Welcome to Hall of Fame Week.
This coming Sunday, the Hall will welcome two new members: Ken Griffey Jr. and
Mike Piazza. Today, we will take a brief look at the career of Junior while
tomorrow we look at Piazza. On Wednesday, we will begin out Top 5 list of MLB
players who rightfully belong in the Hall but have been kept out for various reasons. Enjoy.
Hall of Fame Profile: Ken Griffey Jr.
Teams Played With:
Seattle Mariners (1989-1999, 2009-2010)
Cincinnati Reds (2000-2008)
Chicago White Sox (2008)
MLB Awards: Most
Valuable Player (1997)
Silver Slugger (1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999)
Gold Glove (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997,
1998, 1999)
All-Star Game
Selection: 1999, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
1997,1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2007
Stats: Games Played 2671 Batting
Average .284
Base Hits 2781 Runs
Scored 1662
Home Runs 630 RBIs 1836
Doubles
524 Triples 38
Stolen Bases 184 Walks 1312
You could make an argument about
Ken Griffey Jr being one of the most naturally gifted baseball players in
history. He had talent beyond comprehension with his power, speed, outfield
ability, and run production, all without ever being linked to Performance
Enhancing Drugs as were a lot of the superstars of his era. If it weren’t for
some injuries that cost him over 300 games during his time with the Cincinnati
Reds, we would be talking about him being the home run king and not Barry
Bonds.
However, the injuries aside, he
still put up Hall-worthy numbers and deserves his induction to baseball’s immortal
shrine. Rather than do a year-by-year analysis of his career, I think it would
be better to focus on specific areas and go into depth a bit more. We’ll start
with his rookie season.
While Griffey basically grew up
from infancy surrounded by baseball (his father, Ken Griffey, was an All-Star
outfielder with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees), he proved he was in
the Bigs for more than just his name in his first season, 1989. As a 19-year
old, Griffey finished third in voting for the American League’s Rookie of the
Year Award, playing in 127 games, batting .264, hitting 16 home runs, driving
in 61 and stealing 16 bases. His emergence with the Seattle Mariners gave the
team some promise as up to this point in their history, the Mariners were just fodder
for other teams in the American League West. Griffey’s presence would lead to
other players coming to Seattle and helping build the club into a contender by
the middle of the 1990s.
One of the high-lights of his
early career was being able to play with this father on the same team. In fact,
on September 14, 1990, the Griffeys became the first father-son duo to hit
back-to-back home runs in MLB history. That season was also the beginning of 11
consecutive All-Star Game appearances for Junior.
As Griffey became a constant
All-Star performer, the Mariners went about putting together a contending team.
In 1995, they final qualified for the postseason for the first time, ten years
after their expansion cousins, the Toronto Blue Jays, made their first
appearance. The Mariners quickly fell behind two games to none in their
best-of-five American League Division Series against the New York Yankees, but
Seattle rebounded to win the next two games to force a Game 5.
The Game was tied at four after
nine innings and the Yankees took a 5-4 lead in the top of the eleventh. After
second baseman Joey Cora led off the bottom of the inning with a single,
Griffey followed with a single of his own. That set the stage for Edgar
Martinez and his game-winning double that won the series for Seattle. Even
though it was Martinez’s hit that drove in both runs, the image that will
remain with any baseball fan that watched the game is Griffey sprinting around
the bases and sliding into the plate with the game-winning run.
For the series, he batted .391, hit
five home runs, drove in seven and scored nine runs.
Unfortunately, the Mariners
would come up short in the ALCS against Cleveland, but Griffey still managed to
have a .333 batting average against the Indians.
He would play four more seasons
with the Mariners, leading the American League in home runs in 1997 (56), 1998
(56) and 1999 (48). He would win the AL MVP Award in 1997. Besides the 56
homers, he had a .304 batting average, led the AL in RBIs (147), slugging
percentage (.646) and runs scored (125).
Following the 1999 season,
Griffey made it clear he wanted to play with the Cincinnati Reds in order to be
closer to his family. On February 20, 2000, the Mariners granted his request,
trading him to the Reds for pitcher Brett Tomko and outfielder Mike Cameron.
After a solid season in 2000,
injuries began to take their toll, among them a broken wrist when he made
contact with the wall after making a catch in the outfield. For three
consecutive years (2002-04) the injuries he suffered were season-ending. His
home runs started to decline as his bat speed seemed to slow after the
injuries.
However, on Father’s Day 2004,
Griffey became the 20th player in MLB history to hit 500 home runs.
Near the end of the season, Griffey suffered another injury when his hamstring
in his right leg tore completely away from the bone.
Despite the declining skills,
Griffey continued to climb up the All-time home runs list. On June 9, 2008, he
hit his 600th home run, at the time, only the fifth player to do so
(Alex Rodriguez has subsequently become the sixth).
His time with the Reds came to
an end when he was traded to the Chicago White Sox in July and after 41 games
with the Sox, he returned to Seattle for the final two years of his career. Two
months into the 2010 season, Griffey decided to finally retire at the age of 40
after 22 season in the Bigs. His 630 career home runs place him sixth on the
All-time list.
His induction into the Hall Of
Fame is no surprise given his extraordinary career. He received 99.32 % of the
possible votes in gaining his entry, breaking the previous record of 98.84 %
received by Tom Seaver in 1992.
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