Ken Griffey Jr. and the Summer of 1989

I was nine years old the summer of 1989. In the life of a young baseball fan those were both uncertain and exciting times. Pete Rose, a player that I emulated in the backyard although I vaguely remember seeing him at the end of his playing career, accepted a ban from baseball. I developed an somewhat odd following for San Francisco Giants first baseman, Will Clark. I had a Will Clark folder that looked like a baseball card, I carried it to school everyday. Will "The Thrill" was in the middle of his best major league season in 1989 and leading the Giants to a Bay Area World Series appearance. An earthquake halted that series and I hated the Oakland A's for eventually sweeping the Giants. The Reds sweep of the A's the following year would be made even sweeter. Also during the summer of '89, Ken Griffey Jr. was bursting onto the scene for a team in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Mariners.

Similar to my infatuation with Clark, I was awestruck by Griffey's swing. I'm not a lefty but when I think about it, a lot of my favorite players over the years, adding Sean Casey, Andy Van Slyke and more recently Curtis Granderson to that list, have swung the lumber left-handed. Even as a hobbled 40-year old Griffey's swing still captivated me. I'm not going to argue that it wasn't time for Junior to retire but it saddens me to think that he won't be taking more of those beautiful swings.

I remember buying packs and packs of 1989 Topps baseball cards -- okay, technically my mom bought them -- hoping to get one of "The Kid." I remember when I got it. I was sitting in my mom's 1986 Chevrolet Cavalier (white w/ red cloth interior). My mom picked me up from my grandparents house and the hot summer sun was beating down on my right arm as I sat in the passenger seat unwrapping the pack of cards. There it was! It was only about two or three deep in the pack. I had it! As soon as I got home I ran to tell my neighbors, the Hatfields -- I grew up in southern West Virginia, remember, everyone there has a Hatfield for a neighbor.

Junior's arrival to the Reds, my favorite team, in 2000 was one of those rare moments in a fan's life when all the planets seem to align. Unfortunately things really didn't work out in Cincinnati. I know this seems contradictory to a lot of things on BCB but I was always on Junior's side no matter what he did. If he didn't run out a ground ball, I didn't care, he was Ken Griffey Jr., one of the greatest baseball players of all-time. Who cares if he wears his hat backwards, he's Junior! A lot of Reds fans didn't feel the same way and I understand that. If you play for the Cincinnati Reds you need to win or play like Pete Rose to earn the fans' respect and Junior did neither of those things. As Hal McCoy and Trent Rosecrans write, Junior really was a class act he just didn't want the publicity for it. A commenter on Trent's blog passed this story along.

Grif's numbers will stand up in any argument that he was one of the great baseball players ever to lace up a pair of cleats: Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle. Junior's career, like Mantle's, will always carry that aspect of "what if..." If not for injuries and bad luck, he could have been the greatest player of all-time. Here is Mark Sheldon's from Reds.com.

Sporting News has put together a great set of videos on the "Top Ten Moments in the Illustrious Career of Ken Griffey Jr."

This is weird... I just read Chris Sabo's Goggles post and he mentions Will Clark too!

Curtis Granderson blogs about Junior, his favorite player.