He is the greatest Seattle Mariner of all time and saved baseball in that city, the biggest reason that Safeco Field was even built in the Pacific Northwest. And now Ken Griffey Jr. is finally stepping away from baseball, with Junior a lock first-ballot Hall of Famer when he’s eligible five seasons after this one.
Manager Don Wakamatsu told reporters that Griffey was retiring Wednesday afternoon. Griffey was not at Safeco Field and was not expected to attend Wednesday's game. The team will make an official announcement on the field before Seattle takes on Minnesota.
Griffey played for Seattle from 1989-1999 and came back again in 2009. He really never should have left the Mariners for his hometown Reds, which he did following the 1999 season. In his 11 seasons in Seattle before leaving, Junior was easily the best player in baseball and arguably the best center fielder ever. He played less than 120 games just twice in his first stint with Seattle and had six seasons of more than 40 homers and seven years with 100-plus RBIs.
With the Reds, injuries plagued Griffey and likely cost him a chance to be the guy to pass Hank Aaron’s home run record before Barry Bonds did. Junior played 145 games in his first season in Cincy but never played that many again. In one three-season stretch (2002-04), he played just 206 games because of injuries and hit only 41 homers – that was a season’s worth with the Mariners. This season has been a disaster, with Junior hitting .184 with no homers and seven RBIs. He had had only seven at-bats since May 18 and was caught in a bit of criticism when he reportedly was asleep in the clubhouse during a game when he was needed as a pinch-hitter. But steroid rumors, which plagued many of his peers, never surrounded Griffey.
Junior, a 13-time All-Star retires with 630 home runs (fifth all-time), 1,836 RBIs (14th), 2,781 hits, a career OBP of .370 and 10 Gold Gloves. He is first in Mariners history in home runs (417); second in slugging percentage (.553), RBIs (1,216), doubles (341), total bases (3,495), runs (1,113), games (1,685) and at-bats (6,317); and third in hits (1,843). He was the American League Most Valuable Player in 1997.
"Ken is both the finest ballplayer I have ever known and one of the finest people I have ever known," Mariners president Chuck Armstrong said in a statement. "I consider myself unbelievably fortunate to have had the opportunity to watch a first-ballot Hall of Famer's career unfold in front of me, and in front of the great fans in Seattle."
Get all your Mariners odds and props at Bodog Sportsbook
.png?v=1.014689139)
