Originally Posted by the 'stache
The more I think about it, the more I think Ken Griffey Jr is being vastly underrated. By age 30, he was a career .299 hitter with 1,063 runs, 398 home runs, 1,152 RBI, and a .948 OPS. He also had been named to ten All Star Games, and had won ten Gold Glove Awards.
I would say Bonds was the best player in the NL, and Griffey Jr was the best in the AL. But how we are overlooking Griffey Jr perplexes me. He played the game all out, and I've never heard a single whisper about him and steroids. His body broke down after age 30 because he was always flying into the wall, or diving to make catches. That baseball historians are wondering "what might have been" if Griffey hadn't seen his career derailed by injury...while he still amassed 2,781 hits, 1,662 runs, 524 doubles, 630 home runs, 1,836 RBI, and a .370/.538/.908 slash line...really attests to what a spectacular player he was.
I'll tell you one thing. I don't know if there's ever been a player I enjoyed watching more than the Kid. I never saw DiMaggio play, obviously, but from what I've read about him, and have seen in documentaries, everything he did looked effortless. That's the impression I got with Griffey Jr. He had one of the most beautiful swings I've ever seen. He would just whip that bat around, and the ball would fly into the upper deck. Then, he'd go out, and jump up over the wall in center, and rob somebody of a home run.
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