Griff the Great

Despite the bats that awoke tonight for the Nattos, they still don't look so hot. Maybe five homers will slap them out of this season-long slump, but something even more amazing has happened than a five dinger game from the Nats. Ken Griffey Jr. is probably the greatest that has ever played and hitting homer 600 was an accomplishment that was well overdue.

This was the guy that did it right. Just take the average sports fan and how much you appreciate a player who will take less money to play with the team that his heart is with. That is exactly what Jr. did when signing a long term contract with the Reds. Other teams offered more money, but Jr. stuck with the city he grew up in. How many players these days turn down money because they like where they want to play more than their contract size these days? Not many if any, much less not the guy who was the face of the game when he signed his contract. He grew up in that city because that is where his father played. And he came back to it the first chance he was given, forgoing millions of dollars.

The bond that will forever follow Jr. is the one with his father. No matter how much steroids and HGH ballplayers pump through their veins there will never be another time when the Mariners or any other team send a father then son up to bat consecutively, and back to back dingers ensue. Thats a one game record that no one will ever break. Bobby Bonds was one of the best, good enough to make Cooperstown. You could only wish that Barry turned out as well as Jr., it would have been great to see the two greatest sons of pro ball players have been inducted at the same time. Barry Bonds should be banned from visiting Cooperstown, Griff shouldn't have to wait anywhere close to five years.

All the records over the last decade and a half are in question, and that is the only reason to bring up Bonds in the same breath as Jr.. Jr. is a guy who missed 430 or so games in the first six or seven years he was a Red, before that, he was averaging fifty homers a year for five straight years. He did not get some random injuries that made him want to sit out for extended periods of time. He has always played hard, chasing after balls and bouncing off walls, sliding to stop balls, diving into bases with no regard to his legs, and of course never backing off a fastball towards the face. While a lot of guys used steroids to bulk up and go from 20 to 50 Hrs in a year (Brady Anderson we are all looking at you) Griff kept the same frame and kept knocking them yard year after year when he was healthy.

If Griff could have only stayed healthy. He could have but he did not take steroids. Through the Mitchell report many guys have said they used these banned substances to get through injuries. Jr. has literally ripped muscles off his bones to play the game of baseball. He knew what kind of records he could acheive if he could take banned substances. He knew exactly what he was doing. Take HGH and you are bigger and can get more homers. Take HGH and injuries seem to heal much better. He had and has done well enough to take the high road. Maybe Barry Bonds has daddy issues.

Personal records are never as impotant as team records as they pertain to that particular year. Griff hitting 600 is more important than the game itself right now. Knock Bonds and Sosa off the 600 plus list and you are left with Aaron, Ruth, and Mays. Griffey did what he did while everyone was cheating. When it was just Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire it seemed like it was just everyday players. Clemens and Pettite proved otherwise. Griff had to hit, field against, and just plain outrun a majority of guys who were cheating. If it somehow comes out Jr. was cheating too I guess I need to stick both feet in my mouth. I'll bet the farm against it. While the top players Griff was playing against were cheating, Griff stayed honest and beat them anyways. Willie Mays was probably the best all around player ever. Ruth could hit but also has the advantage of being a Yank. Aaron broke the unbreakable record at the time and trumped Ruth. Because of the injuries, Griff will never be considered better than Mays because baseball is such a stat obssessed sport. But no blown out knees he is at 700 hundred homers. No injuries whatsoever, which is Cal Ripken impossible, Griff is already over 800. Results are results and stats are stats, so Mays is the best that ever played. I have never had the privledge of watching him play, only Ken Griffey Jr. He is the best to ever step on a pro diamond in the modern era. Once again I'll bet the farm on it.

The farm team looks like the best hope for the Nattos right now. ZimZam is the guy who will be around for a while even though he is banged up right now. He will never get close to any of Griff's records but he is just as lovable. If he conducts himself the same way as Jr. it will make the sweeps by teams like the Giants be a little more tolerable.