffey makes a brief cameo appearance at the very end of the movie, showcasing him hitting a homerun at the now defunct, Riverfront Stadium.

See also

• MLB players who have hit 30 or more home runs before the All-Star break

External links

• Ken's Klubhouse - Official Griffey Website
• Template:Espn mlb
• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference