Friday, August 05, 2005
Let's Give Some Credit to Griffey
When I was in high school everyone's favorite baseball player was Ken Griffey, Jr. He was easily the best player in the league and was considered to be one of the most likeable guys, too. On top of that his numbers were sick, especially coming from a guy who's not built like a McGwire, Sosa, Juan Gonzalez, or anyone else who was hitting 50 home runs back then. He was also considered one the best, if not the best, center fielders in the game at the time. On my high school baseball team we would try to imitate his swing during practice, with little success, obviously, lest all of us would be in the majors by now.
Since then he's gotten killed by injuries. Griffey was on track to be one of the immortal players of the game. He was gonna be the guy who broke the home run record. He was gonna be the best player in the game for another 10 years on top of the 10 that he already was. He was gonna be next to Babe Ruth and Willie Mays when you talked about great players. In 1995 Griffey broke his wrist making a play that no other center fielder in the league would have been capable of making at the time and he missed about 90 games that year. That was a harbinger of things to come for Griffey, who's been followed around by injuries essentially since he moved to Cincinnati in 2000.
He came back from 1995 to put up 49, 56, 56, and 48 homers in the next four seasons. Then he was a free agent and decided to leave Seattle, reportedly because of some friction between him and A-Rod, who in 1999 was the only other player in the league who might have been considered the best in the game. So he went to Cincinnati and the team has sucked, and Griffey's been hurt the most games he's played there has been 145 in the 2000 season, his first with the team.
I'm writing this post because Griffey has put up huge numbers and been one the best players ever and he's been overshadowed for the past few seasons for a few reasons. First is because of his injuries, but secondly a ton of the guys in the league around him are breaking records while being on steroids. I feel we can safely assume that guys like Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Gary Sheffield, and Juan Gonzalez were on steroids during the time they were putting up huge home run numbers. I think it's also safe to assume that Griffey was not on steroids during this time.
First of all, Griffey is still a skinny 6'3". He's solid and strong, but certainly not bulky. Secondly, all of his injuries have come on the field during games. The wrist thing and his later hamstring issues have come from Griffey trying to make athletic plays and stretching his body more than it should be stretched. This is the opposite of the type of fluke injuries that come from steroid use.
My point is that Griffey is one guy we can look at who has played the game the right way and who has excelled. Very quietly this season Griffey has had a very good year. He's on pace for about 35 home runs and 110 RBIs and he'll probably hit about .290 or so if he stays consistent. Those are all star numbers for a lot of guys and it's only because Griffey is so great that we see this only as a nice comeback type of year for him.
Griffey is 35 years old, which is getting up there, and the time he's missed due to injuries doesn't make one optimistic about him being very effective into his late 30s, but that doesn't mean he won't do it. You could make an argument that the time he's missed has been time that he hasn't been putting wear on his body and he may be able to go a couple years more than he otherwise would have. In any event, he's currently at 524 career HRs. If he stays healthy, obviously the biggest factor, he will probably get to a legitimate 600 career homers and even if he retired today he's a first ballot hall of famer.
So I guess I've just become jaded by all the guys out there today who are making it happen, but in an illegitimate fashion. We should also give credit to the guys who have stayed above suspicion and still gotten the job done. Guys like A-Rod, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Vlad Guerrero who haven't been mentioned in any type of scandalous issues, but have been consistently great. Though today I feel like we're one drug test away from maybe taking one or some of these guys off that list. Let's hope not.
On a related note, it's somewhat astounding that the 1995 Seattle Mariners didn't win the World Series. They had the two best players in the league and the best pitcher in Griffey, A-Rod, and Randy Johnson. On top of those guys they had Edgar Martinez and Jay Buhner, who were great hitters, and they had way above average role players like Tino Martinez, Luis Sojo, and Alex Cora. Now 1994 was the strike year and it would have been really interesting to see who would have come out with that championship. The Yankees were in first place in their division, as were the Mariners and the Montreal Expos, who were loaded with talent that year. My gut feeling is that one of those 3 teams would have won that season.
Since then he's gotten killed by injuries. Griffey was on track to be one of the immortal players of the game. He was gonna be the guy who broke the home run record. He was gonna be the best player in the game for another 10 years on top of the 10 that he already was. He was gonna be next to Babe Ruth and Willie Mays when you talked about great players. In 1995 Griffey broke his wrist making a play that no other center fielder in the league would have been capable of making at the time and he missed about 90 games that year. That was a harbinger of things to come for Griffey, who's been followed around by injuries essentially since he moved to Cincinnati in 2000.
He came back from 1995 to put up 49, 56, 56, and 48 homers in the next four seasons. Then he was a free agent and decided to leave Seattle, reportedly because of some friction between him and A-Rod, who in 1999 was the only other player in the league who might have been considered the best in the game. So he went to Cincinnati and the team has sucked, and Griffey's been hurt the most games he's played there has been 145 in the 2000 season, his first with the team.
I'm writing this post because Griffey has put up huge numbers and been one the best players ever and he's been overshadowed for the past few seasons for a few reasons. First is because of his injuries, but secondly a ton of the guys in the league around him are breaking records while being on steroids. I feel we can safely assume that guys like Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Gary Sheffield, and Juan Gonzalez were on steroids during the time they were putting up huge home run numbers. I think it's also safe to assume that Griffey was not on steroids during this time.
First of all, Griffey is still a skinny 6'3". He's solid and strong, but certainly not bulky. Secondly, all of his injuries have come on the field during games. The wrist thing and his later hamstring issues have come from Griffey trying to make athletic plays and stretching his body more than it should be stretched. This is the opposite of the type of fluke injuries that come from steroid use.
My point is that Griffey is one guy we can look at who has played the game the right way and who has excelled. Very quietly this season Griffey has had a very good year. He's on pace for about 35 home runs and 110 RBIs and he'll probably hit about .290 or so if he stays consistent. Those are all star numbers for a lot of guys and it's only because Griffey is so great that we see this only as a nice comeback type of year for him.
Griffey is 35 years old, which is getting up there, and the time he's missed due to injuries doesn't make one optimistic about him being very effective into his late 30s, but that doesn't mean he won't do it. You could make an argument that the time he's missed has been time that he hasn't been putting wear on his body and he may be able to go a couple years more than he otherwise would have. In any event, he's currently at 524 career HRs. If he stays healthy, obviously the biggest factor, he will probably get to a legitimate 600 career homers and even if he retired today he's a first ballot hall of famer.
So I guess I've just become jaded by all the guys out there today who are making it happen, but in an illegitimate fashion. We should also give credit to the guys who have stayed above suspicion and still gotten the job done. Guys like A-Rod, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Vlad Guerrero who haven't been mentioned in any type of scandalous issues, but have been consistently great. Though today I feel like we're one drug test away from maybe taking one or some of these guys off that list. Let's hope not.
On a related note, it's somewhat astounding that the 1995 Seattle Mariners didn't win the World Series. They had the two best players in the league and the best pitcher in Griffey, A-Rod, and Randy Johnson. On top of those guys they had Edgar Martinez and Jay Buhner, who were great hitters, and they had way above average role players like Tino Martinez, Luis Sojo, and Alex Cora. Now 1994 was the strike year and it would have been really interesting to see who would have come out with that championship. The Yankees were in first place in their division, as were the Mariners and the Montreal Expos, who were loaded with talent that year. My gut feeling is that one of those 3 teams would have won that season.
# posted by ChuckJerry : 8/05/2005 11:15:00 AM
