Remembering The Cool Junior
Remember this?
For our generation, this card was the hottest commodity possible, assuming the transition from He-Man to sports had fully completed (much to the relief of fathers everywhere, including my own). A new company called Upper Deck had a fresh, sleek look, and the first one in its initial complete set was Ken Griffey Jr's rookie card. You know how your parents talk about remembering seeing Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle play in person? Griffey Jr. was gonna be our version of that - the guy we'd be telling our kids about.
It's now almost 20 years since that card was released (which is terrifying, particularly for those of us who remember mimicking his stance and legendary swing in our backyard), and Ken Griffey Jr. has just hit his 600th home run, sliding up to 6th all-time. Under most circumstances, this would be a huge occasion. Instead, we've been treated to one of the more ho-hum celebrations of a remarkable feat that we can remember. It didn't help that a pathetic crowd of 16,000 was in attendance on a Monday afternoon in Miami, and, like most hitters on the brink of a milestone, it took awhile - it's been over a week since he had hit 599.
But it also seems like this moment was an inevitability that occurred about five years later than we expected. All of Griffey's injuries - particularly with the Reds - have been well-documented, plenty of people have said that he'd probably be the home run king right now if he'd managed to say healthy (probably true), and a popular argument is that he's one of the few from his generation who never did steroids (hopefully true, although we really don't know).
As sports fans, we all feel a little cheated when an athlete, for whatever reason, never reaches the career numbers or potential that we all thought he could have (this is where Mets fans immediately think of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry and start slugging Jack Daniels). Griffey's legacy among most fans and media will undoubtedly have a big "What If?" attached. But hopefully some of us can look back on his career, picture him in a Mariners uniform, and remember just how freakin' cool and exciting this guy was when he was in his prime.
That baseball card pictured above was the most coveted piece of paper a teenager could own other than his first nudie mag. He had a classic name and could simply go by "Junior." From 1993 through 1999, his home run totals were 45, 40 (strike-shortened), 17 (injury-shortened), 49, 56, 56, and 48, but it was the way he hit them - seemingly effortless, and twice as high as they were far. He OPSed over 1.000 in four of those seasons. His defense may have been just as good as his bat, covering the gaps like no one else, stealing homers, making absurd diving catches, and gunning down silly baserunners who thought it was a good idea to take the extra base.
The dude had his own sneaker line, was on the cover of the Wheaties box, and had his own video games. He had a famous role in The Simpsons, a star cameo in the surprisinglgy watchable Little Big League (even though it's still inexplicable that he walked to second base during that hidden ball trick stunt; he should've been thinking three!), and another small bit in Summer Catch when he took Freddie Prinz deep (serves Freddie right for inexplicably walking away from a no-hitter at the dreadful end of that movie).
And perhaps most memorably, wore his hat backwards when he took BP and during those classic Home Run Derbys. Predictably, it horrified most of the old-school media, but to the millions of people who still enjoyed watching baseball, it showed us a kid who was having a blast playing a game that we were all told was supposed to be fun. That's the Griffey Jr. that we can hopefully all remember best.
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About this blog
Matt Casey produces a wide range of video programming for NBCSports.com, including the Fantasy Fix and The Matty Blake show. He is also, sadly, a Mets and Jets fan.
I think that there is very little doubt that he'd be home run King today but/for the injuries.
He's -- I think -- hit 30 in recent years, being a broken-down, shell of his former self.
As for the steroid question, he has the natural feel about him, from a fan's perspective, but as you mentioned, you never know.
Good article.
Unquestionablly the alltime homerun champ if he could have remained healthy. I think his injuried took at lease three or four seasons from him. No steroids, just a natural talented wrist hitter in the Henry "Hank" Aaron mold. His injuries bring to mind Mickey Mantle. How may homers would the Mick would have hit if he was healthy.
Yeah, thats why I guess he had the natural feel... he wasn't some meathead up there, hacking away.
Looked natural, for what its worth.
Great article. A moving tribute to an Icon who should be an inspiration to our kids. Not the statistical steroidals who, too often, garner the spotlight.