Griffey is probably my favorite player to ever play the game. Not only was he good (he had the sweetest swing...ever) but he played with class, and he did it all during a time where everybody was using steroids, except for him.
There was a period of time where everybody that knew baseball thought that he was going to shatter the career home run record. He was young, he was good, and people loved to watch him play.
On top of that, he was one of the best all-around people to play the game. He was a fan favorite wherever he went, mostly because he was so good to the fans and the media. Anyone who watched him could see why people liked him--he always had a smile on his face, even if his team was losing by 15 runs.
Then he decided that he wanted to play for his hometown team, the Reds. His dad had played for the Reds, and he grew up in Cincinnati. However, when he went to Cincinnati, he began being plagued by injuries. He missed 260 out of 486 possible games from 2002-2004, including season ending injuries in all those years.
Griffey just wasn't the same after his time in Cincinnati. He went from a graceful, powerful hitter to a slightly above average hitter.
Basically, my point in all of that is that with all those lost seasons due to injury, and the fact that his swing was majorly affected by all of his lower body injuries, and that he STILL hit 630 home runs, good enough for 5th all time.
Just imagine: a healthy Ken Griffey, Jr. for 22 seasons. I smell 800 home runs. And he would have done it without steroids.
The game lost a great one today. Not only was he a great (and clean) hitter, and probably the second or third greatest center fielder to ever play the game, but he was also one of the greatest people to ever play the game.
Ken Griffey, Jr. deserves a lot more than he is getting. He deserves more than this blog post, he deserves more attention, and he will be a first-ballot hall of famer. If he's not, I'm never watching another baseball game as long as I live.
Goodbye, farewell, and good luck to you, Ken. I really will miss you. You were a big part of my childhood--you got me interested in baseball and sports in general. Without you, my life would be a lot different. Thank you for being as good as you were, and thank you for doing it the right way.
A tribute that I didn't make, but watch it anyway. I recommend muting it though because the song that's playing is sort of lame.
Also: I tried to put pictures on here, but I couldn't figure out how to move them around/re-size them. Help? Thanks!
I'll miss you, Ken Griffey, Jr. Hopefully there cam be more players out there like you.
To move around pictures, I edit the posts on HTML. I think that's the best way of doing it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my Ken Griffey love note was better. It had stickers.