What does the number 600 mean to you as a baseball fan? To me it is a number that only a few have gotten to, some with talent alone and a few with the help from science. 600 will be reached by more and more players as I get older, but this number should still be the margin of very high achievement over time. Recently the number of players to reach 600 home runs for a career changed to six, by a player who has stayed out of the sounds of "HGH, steroids, and performance enhancing". Ken Griffey Jr. who took a little longer than thought to reach this great feat was very humble today on the radio on my way home from Jacksonville. He was quoted saying comments like, "I play this game to have fun and to help my teammates win; I was taught to always play this game to the fullest and I believe that I do that; I am not the greatest player to stay out steroid talks; Injuries are part of the game and if I got hurt doing something stupid instead of getting hurt on the field than I would feel bad about me taking so long to get to 600, but since I got hurt on the field playing hard then I have no regrets on how my career has gone." Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa are two of the recent ball players to reach the 600 club and both have been involved with talks of steroid scandal. And I blame them for Griffey's 600th homer not being as glamorous as I thought that it would be in the media. This is a big deal people! Griffey is from the new school but has old school values that were taught to him by is father Ken Sr. who was a class act in the MLB during his playing days with "The Big Red Machine". Junior has always played the game hard, having fun in doing so, and he has just reached a plateau that I think is legendary and absolutely remarkable. Especially for a guy that has had problems with injuries, endured scrutiny when leaving Seattle for his hometown of Cincinnati, and throughout his time with the Reds has had trade talks loom over him. Congratulations for your 600th HR to a guy who has always played the game the right way, just did it in the wrong era.
1 comment:
Deez, you as far as I can remember were the biggest Ken Griffey Jr. fan (you even had a giant cutout of him for a video game promotion). I can only imagine that lack of praise toward Griffey hitting 600 pisses you off a great deal. I hope some miracle happens and he stays playing up until he blows Bond's record out of the water. One can only wish.
Also might I add even though it was an away game you'd think that possibility of Griff' hitting 600 would put some butts in the seats. I mean the outfield stands seemed almost empty.
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