The Kid Knocks Number 600

Adding yet another landmark achievement to possibly the first unanimous Hall of Fame career, Ken Griffey Jr belted his 600th HR of his career into the stands in Florida yesterday. Having grown up idolizing Junior, not only was this a big moment in the history of baseball, but it was a huge moment for me personally as well... and probably for most Seattle Mariner fans. Although we're celebrating a huge stat today, Griffey's career can't be measured by stats alone. Baseball is the biggest "stats" game, but the impact that The Kid had on baseball in the Seattle area and probably the whole country can't be measured. Say what you want, read off Bonds' numbers or read off the number of world championships that Derek Jeter has... but let me say this: Ken Griffey Jr was, by far, the best baseball player I ever saw in my lifetime. Even if A-Rod can avoid injury and goes on to break the all-time home run mark someday, I don't think I can say that he's more talented than Griffey. And I'm one of the few M's fans that absolutely loves Alex Rodriguez.


I was 6 years old when Griffey broke into the league, which is absolutely awesome. It's the perfect age for a player like that to come onto the scene for your home town team. You're just getting to the point where you can actually comprehend the game, and you start to form allegiances with players and teams. I was actually just busting onto the scene for my t-ball team in the same year. Our team name: the Mariners. I don't think I can legitimately explain the fight everyone had for the right to wear the number 24 jersey. Literally every kid on the team wanted it, and in the end I settled for 14, but I didn't go down without a fight.

I never saw Willie Mays play. His numbers are slightly better than Junior's, and everyone who saw Willie Mays play say he and Griffey are the two best athletes to ever play the game. I would have loved to have seen Mays play, but since I didn't I will just list the numbers.

Mays career numbers are as follows: .302 BA, 660 HR's, 3,283 hits, 1903 RBI, 338 SB's, 21-time All Star selection, 12-time Gold Glove winner, 1951 NL ROY, 2-time NL MVP, 2-time All Star Game MVP.

Griffey's career numbers: .289 BA, 600 HR's, 2615 hits, 1730 RBI, 184 SB's, 13-time All Star selection, 10-time Gold Glove winner, 1997 AL MVP.


Now let's remember, Griffey is still adding to these stats. I'm not saying he'll pass up Mays in many of them, because nobody is quite sure how much he has left in the tank... but if he had been healthy his entire career, I think it's a pretty safe bet that he gets the nod in HR's, RBI, hits, Gold Gloves, and probably MVP's as well. Until his departure from Seattle, Griffey's projected HR total was well above Bonds, and it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 HR's. I think Bonds was always a great player, and he benefited from the weaker NL for quite a few years... but there's no ignoring the fact that he juiced. The numbers that Griffey put up during his prime (or what time of it that he was healthy) are staggering. Year by year, here are the numbers of the crazy 5-year tear Junior went on from 1996-2000. HR's: 49, 56, 56, 48, 40. RBI: 140, 147, 146, 134, 118. Griffey is between 26-30 there. Looking at the same age numbers for Bonds, good, but not as good. HR's: 33, 25, 34, 46, 37. RBI: 114, 116, 103, 123, 81. It wasn't until much later in his career, when he was around the age of 36 that he started putting up crazy, off-the-chart numbers. Coincidence? Uhhhh, YEAH. Bonds was nowhere near on-track to set the all time home run mark before this amazing explosion in power, and Griffey was on track to blow it away... and without steroids.


The thing that stands out about Griffey to me, besides the fact that he's got the world's most perfect swing and was one of the most fearless centerfielders to ever roam the outfield, is his personality. When I was about 6 or 7 years old, my dad took me to my first Mariners game. Now we didn't have the best seats, we were somewhere in one of the upper levels of the Kingdome, but we got there early enough to catch batting practice and get some autographs from the players. Junior stood signing for kids for longer than anyone else on the team. I waited about 30 minutes before I finally got his signature, but the entire time he just stood there cracking jokes with fans, smiling, and being a great guy. He's always had this aspect about his personality that draws all the attention to him, but without actually being full of himself or arrogant. He's just one of those guys with an electric personality and charm. If you know him personally, you probably consider him to be one of the best guys in the world. If you've only met him in passing, you probably wish you could have gotten to know him better.

I'm a Mariner through-and-through, and watching all of our best players leave over the years was a bit painful, but I understood it. It's a business. When Griffey was nearing free-agency, whatever he was going to sign for was about to be the largest contract in baseball history and the M's weren't going to be able to fork it out. Something funny that I remember from the M's-Reds trade talks was that the only player that the Reds absolutely would not part with was Pokey Reese. It almost brought an end to negotiations because that was the guy that the Mariners wanted. What a difference a few years makes, huh?


I would rather have seen Griffey hitting 600 with a Mariners jersey on, but that doesn't make it any less special to me. He ignited my love for baseball as a kid, and I'll never forget the great moments watching him. All the diving catches, most notably the one where he went crashing into the Kingdome wall and still made the catch. When he scored from 2nd base on Edgar's base-hit to win the division, and the ensuing dog-pile at home plate. The 8-game home run streak in 1993. All the great moments watching him and Jay Buhner ham it up in the outfield. Congrats Junior. You might never win a World Series, you might never get that HR record, but you're still the best player I've ever gotten to see play the game.