Griffey

I know this is a hockey blog and in particular a FSJ Flyers and Huskies blog but I want to talk about something very very close to my heart right now. I could not be a bigger baseball fan. I love that sport and my team, The Cubs, perhaps more than is healthy. I get excited about spring training. When I am older I will be one of those guys who goes to spring training and plays in fantasy baseball camps. Baseball and soccer are my two main sports loves and then hockey. And there is one man who I cannot help but admire and respect a man who, in this era of steroids in baseball, I feel will go down as the best player of my generation. The best player I have ever seen with my own two eyes. A player I saw play live on more than one occasion. In fact, there was one catch you may remember him making at the Kingdome where he ended up hanging from the wall sort of on all fours and actually broke his wrist. I was at that game. The picture above is the moment right before he hit the wall. I was AT THAT GAME. Oh yeah, he hit a homer earlier in that game. I believe his seventh of the year. But I digress, what I want to say is........Ken Griffey Junior is, and always will be in my opinion, the greatest baseball player of the steroid era. And he did it clean. There has never been even the slightest hint or whisper that Griffey wasn't clean. He is good friends with Barry Bonds because they shared, excuse the pun, the bond of both having basbeall players for fathers and I believe their fathers were friends as well. Despite being linked with Bonds in friendship Griffey has never been linked to him in the steroid scandal. If Griffey isn't clean (And this is a BIG if) I think I might lose all faith in the sport. But as long as there isn't even a tiny shred of a hint that Griffey was dirty I will continue to beat this drum. Ken Griffey Junior is the greatest player of our generation. He is, and might well always be, the greatest play I ever saw. 611 homeruns puts him in 4th on the list of guys who didn't use steroids and how many games did he miss through injury? He missed an average of 36 games per season in his career through injury. That's a total of 720 games. Another close to 3000 at bats that he would have had in his career. In case you are wondering Griffey hits a home run every 15 at bats on average in his career. So if he had been healthy his whole career he would be close to or at 800 home runs. Clean!!!! 800 freaking home runs. And despite all those injuries he is still one of the all time greats. Plus, he was one of the best defensive outfielders of all time making the spectacular seem routine. He could run, throw, make spectacular catches and hit for power and average. When you look up 5 tool baseball player in the dictionary there should be a picture of The Kid. I might be running out of steam on this rant right now.

Oh yeah, Griffey is returning to the Mariners. I am soooooooooooooooo pumped about this. I am going to go to Safeco as soon as possible and as many times as possible to watch this man in the flesh once again. I can't wait. I am giddy right now.