The Forgotten Player Still a Junior Achiever

Ken Griffey Jr. is having the quietest 53-homer season you’ve ever heard. Or not heard.

You are aware that Griffey joined Babe Ruth and Mark McGwire as the only players to hit 50 home runs in back-to-back seasons, aren’t you? And you realize Junior has stolen 20 bases as well, making him the third player to do that the same year he hit 50 home runs.

Despite all of the above, it was pretty quiet in Griffey’s corner of the visitor’s clubhouse at Edison Field on Friday night. The number of reporters hovering around his locker stood at one. Griffey had plenty of room to try on one pair of cleats, try on another, look at both of them, then make his choice.

It’s for his own preference, not history’s. No one from the Hall of Fame is around to shepherd his cleats or his uniform or his bat to Cooperstown and there is no national debate about what to do with his home run balls.

For a few years Griffey was the face of baseball, one of the players with enough widespread appeal to pitch non-sports-related products in commercials. He was supposed to be the guy who saved the sport, but apparently he didn’t hit home runs fast enough and now that honor belongs to other guys.

He remains fascinating to watch at bat and in the field. He hasn’t had any scrapes with the law to sully his reputation. He has met all the high expectations placed on him when he broke into the majors nine years ago.

And a sporting public has moved on. Griffey was knocked out of the daily home run update boxes by Sammy Sosa, and if you aren’t in that race you might as well be sitting at home.

“It’s Sosa’s year, it’s McGwire’s year,” Seattle shortstop Alex Rodriguez said. “The Yankees are overlooked, Junior’s overlooked, pitchers are overlooked--everyone is overlooked. And we should be overlooked.”

Should we? Is it wise to ignore a player who, at 28, is just starting to enter his prime?

It’s possible that Griffey is only getting started. He picked up his 1,000th RBI earlier this week, reaching that plateau at a younger age than Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Johnny Bench and the all-time RBI king, Hank Aaron. Only Jimmie Foxx hit his 300th home run at a younger age than Griffey, who hit his on April 13.

Griffey’s accomplishments came despite a 1994 season cut short by the strike and a wrist injury that kept him out for more than half of the 1995 season.

And it’s not as though Griffey’s teams never go anywhere. They won the American League West in 1995 and 1997.

Of the 56 homers Griffey hit last year, the most impressive were the seven he hit in a seven-day stretch that began Aug. 31. The Mariners increased their lead over the Angels from one game to five games during that span, and that effectively ended the pennant race. That’s what made him the American League’s most valuable player; not just doing it but doing it when it counted. In the 1995 playoffs he hit .364 with six home runs and nine RBIs in 11 games.

This year’s numbers will end up similar to the 56 home runs and 147 RBIs he recorded last year. But he shouldn’t and won’t win the MVP. Not with a Seattle team that never jumped into contention in the AL West as it struggled with Randy Johnson’s unhappiness, Jay Buhner’s knee injury and the bullpen’s complete ineffectiveness.

What could Griffey have done differently? How much of this could he control?

“It’s not like basketball, where the guy gets the ball,” Griffey said. “In football, if they triple-team this guy, they’ve got other guys open. In baseball, it’s the only sport where the defense has the ball.”

He contends that he can’t dictate how he is pitched, or how his teammates are pitched. Maybe there is something he could do off the field, become a stronger presence in the clubhouse and take charge of the team’s emotions. If Johnson’s funk over his contract situation can drag everyone down, than there’s no reason a positive influence couldn’t pick everyone up.

Until he takes that next step, there’s only way this season could result in another plaque for Griffey. “I think they should have a player of the year and MVP, which usually goes to guys whose teams are winning,” Griffey said. “The player of the year’s got to be a guy having an outstanding year, but his team doesn’t do anything.”

Griffey always says, “I just want to play baseball,” and when you strip away all the numbers and the award talk there’s no one more fun to watch.

There he was in the batting cage, cap turned backward, launching balls over the outfield fence.

It’s hard to tell what looks better: his quick, smooth swing through the strike zone or his majestic follow-through. It’s like trying to decide between the ice cream and the toppings on a sundae.

He sent a ball caroming off the artificial grass high above center field and it bounced into the rock formations.

Nothing historic about it. Sure worth watching, though.

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The Junior League

His batting average has dropped a little, but the power numbers of Ken Griffey Jr. are outstanding again (1998 statistics through Thursday; sat out most of 1995 because of wrist injury):

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YEAR AVG HR RBI RUNS 1998 .289 53 135 114 1997 .304 56 147 125 1996 .303 49 140 124 1995 .258 17 42 52 1994 .323 40 90 94 1993 .309 45 109 113 1992 .308 27 103 83 1991 .327 22 100 76 1990 .300 22 80 91 1989 .264 16 61 61

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