Jun 10 2008
Jr. Hits his 600th Home Run
Congratulations to Ken Griffey Jr. on his 600th home run. I remember being about a 12 year old kid when hefirst hit the bigs, and his sweet swing was something I’d never seen before. As naturally talented a phenom as Tiger Woods, Junior skyrocketed to being considered one of the league’s best players. A genuinely nice guy, son of a Major League player, whom he also got to play with.
Unfortunately, Junior’s career was damaged almost the day he arrived in his home city of Cincinnati. Prior to 2000, he launched 40 plus home runs in 6 or 7 seasons for Seattle, the only season in which he didn’t was the strike shortened 1995 season. Additionally, he was generally healthy missing no more than 20 games since his rookie season. But for some strange reason, his career in Cincinnati has been marred by injuries. In 2000, he was typical Jr hitting 40 home runs over 145 games. But until 2007, he didn’t again return to playing over 140 games, missing 698 of a possible 1134 games. Naturally, his numbers dipped, and saw him passed over by the younger stars.
Despite his constant injury troubles, Jr continued to press on and while it took him 7 seasons he finally reached 600. We’ll never know how many records he’d have made if he’d never run into the injuries, but one thing is pretty certain, he’s done it naturally.
Bonds and Griffey Jr. are amazingly similar players. Sons of former ball players, they’ve been friends from youth. They both grew up in the ball parks and seemed to be naturals on the field. But according to media reports, roughly around 1998 Bonds took a different path, and forever tarnished his image, despite breaking Hank Aaron’s home run record.
For Junior, his career was forever altered through no decision of his own. We’ve seen athlete after athlete throw away their talent through nothing more than stupidity, Michael Vick, Len Bias, Rae Carruth etc. But Griffey, like Bo Jackson, was stymied by the one thing no one can outrun.
Bo Jackson and Ken Griffey Jr. should have finished their careers being known as the best player ever at their position. They both had it all, everything that could be asked of them they could do. Neither will ever reach the heights which they seemed so destined to attain.
For Junior, I can only hope that at this stage of his career he can find some magic left in his aging body. I can only hope, that the Reds finally find a trading partner who is on the cusp of a championship, and Griffey can have his chance to shine on the greatest stage. And if there is any Karma in sports, I hope it leads him to a World Series Championship.
