So Nugget.. is the first time you've had a hero with a declining skill set?Originally Posted by Nugget
Get used to it if that is so, it's a large part of being a sports fan.
So Nugget.. is the first time you've had a hero with a declining skill set?
Get used to it if that is so, it's a large part of being a sports fan.
http://www.kypost.com/content/middle...c-d5dd1e3986c4
Griffey Finds Fun In Chicago
By Larry LaRue
Tacoma News Tribune
CHICAGO -- He was running around the field like a happy kid, hugging former teammates and clowning with new ones -- Ken Griffey Jr. just being himself.
"He looks good in black," Seattle Mariners general manager Lee Pelekoudas said. "But he'd look good in blue or red, too."
At 38, Junior is now a part-time player with the Chicago White Sox, a veteran acquired to help the team drive for a playoff spot down the stretch. From Cincinnati, he has jumped into a pennant race, which has produced something he has missed.
Fun.
"It's fun being in the hunt," Griffey said. "I'd like to win a championship, fulfill that the dream."
Everyone who came within reach seemed to get a hug Monday -- Pelekoudas, Raul Ibanez, Norm Charlton, trainer Rick Griffin, even a few writers. He took the time to catch up, and the opportunity to laugh.
"My little man, (son) Trey, is now 6-foot tall and 155 pounds," Griffey said. "He's into football, plays safety and running back. He plays a little baseball, too."
Griffey beamed.
"He swings just like me," he said.
In the 21/2 weeks he's been in Chicago, he's played center field for the first time in two years, and been the designated hitter. His next home run will be his 609th, which would tie Sammy Sosa for fifth-place all-time.
Since joining the White Sox, Junior has nine hits -- all singles -- in 40 at-bats. He batted seventh for the first time since 1989. With the Reds, he batted .245 with 15 home runs and 53 RBI in 102 games.
Without question, he is nearer the end of his career than the beginning, but Junior can't yet visualize life without baseball.
"I still love playing the game," he said.
Does finishing his career in Seattle, where it began, still appeal to him? Griffey waited a long moment before answering.
"I'll deal with that when the time comes," he said. "Right now, my goal is to help the White Sox win."
Asked about playing the Mariners in a three-game series, he admitted the Seattle uniform conjured up memories.
"The best? Probably getting to play with my dad," said Junior, who sat out Monday night's 13-5 win over Seattle. "And 1995. I had a lot of great teammates who are still friends."
Ken Griffey Sr. will visit his son Tuesday, and will put on the role of coach.
"He's the best coach I've ever had, and the roughest," Griffey said. "He knows my swing, my game, my body. We've got some work to do."
Someone asked if he followed the Mariners' travails this season, reading about them online.
"I don't have to," he said. "I have friends who live out there and they let me know what's going on.
/r/reds
I've finally come to grips with the Reds trading Griffey. It took this long. I still would rather have seen him fade away as a Red than to see him leave. That's just me. I can count the number of Reds players on my hand that I valued as much as Junior, but it hurt to see so many just give him hell over the past three or four years for performance that maybe wasn't up to KGJ standards, but pretty good in anyone's book. With no replacement for his aging bat (and no, 21-year old Jay Bruce isn't the answer right now, but may be in the future), I had hoped he would stick around for awhile in his hometown. Not to be.
It makes me feel so much better that he's having a blast with the dream he wanted in Cincinnati maybe coming true in Chicago. That alone makes me feel better. I'd like nothing better than to see a World Series between Arizona and Chicago with Griffey and Dunn starring for their respective teams. It would be sweet revenge.
I'm not a very nice man.
www.ris-news.com
"You only have to bat a thousand in two things; flying and heart transplants. Everything else you can go 4-for-5."
-Beano Cook
Jr may be having fun playing on a contender but his play is threatening to knock them out of contention.
"This isn’t stats vs scouts - this is stats and scouts working together, building an organization that blends the best of both worlds. This is the blueprint for how a baseball organization should be run. And, whether the baseball men of the 20th century like it or not, this is where baseball is going."---Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner
Griffey as CWS - .209/.271/.209/.480
Yet one of the reasons the Reds now suck more is because he's gone?
I would argue that Junior's recent performance was not up to most RF standards
If he continues at this rate I really wonder if anyone would sign him this off season?
Reds Fan Since 1971
Unless he wins the WS this year (and retires), I think somebody will take a shot on him, it won't go well, and he'll retire after 2009.
Games are won on run differential -- scoring more than your opponent. Runs are runs, scored or prevented they all count the same. Worry about scoring more and allowing fewer, not which positions contribute to which side of the equation or how "consistent" you are at your current level of performance.
Griffey just went yard.
Griffey just belted his first homerun with the White Sox - #609 in his career which ties him with Sammy Sosa for 5th all-time.
One more to go, Jr.
Just to show what a difference a day makes - .239/.313/.304/.617
Not sure how I get the revenge part since the Reds aren't sniffing the playoffs with or without them and neither were ever part of the 2009 go forward strategy. But if it makes ya feel better to yell, rant and rave then go for it.
KGJ certainly has been nothing special for the Sox. Amazing how fast his skillset has declined this season. I can't see him getting more than a $1M/1 year contract offer for 2009 from an AL team assuming he even wants to hang around another season.
A visit with Griffey
By Hal McCoy | Wednesday, August 20, 2008, 02:23 PM
Latest comment
Call me a traitor and call me a turncoat, but I abandoned the Cincinnati Reds today. No trip to Wrigley. No Cubs-Reds game.
Instead of going north today, I went south to U.S. Cellular Field to see the Chicago White Sox.
Actually, I went to see Ken Griffey Jr.
We talked before Wednesday afternoon’s game. At the time, Griffey had nine hits for the White Sox, all singles. I told him, “Hit a home run. I didn’t come here to see any dinky singles.”
After another single in the first inning, Griffey came through. He crashed his first Chicago White Sox home run in the second. It was his 609th, tying Chicago legend (and now outcast) Sammy Sosa for fifth on the all-time list.
After an hour’s visit with Griffey, I watched the White Sox-Seattle Mariners game and thought I was at a Reds game when I saw the Mariners. Dreadful.
In the first inning, the first five White Sox got on base against Seattle knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, including a run-scoring single by Griffey. He has 10 hits with the Sox, all singles until the homer. The White Sox had six runs before Dickey got his second out.
And by the time I finished typing the previous paragraph, it became 8-0 in the second.
Before the game, Seattle’s Ichiro asked for a signed bat from Griffey, who eventually sent over about a half dozen to different Mariners.
Asked how many bats he has given away in his career, Griffey said, “Thousands. More than I’ve broken, that’s for sure.”
Griffey said when Ichiro first came to the U.S. on a tour, “He wanted to see me and he wanted to see Michael Jordan. I took him to a Benihana’s in Cincinnati because it had a Japanese chef who fixed him what he wanted.”
And how’s Griffey?
Content. Happy. Pleased. He is on a first-place team and there is no pressure for him to be Top Gun. He either plays center field, right field or designated hitter and bats sixth. On Wednesday, he originally was to play right field and bat sixth. But Jim Thome was scratched so Griffey was moved to DH and batted fourth.
Not much has changed. He is still a star attraction. The Chicago fans love him. He was interviewed three times in the course of an hour I spent with him.
A couple of noteworthy things he said:
The Reds traded Griffey just minutes before the July 31 non-waivers trade deadline and he said he was not only surprised, he said he told Walt Jocketty on the day he became general manager April 23 that he was available to move on.
“It was an informal meeting, just to say hello and congratulations,” said Griffey. “After I asked him if he was getting hazardous duty pay, I told him, ‘If you have something for me, can get something for me, I won’t hold you up. I know what you’re trying to do here.’
“I knew the situation, being in the last year of my contract, and everybody knew pretty much which way they were going to go,” he said.
Griffey knew the Reds would not pick up the option for 2009 on his contract and said, “If we had started off on fire, it would have been different. But we didn’t and the result is that I’m gone, Adam Dunn is gone and David Ross is gone.”
Griffey believes in what the Reds are doing and even sees possible success.
“The biggest thing is the attitude,” he said. “They’re so worried about just wanting to be competitive. They should be talking about winning. You have to want to win.
“That goes for everybody — front office to the players to the scouts to the fans to management,” he said. “When I came back after hitting my 600th home run, my reception was awesome. That should be for everybody, not just because somebody reached a milestone. The fans should put all their energy into supporting every at-bat. Everybody needs to pull together.”
http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs...incinnatireds/
The revenge part has nothing to do with his declining skillset. My revenge would be in that the Reds surrounded both players with slugs and managers who had no clue on how to either build or manage a contending club.Not sure how I get the revenge part since the Reds aren't sniffing the playoffs with or without them and neither were ever part of the 2009 go forward strategy. But if it makes ya feel better to yell, rant and rave then go for it.
KGJ certainly has been nothing special for the Sox. Amazing how fast his skillset has declined this season. I can't see him getting more than a $1M/1 year contract offer for 2009 from an AL team assuming he even wants to hang around another season.
www.ris-news.com
"You only have to bat a thousand in two things; flying and heart transplants. Everything else you can go 4-for-5."
-Beano Cook
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