The Kid...retires.
I think, only now, I must know what it felt like for baseball fans the day Joe DiMaggio retired. Today Ken Griffery Jr officially called his 21 year adventure in Major League Baseball a career... and today, I witnessed the first of my many sports heros hang of his cleats. It makes me realize that in the coming years, many of the players I grew up loving, will begin collecting retirement checks courtesy of Pro Baseball.
At first, I was apprehensive to compare "The Kid" to "The Great Yankee Clipper"... but then I did a little extra research.
Both players were 13 time All Star Selections. DiMaggio recieved 3 MVP awards, while Griffey recieved only 1, but Griffey's 10 Gold Glove awards and 7 Silver Slugger Awards were unrivaled by any player of the "Golden Era". Even Joey D couldnt say anything about that, although Im sure his 9 World Series rings speak for themselves. BOTH were named to MLB's all century team in 1999. Joe's basic stats include 2,214 hits, a .325 lifetime batting average, 361 homeruns, and 1,537 career Runs Batted In... stats that CLEARLY would have been improved had he not gone to serve in the Air force during WWII, the prime of his career. Ken retires with 2,781 hits, a .284 lifetime batting average, 630 homeruns, and 1,836 career Runs Batted In, numbers which clearly show the advantage of playing for a number of additional seasons. Regardless, through injury, careers interupted by war, and different styles and level of play during thier times, thier core numbers remain remarkably the same. Joe was a first ballot Hall Of Fame inductee, and a smart man would bet that Griffey will be as well.
The numbers are not my point however. The man, the legend, the "Kid" is. I grew up watching Ken Griffey play for Seattle, even though I was a Braves fan. For my 10th birthday my day asked me if I could get a ball signed by Nolan Ryan or Junior who would I choose? With out hesitation my response was Griffey, the ball still sits on my shelf in Florida. I played "Ken Griffey's Winning Run" on Super Nintendo late into the night, and when I laid down to go to sleep, his posters were on my wall. His backward hat sparked his icon status as he slugged his way to 3 homerun derby titles.
Reading over this... it all sounds silly. Im merely a fan, who is sad to watch one of his favorite players retire. But I must say Thank You to Jr. Somehow at 40 years old, he retained the title "The Kid", and he never stopped smiling while he played the game. He was a role model, and a legend... I can only hope that the young players playing the game today, signing multi-million contracts respected and idolized him as much as I did. If they did in anyway, the future of baseball is safe.
Long live The Kid.