Griffey’s Way of Reasoning Has Ring to It

Ken Griffey Jr. continues to try to explain this. It’s not about Babe Ruth or Roger Maris. It’s not that he’s uninterested in the home run record, as he has said before and which he reiterated in a conversation with Seattle reporters the other day. It comes down to not wanting to talk about himself.

“The record is fine,” the Mariner center fielder said in that Seattle chat. “I don’t have a problem with the record.

“My problem is talking about myself. What’s wrong with a person not liking to talk about himself? It doesn’t make me a bad person. Here’s a quote from my father: ‘It’s more important that someone talk about you than it is for you to talk about yourself.’ He told me that when I was a little guy. I grew up that way. What’s so hard to understand about that?

“People say, ‘You’re a part of history, you owe it to talk about it.’ All I owe is to go out, play as hard as I can, and not disrespect my family, my team or the organization. I mean, I’m not talking about home runs. I want wins. When you talk about all the great players, they won. They were on teams that won. It’s a size 11 [ring] I’m looking for, with diamonds.”

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Statistical mavens now argue whether Hack Wilson drove in 190 or 191 runs in 1930. For Juan Gonzalez, it probably won’t matter. Like most record projections, his has hit on hard times. The Texas Ranger right fielder went into a weekend series against Tampa Bay with no RBIs in eight games since the all-star break and only two in the last 16 games.

It’s not all his fault. He lost three RBIs during a weekend series at Oakland because of poor baserunning by teammates, and the top of the Texas lineup is also not providing him with the same opportunities as earlier.

In those last 16 games, the 1-2 spots in the Ranger order--usually Tom Goodwin and Mark McLemore--were batting a combined .218 (27 for 124).

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The bond between players from the Dominican Republic was exemplified in mid-June by a call Raul Mondesi of the Dodgers made to Ruben Mateo, a highly regarded but then-struggling outfielder with the Rangers’ double-A team in Tulsa. Mondesi delivered a pep talk, and Mateo, batting .217 at the time, responded. The 20-year-old prospect, considered a five-tool player, took a 28-game hitting streak into Thursday’s game, his team 23-5 in the streak.

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Why are the New York Yankees so dominant? Here is one factor: In their last 38 games before the weekend, opponents were batting .177 with runners in scoring position against David Cone (.094), Andy Pettitte (.156), Ramiro Mendoza (.167), Orlando Hernandez (.186), Hideki Irabu (.189) and David Wells (.259).

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Roger Clemens, 36 on Aug. 4 and 12 years removed from his 24-4 most-valuable-player season of 1986, continues to produce Hall of Fame credentials, while confident the end is not in sight.

“I know that with my workouts I could pitch a long time,” he told John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press this week.

“I feel myself getting stronger.

“As soon as January 15 rolls around every year, my juices are flowing to get out there and [face] the challenge. . . . That’s what these fans come to see, and I want to give it to them.

“I mean, that matchup I had in the All-Star game against [Mark McGwire, whom he struck out]--come on, you’ve got to love that stuff.”