Ken Griffey Jr. was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame with a record election result. The supple outfielder has experienced countless highlights in his career, is regarded as the saviour of his sport, has a profound sense of family and was with the Simpsons. SPOX highlights the great career of the MLB star.
It was also unanimous for Ken Griffey Jr. not when the election result of class 2016 was announced at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Three renegade voters had denied him the vote. The bottom line, however, was a record result with 99.3 percent of the votes.
And something very special for Griffey Jr., who will visit the famous museum of his sport for the first time at his official recording:”If you don’t know, I am very superstitious. I’ve played three times in the Hall of Fame Game, but I’ve never entered the building before. I haven’t even seen the front yet. The first time I wanted to go there was supposed to be a member,”says the freshly built Hall of Famer.
Griffey Junior’s path to and in baseball was basically predestined from early childhood. His father, Ken Griffey, was part of the Big Red Machine, which dominated the National League in the early 1970s. Junior himself was there live at the clubhouse when the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series in 1975 and 1976. This was probably the cornerstone to pave the way for the future superstar.
Between 1990 and 1991, they even played together in 51 games in a team – which resulted in the emphasis on the addition of “Junior” and his nickname “The Kid”. With the Mariners, they not only managed to be the first father-son combo in the MLB to play together in a team, they also beat one home run in each game. Unrivalled until today!
Today they both live in Winter Garden/Florida, not far from each other. Family is everything for Junior, who has three children with his wife Melissa. The eldest son Ken Griffey III, called Trey, is currently active as a wide receiver at the University of Arizona. Daughter Taryn Kennedy plays basketball for the Wildcats and adopted son Tevin Kendall is the third in the team.
From a purely sporty point of view, Griffey was the ideal baseball player. As a top athlete, who was also active as a running back in football at high school and was courted by some top colleges, he brought everything with him to set the standard in Center Field. He repeatedly provided highlight reel-plays, denied numerous home runs with jumps on the wall or was enraptured with catches over his shoulder with his back to the infield in the best Willie-Mays manner. His defensive style earned him ten Gold Glove Awards in a row from 1990 to 1999.
But of course that was the encore. What really made him stand out was, of course, his many described as a beautiful or even perfect swing, which was as graceful and round as it was powerful. In the end he stood at 630 home runs and as one of only eight members in the exclusive 600 home run club. He also won three home run derbies and thus more than any other player.
“Ken Griffey Junior’s bounce, his smile and immense talent in all facets of the game made him one of the most popular and respected players of all time,”said MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in response to the upcoming inclusion in the Hall of Fame.
And who knows, if injuries hadn’t set him back in the 00s, he would have seriously attacked Hank Aaron and later Barry Bonds’ all-time home run best mark.
He was the first pick in the Draft in 1987 – making him the only first-overall pick ever in the Hall of Fame – and came directly from Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati to the pros. His MLB debut followed two years later and earned him third place in the American League rookie of the year.
His best season was in 1997, when he was voted MVP of the AL, after playing the league in Home Runs (56), Runs (125), Runs Batted In (147) and Slugging Percentage (. 646) and leading the Mariners into the playoffs.
However, the far more important period was 1995. It was the year after the strike, the league had lost a lot of credit to fans and the media, and baseball in Seattle in particular was essentially on the brink of collapse. But with a late run in the season, the Mariners still won the AL West and forced a decisive fifth game against the New York Yankees after a 2-0 deficit in the ALDS.
The Yankees led the Kingdome in the 11th century. Inning 5-4 and Edgar Martinez was on the record with Joey Cora on second base, Griffey on first. Martinez then beat a double, which went down in history as “The Double”, the biggest hit in the history of the franchise. Cora equalized the score and then Griffey came in a rush and scored the decisive run of the series with roaring applause from his teammates and fans.
This play was so spectacular and culturally significant that it even inspired the super Nintendo game “Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run”. The fact that the President of Nintendo owns the Mariners certainly played a role in this.
Previously, the Mariners had only had two positive records (1991 and 1993) at the end of the season since 1977.1995 is commonly known as “Season that saved Baseball in Seattle”. Two years later Safeco Field was built and replaced the old Kingdome in 1999.
But Griffey’s time in Seattle should come to an abrupt end with the opening of the new ball park. One reason for this was the sudden death of Payne Stewart, the golf professional who died in a plane crash. The two were friends and this drastic experience caused homesickness among the many All-Star stars. He wanted to return to the family, his father had meanwhile moved to Florida.
And so the franchise player asked for a trade, which brought him back to his old homeland in 2000. There he signed a nine-year contract with the Reds for 112.5 million dollars. But things didn’t go really well for him there.
In Cincinnati he started at a relatively high level and beat 40 home runs in his first season. However, his critics saw this as a drop in performance, as he had always produced at least 48 long balls in the previous four seasons. However, it should remain his best season for the Reds.
What followed were numerous lost years due to minor and major injuries. The worst of these was a complete breakdown of the posterior thigh muscle in 2004. This led team physician Timothy Kremchek to undertake an experimental operation using three titanium screws to attach the muscle – the procedure was known as “The Junior Operation”.
As a result, he was absent for the rest of the season, returning only in 2005 and starting with a weak performance in April. He then got caught up and brought it to 35 home runs and 92 RBI, earning him the title of Comeback Player of the Year. And also in the following two seasons he came close to this level.
After that, however, his production declined noticeably – the many bruises had slowed his momentum considerably and further injuries allowed him in his last two seasons in service of the Chicago White Sox and then again Mariners (2009 and 2010) only 150 of 324 possible games.
Already at the end of his active life Griffey Jr. with other projects. His biggest is his Ken Griffey Jr. Family Foundation, which supports the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and numerous children’s hospitals in the country. The star player also caused a stir with appearances in film and television.
For instance, his Cameo was memorable at the Simpsons and the Prince of Bel-Air. He made it to the cinema when he starred in the movie “Summer Catch” with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jessica Biel. He also appears in the music video “Down Town” by Seattle-based artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
It strongly underlined its popularity beyond sport. He lived the American sportsman’s dream, had his own Nike treadmill – the Nike Air Griffey Max – and could be admired on the prestigious Weaties muesli boxes. There is still hardly anyone in America who doesn’t admire “Junior Griffey” – apart from the three journalists who didn’t vote for him after Cooperstown.
Americans always like to look back on a personality and wonder what was his legacy? With Griffey, this is not difficult to define. He played in the wedding of the steroid era, which is often hushed up by the Hall of Fame voters. But the general perception is that he is the “best home-run hitter who has never used steroids”.
US journalist Bill Simmons is right when he says that “a whole generation of American men” would be devastated if Griffey ever found out that he might have been doping in some way. However, there is no sign of this.
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