The Greatest CF Ever?

The Kid always had that swagger. He had the smile, wore his hat backwards, and had one of the smoothest swings in the history of the game. He defined a generation of ballplayers, often being the yin to Barry Bonds yang, and the end result will be his enshrinement in the Hall of Fame in five years. Of course, I’m talking about Ken Griffey Jr.

My first recollection of Griffey isn’t a homer or a catch to rob one, but going to the local ball card shop with my brother and friend in 1989. My brother and I each bought two Upper Deck Griffey cards, while our buddy bought 20 of them at $2 a piece (no joke). I’ve since lost touch with that friend, but hopefully he hung on to all those cards because he’d have made a pretty penny (at the lower end I think they go for $40-50). Why did my friend grab so many rookies of Griffey? He clearly knew what he was doing – slightly ahead of me and my cheapskate ways at the time (I think I bought two boxes of Score cards instead – and that wasn’t a great choice in retrospect).

However, my greatest memories of Griffey obviously emanate not from losing a small fortune, but from his work on the diamond. You’ll see the numbers listed everywhere you read about Griffey the next few days, so I’ll just list them quickly.

630 homers, 5th all-time
1,836 RBI, 14th all-time
1,662 runs, 31st all-time
1,192 extra base hits, 6th all-time
5,271 total bases, 12th all-time

* He was named to 13 All-Star teams including every year from 1990-2000 – the entire decade.

* He won the MVP award in 1997, unanimously. He was awarded 3.20 Career MVP Shares, 27th best of all-time.

* Here might be the most amazing part of the whole deal; Griffey wasn’t just a hitter, he was a sublime fielder who 10-straight Gold Gloves, one for each year of the decade of the 1990′s. Think about that. He won a Gold Glove ever year of the 90′s. Only Roberto Clemente (12) and Willie Mays (12) won more amongst outfielders.

Injuries curtailed Griffey’s career prematurely, and people who only remember the broken down player of the past few years are doing this man a disservice. Just how great was he during his prime? From 1996-1999, there wasn’t a finer player in the game. In that four year period of time he was the MVP once, finished fourth twice, and was 10th on the other occasion. As for the numbers, he never hit fewer than 48 homers, knocked in fewer than 134 runs, scored fewer than 120 or stole fewer than 15 bases in any of those four years. Griffey is therefore the only man in the history of the game to go 48-134-120-15 in 4-straight seasons – and he also won a Gold Glove every season to boot.

But beyond the greatness of his two-way play, beyond the childlike enthusiasm and beyond the fact that he was never embroiled in any off-field issues of any kind until the recent ludicrous story that he was sleeping during a game, there is one salient fact that sets him apart from everyone else he played against – not once has his name ever been linked to performance enhancing drugs.

Now I have no inside knowledge, I wasn’t in the locker room with any of these guys and I don’t share beers with them on a Friday night, so like the rest of you it’s all rumor and supposition about what went on behind closed doors. But as stated, what we do know is that Griffey’s name was never linked to PED’s. Therefore, he just might be the only slugger of his era whose exploits aren’t thought to have been chemically enhanced. Given that, there is nothing to stop Griffey from entering the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

So, was Griffey the best center fielder in the history of the game? It’s pretty difficult to think that Griffey was as good an all-around player as Willie Mays, and he clearly lacked the outward passion of Ty Cobb, and it’s not like there aren’t two all-time greats who roamed centerfield for the Yankees in Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. In the end the question will continue to be debated, but I feel completely comfortable in stating that Ken Griffey Jr. was the greatest all-around center fielder this scribe ever had the privilege of watching play the game of baseball, and while that might not mean a thing to Mr. Griffey, it means the world to me.

By Ray Flowers

Getting Warmed Up

On a Monday with everyone is jazzed up about the Home Run Derby that will start in mere minutes, here are some of my thoughts as I try to stay focused enough to write something worthy of reading before I put on my “fan” cap to watch the event.

What’s wrong with rookie contracts? Take this example to heart. Tim Lincecum, you know the guy who won the Cy Young last season and the guy who is starting the All-Star game for the NL after an even better first half this year (10-2, 2.33 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 149 Ks in 127.2 IP), will make $650,000 this season, this a year after he made barely $400,000 during his Cy Young season. So, what in the world is Stephen Strasberg thinking when he and his representation have floated the idea that they are looking for a deal that potentially could reach $50 million before he has thrown a single major league pitch? Sheer folly. That doesn’t mean that Strasburg won’t get $15-20 million though, which just goes to show you that potential, beyond production, still holds sway. For those of you interested in learning more about the 100-mph throwing Strasburg, click on the link to MLB Draft Thoughts who was drafted first overall by the Nationals in the June Entry Draft.

I touched on it the other day in It’s Surreal, but here is yet another reason to be concerned about the direction of the NFL. The Chargers’ Antonio Cromartie admitted that it was hard for him to focus last season because of the off field distractions he faced. What were those distractions? “Last year my head wasn’t in there,” Cromartie said. “I was dealing with my kids and their moms. It had my mind somewhere else.” Apparently the DB has seven children with five women in five different states. There is nothing illegal about doing that, it’s not like he is out dealing drugs like Travis Henry, but I just can’t get my head around why it’s so hard for so many of these professional athletes to practice safe sex? Maybe they should have paid more attention to sex ed in school and less to how much weight they could bench press.

Here are some random thoughts.

Harold Reynolds loves his job. That guys was hoping all around during early BP at the All-Star game on Monday with a huge smile on his face. He may not always seem to be the brightest guy in the world, but he brings passion to his job.

Speaking of the MLB broadcasting teams, Joe Magrane is a bore whereas Al Leiter brings all kinds of passion an insight.

Alex Gordon should be back with the Royals on Friday after missing three months due to hip surgery. Don’t know what to expect from him exactly, but he started off his minor league rehab stint hitting well with a .364 mark through 11 games. No matter what happens I feel confident in stating that I believe he will do better than he did at the start of the season when he hit .095 with a .507 OPS in 21 ABs.

Don’t know how many of you saw it, but minor leaguer James McOwen just lost his minor league hitting streak at 45-consecutive games. “I’m pretty happy with the way the last month and a half has gone. There’re no regrets and, hopefully, I’ll start another one tomorrow.” McOwen, a Single-A outfielder for the Mariners, is batting .347 on the season with 53 RBI in 73 games thanks to the streak that saw him hit a rather amazing .398 over the course of 181 ABs. McOwen did set a California League record, the previous mark was 35 games, but his streak of 45 games was actually just the 8th longest streak in minor league history. Two men, Joe Wilhoit in 1919 and Joe DiMaggio in 1933, both had streaks of over 60 games – Wilhoit went 69 games while Joe D. posted a 61 game streak while playing for the San Francisco Seals. Isn’t it amazing to think that DiMaggio had two hitting streaks of over 55 games?

By Ray Flowers