Everyone's Favorite Baseball Player

I remember that night, in early June of 2010, when Junior announced his retirement. It was very unexpected (to say the least), and I wrote about it then, because I like to write my way through emotions. Now I'm not sure what else I have to say, but I still have these emotions...

Kirby Puckett has been my favorite baseball player since I could even have a favorite baseball player. Same goes for most kids born and raised in Minnesota at that time. Don't believe me? Go ask Joe Mauer who his favorite player is. But anyway... ever since I could have a second favorite baseball player, my second favorite baseball player was Ken Griffey Jr.

He was just too damn cool. The backwards hat. That smile. The swing.

I know I'm not alone by any means. There are Orioles fans whose favorite player is Cal Ripken Jr. ("But I loved Griffey"). Padres fans whose favorite player was Tony Gwynn ("But I loved Griffey"). Braves fans whose favorite player was... one of any number of players ("But I loved Griffey"). Cardinals fans whose favorite player was Mark McGwire ("But Griffey was awesome"). Giants fans whose favorite player was Barry.... ok, you get the point.

In the spring of 2011 I was at my Dad's house in Arizona with my older brother, and we were watching the Arizona D-Backs pre-game show on TV. One of the features was a kid interviewing their star, Justin Upton. The kid asked him, "Who was your favorite player growing up?" and before Justin answered I said, "Ken Griffey Jr." And then Justin said "Ken Griffey Jr." My brother was astounded. "How did you know that?"

It was just one of those moments where you smile, sigh, and shake your head.

Congratulations, Junior, on your Hall of Fame induction, everything you went through to get there, and getting there with the highest percentage of votes of any National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee ever.

"Hip Hop Hooray" on repeat at the ballpark right now. #JrHOF #ILoveSafecoField pic.twitter.com/b6nO6tfkxO

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) January 7, 2016

(P.S. - And I will never, ever, EVER forget this.)

Corrections

On June 3rd, 2010, I wrote about a kid that caught a Ken Griffey Jr. homerun ball in the Metrodome and threw it back. My Mom informed me that it was actually a grown man who did this, and provided me with her personal photographic evidence.

























(P.S.— My Mom also has a blog--scratchemall.com. She hasn’t updated for awhile, but it is still quite entertaining if you’re in on that sort of thing.)



Also: When going over the story I posted on May 28th, 2010—the one about Twins fans buying beers for a lone Cardinals fan during Game 7 of the 1987 World Series—my father told me that he was the one who started the beer buying. My Mom is unable to confirm. I’m skeptical of this, but if he really did start the beer buying, I will forgive him for fumbling the game winning ball Wilson Ramos threw right at him back on May 3rd.


In other words, my bad Twins fans.

Playing Along

In the last week of the 2008 regular season, the Twins faced the White Sox in a three game series at the Dome. The Twins were 1.5 games behind the division leading White Sox. It was an important series. I’m sure you remember it.

Ken Griffey Jr. had been traded to the White Sox earlier that season. In that late September series, he hit two homeruns and I saw both. I remember the second one particularly. It was in the 4th inning. Griffey nailed the ball and it sailed into the upper deck in right field. Some kid caught it.

And he threw the ball back.

There was a collective gasp. Did that kid really just throw back a Ken Griffey Jr. homerun ball? What the hell was he thinking? Doesn’t he realize what he just did? Everyone around me was shocked. They all understood. Even the next season I still heard people talking about it at the Dome. “Remember when that kid threw back Junior’s homerun ball?”

Actually, I still hear about it. Probably every other time a fan throws back a home run. “Hey, remember when that kid threw back…”


As a youngster, my capacity to recognize baseball players maxed out at three: Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, and Ken Griffey Jr. I don’t know when I finally did recognize some non-Twins player besides Ken Griffey Jr. I’m not sure why this was either. Ken Griffey Jr. was like Kirby Puckett. He was just cool.

For instance, behold my entire baseball card collection:


Yeah, so I’m not a serious collector. My Mom just gave me most of these cards a few months ago after I professed my love for Junior. I had some baseball cards when I was little, but they all ended up taped to the spokes of my bike wheels or something like that.

I was hoping I’d get to see Griffey at Target Field. I wouldn’t even have cared if all I saw was him sleeping in the dugout. Actually, that would have been awesome.

When I saw the Press Release last night, I felt like the Last Great Baseball Player was gone. He was the last of the players I remember watching back when I couldn’t even understand how a player with two strikes could foul off a ball and not be out. Back when it was more fun to try and run down and tag every base-runner than actually play Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball. It didn’t make sense, but it was fun. Kind of like throwing back a Griffey homerun ball. It was just a game.

Thank you for playing, Ken Griffey Jr.






I am Soooo Sick of Perfect Games

I used to get excited about these things, but I just can’t anymore. I feel like I could go pitch a perfect game myself. That’s why I’m so glad Jim Joyce blew that call last night and robbed Armando Galarraga of a perfecto.

Apparently, a lot of people aren’t so glad. Now everyone wants instant replay. Even Jim Joyce wants it. Personally, I find anything that makes baseball any bit more like football revolting. When Gardy goes out to challenge a close call, do I want to see all the umpires run off to a little room where they will huddle around, watch a video tape, and decide what to do? Heck no. I want Gardy to be ejected, everyone to throw their hats on the field, and then be able to blame all of the Twins’ misgivings on the umpires. After all, it wasn't all those missed chances that lost the game for the Twins last night, it was that one blown call.

Doesn’t MLB already think there is some ‘pace of the game’ issue anyway? I don’t have any scientific statistical data to back this up, but I feel like the rash of perfect games and crazy low ERAs is just a by-product of MLB pushing umpires to speed things up. The strike zone seems to be widening by the minute. And I don’t get it. Who wants baseball games to hurry up and be over? Football fans?

One of the reasons I love baseball is because the games could theoretically go on forever. The only thing better than a five hour long game is a six hour long game. Screw getting up for work. I feel like the games are already going too fast. Pretty soon every at-bat is going to feel like the one by Michael Cuddyer last Sunday, where ESPN completely fast-forwarded through the whole thing. Players are just magically going to be out or be on base, umpires are going to be running in and out of some tiny replay room, and before I can even finish a Summit, someone will be declared the winner.

I vote for no instant replays, a return to the regular strike zone, and no more perfect games for at least ten years. Bad calls are a part of this pass-time. Play along.

On a day like this...

Milton Bradley, Griffey's teammate for only a few months, turned to Mike Sweeney during batting practice and said, "on a day like this, it should rain in Seattle."