Son Shines Indoors : Inspired Play of Ken Griffey Jr. Has Seattle Mariners in First Pennant Race

He has his mother’s eyes, his father’s swing and the weight of a franchise on his shoulders.

None of that, of course, came to Ken Griffey Jr. by choice.

Genetics dictated that he would get the clear, wide eyes of his mother, Alberta, called Birdie. She’s the parent who disciplined him and took him to Connie Mack League games when his father, Ken Griffey Sr., was busy playing for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves.

Logic and hero-worship dictated that he would have the smooth, powerful swing of his father, a career .297 hitter who has two World Series rings from the Reds’ championship seasons of 1975 and ’76. Senior joined Junior in Seattle last season to create the first father-son tandem in major league history, and they became the first father and son to hit back-to-back homers Sept. 14, when they victimized Angel right-hander Kirk McCaskill.

Years of bad trades, poor planning and economic bumbling dictated that the Seattle Mariners, who made their American League debut in 1977, would still be seeking their first .500 finish and would regard the 21-year-old center fielder as their franchise.

Ken Griffey Jr. carries these gifts and burdens well. He has grace enough to suggest that he will achieve the greatness long predicted for him and enthusiasm enough to suggest he will never forget that this is still a game, however high the stakes have become.

“We knew he can do it all,” said his manager, Jim Lefebvre. “Now he’s doing it when it’s never counted more.”

Griffey is leading the Mariners through the American League West race, uncharted territory for a club that last Friday rose 10 games above .500 for the first time ever.

Pressure? Not for Griffey, who was the leading vote-getter in fan balloting for this year’s All-Star game. In July, he hit a league-leading .434 with 25 runs batted in, his most productive month in two-plus major league seasons. In a four-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics last week, the Mariners’ first four-game sweep of any team at the Kingdome, Griffey was seven for 15 with three home runs and five RBIs.

“He really rose to the occasion and brought the team up,” Lefebvre said. “He came up with some big hits, timely hits, three home runs in the series. He seems to have the ability to turn it up a notch. A lot of young players, when they try to do that, end up pressing and not succeeding. Junior has the maturity.”

In a span of 10 games through Sunday, Griffey hit .514 with four homers, nine runs and nine RBIs. For the season, his .326 batting average ranked him among the league leaders, and he led the Mariners with 70 RBIs. Only Jay Buhner, with 24, had hit more homers for Seattle than Griffey, who had 17.

“It’s a lot of fun being in this situation,” Griffey said with a smile. “When we were playing the A’s, that was fun. Even when we were down, I was thinking when I was in the outfield, ‘OK, it’s 5-2. We get one run this inning, one in the fifth, one in the seventh and we tie them.’ Everybody was up. A couple of times we had guys on deck who were three or four batters away (from getting their turn at the plate). That’s how much fun we all had.”

Underneath the fun, though, was the serious realization that his time had arrived.

“He likes the challenges. He doesn’t like to lose,” said Ken Griffey Sr., who is preparing to undergo surgery for a bulging disk in his neck, an injury that might end his career at 41. “He gets that from both parents.”

But even they couldn’t give him the final bit of motivation he needed to scale the heights he has recently climbed. That spur came from a column by Steve Kelley in the Seattle Times during the All-Star break, questioning not his ability, but his dedication and his focus.

At the time, Griffey was hitting .280, with nine homers and 36 RBIs--certainly nothing to be ashamed of, but not the kind of performance expected after his strong rookie season in 1989 and his .300 average last season. His contract ensures that he will get a $1.5-million raise next season to $2 million, no matter what he does, the column said, so perhaps he had no reason to push himself this year. Written in the form of a letter, the column said it was up to Griffey to decide how good he wanted to be, whether he wanted to mine his seemingly unlimited potential or settle for being good without being great.

Griffey was more hurt than offended by Kelley’s words, but he doesn’t dispute how much the column motivated him. From the All-Star break through Sunday, Griffey hit .418 with eight homers and 34 RBIs.

“It set him on fire,” Lefebvre said.

At first, he wanted to set the column on fire.

“It was a bad article, but it came out good because it made me think about the person I want to be and what I can accomplish in this game,” Griffey said during batting practice before a game against the Angels at the Kingdome. “My intensity is always there, but when I step in there, to the plate, maybe it doesn’t always show. I want to be the best player I can be. It may seem I’m being selfish, but if I am, it’s for the good of the team.

“It made me think about what I was doing. I was down on myself more than I’d ever been the first two years. I wanted to win so bad, and when we didn’t, it was, ‘Oh, no, not again, not another bad season for us.’ Then I called (Kelley) at his house, and we talked. . . .

“How much can I accomplish? If I can get on base once or twice a game, steal a bag, do something, then I’m happy. I like to see my name in the box score. . . . I got criticized my first two years (for not always hustling). In spring training this year, one game I hit a home run and I hit a ball to second base that I beat out. I was more satisfied that I beat out that ball to second.”

Angel outfielder Dave Winfield, who remembers the younger Griffey scampering in the corridors outside the Yankee clubhouse when his father played in New York, is not surprised to see that Griffey wasn’t satisfied to settle for hitting .280 when .320 was within his capabilities.

“He had high standards in his family. His dad is not the only accomplished athlete, and he knows his mom would be on him if he got out of line,” Winfield said.

“His dad for years talked about how good an athlete (his son) is. You see him, he’s got a cocky, having-fun approach, telling his dad he could do better than him. Ken was proud of him, then when he got drafted, Ken was really proud.

“He’s not offensive-cocky, just a happy, smiling kind of kid. I’m sure he’ll have a lot of opportunities to show his stuff in the present and the near future. I’m happy for him.”

Griffey is happy in Seattle, where he has become one of the city’s most popular sports figures. Constantly in demand to appear at card shows and public events, Griffey has learned to budget his time and escape into the company of his girlfriend and his video games.

“He’s handled it well,” said Ken Griffey Sr., whose youngest son, Craig, is playing for the Mariners’ Rookie League team in Tempe, Ariz., this season. “The only sanctuary he has is when he goes out to the field. It’s the only privacy he has. It’s the price you’ve got to pay.”

Said Lefebvre: “At times, there’s such demands on him. Everywhere we go, he attracts crowds. . . . He’s kept it pretty much under control. All I care about is his performance on the field.”

And that has more than satisfied Lefebvre.

“Junior probably saves as many runs as he drives in,” the manager said. “In a game against Baltimore (July 30), they had the bases loaded, and Randy Milligan hits a bullet to the 405 sign, and (Griffey) caught the ball. He comes up in the bottom of the second and hits a grand slam. That’s a seven-run swing from one player. Since (the newspaper column), he’s done a lot of great things. His offense has really picked up.

“No one man can carry a team. There’s times you think so, because someone is truly impressive. If you put pressure on yourself, say, ‘I’m really the guy,’ that’s not going to work. I have to constantly remind him to stay within himself.”

That’s a good place to be.

“I’m having fun. This team is great,” Griffey said. “Everybody knows we’re good and that if we play good, fundamental baseball, we can match up with every team. The pitching has been good, the home run hitters are coming through--Jay Buhner has been on a mission--and everybody has been getting hits when we need them.

“We’re going to win a lot of games. Everybody is coming out here and saying, ‘Let’s go, let’s play hard. And if we’re eliminated, let’s spoil it for someone else. . . . I’m not looking at my numbers. If you hit .200 and you win or .300 and you win, it’s all the same. Just so you win.”