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News & ArtsWednesday, June 2, 2010
Sports Ken Griffey Jr...
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 6:32 PM
...retires at the bottom of his game.
1
Even though I wanted this to happen all season, I'm more choked up than I thought I would be.
I moved to Seattle just in time to see Junior playing with his Dad in the Kingdome, and my parents moved to Cleveland just in time to see the huge welcome back that Junior got there. I saw him hit his last home run of the season last year at Safeco, when he probably should have retired.
Best wishes to Junior in his retirement -- he'll be Seattle's first Hall of Fame player...
I moved to Seattle just in time to see Junior playing with his Dad in the Kingdome, and my parents moved to Cleveland just in time to see the huge welcome back that Junior got there. I saw him hit his last home run of the season last year at Safeco, when he probably should have retired.
Best wishes to Junior in his retirement -- he'll be Seattle's first Hall of Fame player...
4
In other baseball news, a shitty ump call cost Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers a perfect game tonight, would have been 3rd one this this year (there have only been 20 in over a hundred years of baseball)...
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2010/06/02…
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2010/06/02…
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@4 and 5, ask Milt Pappas about that. Bottom of the ninth, 3-2 count, borderline pitch called. . . ball four. Gets the next guy, no hitter, but no perfection. But this call was much worse. . . clearly out.
7
@5 check out the replay...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t8Tzme56…
I think I'd have bawled like a baby at Safeco tonight...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t8Tzme56…
I think I'd have bawled like a baby at Safeco tonight...
9
Chicago Fan, a cameraman caught Milton Bradley wiping his eyes with a towel, after the video tribute to Junior tonight. The sentimentality probably had him homesick for Chicago...
11
Thanks. Now we can watch UW softball wup ass on Georgia Thurs. night. Knock it out of the park Ladies!!
12
"...retires at the bottom of his game."
Classy! Way to take a little pot shot while he's on his way out. This guy played baseball the way it was supposed to be played his whole career, without steroids, plagued by some unfortunate injuries because he threw every ounce of himself into the game. Not to mention that you can't read one story on him that doesn't mention his sense of humor or smile. Baseball fan or not (and I don't consider myself a big fan) nobody in Seattle or anywhere else should have a single negative thing to say about Griffey.
/RESPECT!!
Classy! Way to take a little pot shot while he's on his way out. This guy played baseball the way it was supposed to be played his whole career, without steroids, plagued by some unfortunate injuries because he threw every ounce of himself into the game. Not to mention that you can't read one story on him that doesn't mention his sense of humor or smile. Baseball fan or not (and I don't consider myself a big fan) nobody in Seattle or anywhere else should have a single negative thing to say about Griffey.
/RESPECT!!
14
My sister says:
"Why should Griffey have retired at the top of his game, Dan? After all, you didn't."
I repeat, I did not say this.
"Why should Griffey have retired at the top of his game, Dan? After all, you didn't."
I repeat, I did not say this.
16
There's a lot of talk about how he was a drag on the team this year, how he cost the M's x runs or whatever. But I'm so full of happy memories right now. I know that is a cliche that MLB runs into the ground - the family memories, the sun-drenched nostalgia. But players like Griffey are why that cliche exists. He was an amazing athlete, he was a super nice guy, and there are so many great stories about his exploits. 8 consecutive games with home runs. The Refuse to Lose season in '95. Back to back homers with his dad. All his clowning around in the clubhouse. Enough Sports Center highlights to fill his own show.
And I have a lot of personal memories of him and the M's. The second date I went on with my wife was to a Mariners game and Griffey hit a homer. When my niece was 4 months old, she was at her first major league game in the outfield bleachers at the Kingdome, and she got hit by a Griffey home run (her dad still has the ball). I moved to Japan in September of '97 and my family sent me the sports pages every day. Pre-internet video and Skype free international phone calls, I followed the playoff run with a couple day's delay. I remember sitting in my tiny apartment, with no furniture, pretty lonely and homesick, getting chills down my spine as I read about Griffey's performance from a few days before. I miss the Kid already.
And I have a lot of personal memories of him and the M's. The second date I went on with my wife was to a Mariners game and Griffey hit a homer. When my niece was 4 months old, she was at her first major league game in the outfield bleachers at the Kingdome, and she got hit by a Griffey home run (her dad still has the ball). I moved to Japan in September of '97 and my family sent me the sports pages every day. Pre-internet video and Skype free international phone calls, I followed the playoff run with a couple day's delay. I remember sitting in my tiny apartment, with no furniture, pretty lonely and homesick, getting chills down my spine as I read about Griffey's performance from a few days before. I miss the Kid already.
17
@12: There's plenty of negative to say about Griffey. Like him denigrating his teammates in the late-90s with the mantra, "Where's my pitching?" Or painting the Mariners into a corner by demanding he be traded to the Reds and only the Reds.
He was an incredible baseball player who I loved watching on the field. But perhaps until recently he too often acted like the spoiled offspring of a professional athlete that he'd been since birth.
He was an incredible baseball player who I loved watching on the field. But perhaps until recently he too often acted like the spoiled offspring of a professional athlete that he'd been since birth.
18
Oh, and Dan's headline is obviously ridiculous. What baseball player retires at the top of his game? Only Sandy Koufax.
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@18 Koufax retired from an injury. He was arthritic. Top of his game? Yeah. Without a doubt. Griffey retired with a sub .200 average. There is no reason to draw such a comparison.
23
Maybe I missed it, Dan, but did you post a followup to your Ted Haggard post from yesterday? He made his announcement today (about the church open to all, etc.).
24
fascinating that he retired exactly 23 years to the day that he was drafted into the majors. ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
25
Oh Dan, it can't be about you all the time.
OTOH, where is your bro? He should be talking about how Milton fought back from a 1-2 count to get a single on a full count. He then stole second and third, and was driven in on a sac fly. I was right over the dugout and he wouldn't even look at the crowd that was madly cheering for him. I think he was still mad at himself for getting out in the first.
OTOH, where is your bro? He should be talking about how Milton fought back from a 1-2 count to get a single on a full count. He then stole second and third, and was driven in on a sac fly. I was right over the dugout and he wouldn't even look at the crowd that was madly cheering for him. I think he was still mad at himself for getting out in the first.
27
You can be a real shitbird sometimes Dan
your QOTD was pretty sharp too, is it that time of the month or something
your QOTD was pretty sharp too, is it that time of the month or something
28
At the boottom of his game indeed Dan. No need to be mean. I'd like to see you step into the box with a high hard fastball in on the hands bearing down on you. You'd likely have to clean your tighty-whities out!
29
@4 baseball needs a binding challenge system like the NFL. All pro sports do.
@Dan bottom of the game, top of the game. Almost no athletes have the chance to go out at top, let alone play 21 years with injuries that would have ended many other careers, AND finish with 600+ home runs and a .284 batting average.
And yes, a .284 career (the homers aside) is pretty sick. If Jr. had played in the 1950s on game performance alone he'd be considered up there with DiMaggio and Mantle.
@Dan bottom of the game, top of the game. Almost no athletes have the chance to go out at top, let alone play 21 years with injuries that would have ended many other careers, AND finish with 600+ home runs and a .284 batting average.
And yes, a .284 career (the homers aside) is pretty sick. If Jr. had played in the 1950s on game performance alone he'd be considered up there with DiMaggio and Mantle.
30
Griffey was the last active major leaguer who'd played on the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant ballclub.
31
@30 That was Daryl Strawberry.
Goodbye, Jr. The good memories of my childhood will always outweigh the last year in my mind.
Goodbye, Jr. The good memories of my childhood will always outweigh the last year in my mind.
32
I love how people praise Griffey for supposedly not using steroids. It's pretty clear he didn't, not because they were morally wrong, but because steroids enable a player to train harder. Hard work is something Griffey will never be accused of. If there was a pill or shot that would enable a player to train less, he would have been all over that. He likes to brag about how hard he's worked to rehab injuries, when most players find rehab to be a reduction in their work load (dr.'s set limits).
He's the only player I ever saw in spring training that entered & exited the field on a golf cart (like the coaches). He's the only player I ever saw that had the trainer stretch his hamstrings during the pre-game stretch (not even Edgar was that pampered!).
He got by on natural ability for about 15 years, which is more than virtually any other athlete can say. We can only dream about what would have happened if he had a Jordan-like work ethic.
He's the only player I ever saw in spring training that entered & exited the field on a golf cart (like the coaches). He's the only player I ever saw that had the trainer stretch his hamstrings during the pre-game stretch (not even Edgar was that pampered!).
He got by on natural ability for about 15 years, which is more than virtually any other athlete can say. We can only dream about what would have happened if he had a Jordan-like work ethic.
34
@30 I finally got what you meant. In that Simpsons episode, all of Burns' "beloved ringers" met with some crazy fate, leaving Strawberry as the only ringer available for the big game. In one of the greatest ironies of the past 20 years, Griffey got hooked on "nerve tonic", which resulted in gigantism. His head swelled to about the size that Barry Bonds' did in 2001.
35
@31 @34 Ghaah, you're right! Griffey never played in the game! My perfect Simpsons knowledge is fading. I am old, old...
36
@ Superfrankenstein, I had taken your post @ 30 to mean that Griffey was the last one of those players still in the MLB. Most of those guys were out of the game within a few years of that episode; I think Roger Clemens was the only other one who played beyond the 90s.
39
Ken is one of the best to ever play the game. He's part of what makes Seattle great. Thanks for over 20 years of homers and smiles, Junior.
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