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The High Court |
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Deep Thinkers Only... |
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Feeling Like The Kid...Again |
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From the desk of The Chief Justice...
It isn’t even conceivable, is it? How is it possible that the young phenom who once bounded effortlessly across outfields and gleefully pounded BP home runs with his cap turned backwards could turn 36 in November? Can we all be that old? But don’t look now (and given the state of the Reds, you probably haven’t). The Kid is feeling like a kid again.
On Sunday, Griffey hit his 534th career home run (and 33rd of the season) to tie Jimmie Foxx for 13th place on the all-time list (he would also pick up the 1,000th extra-base hit of his career in the game). That is a remarkable feat, and it is also proof positive that Junior has been around a long time. But given the unbelievably high expectations surrounding this man just five years ago, we all would have expected that 534th homer to have come a long time ago. As Griffey left Seattle for his hometown Reds, every one in baseball expected to someday see him chasing Hank Aaron in a Cincinnati uniform. Griffey would arrive on the banks of the Ohio River with 398 career home runs at the very precocious age of 30. It was easy to forecast Junior’s march to become the first man in Major League history to hit 800 home runs. He was just that good.
And how good was he? This good…by the age of 25, Griffey had already hit 40 homers or more in a season twice (including 40 in 111 games in the strike-shortened ’94 season…see The Wig for more on ’94). He had driven in 100 or more runs three times. A wrist injury would limit him to 72 games and 17 round-trippers in ’95, but The Kid would become The Man in 1996. Griffey would hit 49 home runs with 140 RBI that year, and that was just a taste of what was to come. The following year he would win the AL MVP award with 56 homers and 147 RBI. Amazingly, his 1998 totals were nearly identical: 56 jacks and 146 RBI (slacker!). He would finish up the ridiculous four-year run in his last season as a Mariner by hitting 48 home runs and driving in 134 runs. And oh by the way, he was playing the finest center field in the world all the while, winning ten consecutive Gold Gloves from 1990 through 1999.
And The Kid was more than just amazing numbers. He was baseball. Derek Jeter has been anointed the face of baseball by a certain Worldwide Leader, but Ken Griffey, Jr. was everybody’s choice as the face of baseball in the ‘90’s. He was the player of the decade, and he was a selection for the All-Century team at the ripe old age of 29. He was pure joy on the field. His love for the game was always on the display, and he was his generation’s version of Willie Mays. There wasn’t a single thing he couldn’t do on a baseball field, and every single person who watched him marveled at his ability. Safeco Field was the House Junior Hated (it wasn’t quite as cozy a launching pad as his indoor digs at the Kingdome), but it was also the House Junior Built. Matter of fact, more than one person close to the situation in Seattle felt like Griffey was the only thing that saved baseball in the city. Prior to his arrival in the Pacific Northwest, the Mariners were constant cellar-dwellers, and the atmosphere around the club was as dreary as the weather. But the megawatt smile and effervescent talent of Griffey lifted an entire franchise to the sunny stage of national attention.
But as all good things come to end, so too did the love affair between Griffey and Seattle. Whether it was wanting to be closer to his family and their home in Florida, the new ballpark he didn’t care for, or sharing the stage with another baseball prodigy (A-Rod), that troubled him, Griffey would demand a trade out of Seattle. When it was granted, to the Reds in 2000, the magic would be gone. Griffey’s smile had always come as easily to him as the game, but for most of his first season in Cincinnati, neither his game nor his smile was in its customary place. For the first two months in a Reds uniform, Junior would hit only .212. He would rebound enough to hit 40 home runs and drive in 118, but he was never the player the hometown fans expected. That fact, coupled with a floundering Reds team never contending for the playoffs (after a berth the previous season), made Griffey the target of frequent boos. It would later become public that Junior had received death threats prior to the season and that kidnapping threats had been issued against his wife and children. As if the pressure of returning to Cincinnati as the franchise’s savior hadn’t been pressure enough, Griffey had to carry the weight of the threats (which reportedly resulted in FBI protection for the Griffey family) throughout the season.
Not only was he a different player, he was a different person. The easy-going, affable personality had been replaced by a brooding, often surly persona. Much of it was easily understandable given the things he was dealing with, but Griffey’s reputation as a media and fan friendly superstar certainly took a hit. The worse news for Junior? That tumultuous first season with the Reds would be his finest.
Due to various injuries (but most due to hamstring difficulties), Griffey would not play more than 111 games in any of the next four seasons. When he did play, he rarely played well. In those four injury-plagued campaigns (2001-2004) Griffey would hit only 53 homers, or three shy of his single-season totals in ’97 and ’98. Making matters worse, the Reds were anywhere from bad to awful in Griffey’s first five seasons with the franchise. And no one would receive more blame for that fact than Griffey. Could a storybook scenario have turned out in a more nightmarish fashion? Returning to the city where he grew up as his father was a member of the Big Red Machine, thanks to a trade he had demanded, it seemed as though the script would call for Junior to continue his assault on the record books and lead the Reds to championship glory. But as we all know now…be careful what you wish for.
Griffey would return this year, once again hoping to be healthy. With three titanium screws holding his right hamstring together, that seemed unlikely. It also seemed unlikely that the Reds would be any better. Hampered by a poor pitching staff, the same affliction that had plagued the franchise every day of the Griffey era, the Reds quickly fell to the bottom of the NL Central. Junior would manage to stay healthy, but he scuffled through the first couple of months of the season. His greatness was so far removed it seemed possible that he would never return to elite status. The Wig and I even had a conversation in May in which we wondered if any superstar had ever suffered such a precipitous decline.
And then a funny thing happened. The Kid became The Kid again. Bat speed returned. Balls jumped off the barrel and then left the yard. And it was like 1999 all over again. Suddenly Ken Griffey, Jr. was a desired commodity again. The New York papers speculated about the Boss reaching into his wallet to bring aboard one more expensive star. St. Louis fans pictured Junior filling in quite nicely for Larry Walker. And the Chicago White Sox have just outright coveted the man, knowing that his .302 average, 33 home runs, and 90 RBI would make them a serious World Series threat (although Junior suggested Sunday there was no indication he would be headed to Chicago).
I couldn’t be happier for him. I feel in many ways as if I have grown into adulthood with Griffey. He was once baseball’s version of Michael Jordan. A game changer whether he was at the plate or patrolling center field. When Junior was at the height of his powers you couldn’t afford to turn away from the screen when the Mariners were on television. You never knew when he would hit a home run or take one away; you just knew it was coming. With his resurgence, the national media is already getting on the bandwagon as they position him as the anti-steroid poster child. You will hear them tell you more than once how impressive his numbers are because he ‘earned them’.
Yes, he certainly did. But he doesn’t need them cheapened by having them qualified as ‘clean’ in a “steroid era”. Junior’s numbers are all-time great in any era. And when he was at his best, he was the very best. With the exception of Willie Mays, it would be difficult to argue that there has ever been a better all-around center fielder. He may never return to the elite status he once held, but the fact that he has continued to battle through adversity to play at a high level again has been impressive in its own way. It’s great to see Junior hitting home runs again, and it’s even better to catch that smile and see him feeling like The Kid again.
(Statistics for Ken Griffey, Jr. courtesy of www.baseball-reference.com.
Contact The Chief Justice at chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com. |
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From the High Court Hall of Fame…
Outfield of Dreams, Part 1...Will Barry Bonds be a lock in High Court voting? Join The Powdered Wig as he takes you through the first half of The High Court’s outfield balloting.
Infield of Dreams...Join The Powdered Wig as he explores which stars of the infield (at 2B, SS, and 3B) can expect a plaque in Cooperstown.
First-Sack Sluggers...Bagwell? Palmeiro? Giambi? Join The Powdered Wig to see which veteran first basemen get a ticket to the Hall of Fame.
The Lion King...The Chief Justice presents the Hall of Fame case of Ted Simmons, one of the best hitting catchers in the history of the game.
Squatters Rights...The Powdered Wig examines the careers of catchers and designated hitters with a chance at Cooperstown. Find out who The High Court voted in. |
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A healthy Griffey has given Reds fans a glimpse of the star they expected when he arrived in 2000. If only he could pitch, too… (mlb.com) |