Griffey Retires: End of an era (to me at least).

[53Browns]

I grew up in Cincinnati where his Dad played with the Big Red Machine. I was lucky enough to enjoy seeing him play live many times at Riverfront Stadium when he came back to the Reds. He was on the downside of his career when he came back (injuries), but I did get to see him hit some out of the park. Something to tell the kids about some day.

[tedzan]

Regarding your........

"Was it the change of leagues, or the rash of injuries, that derailed Griffey's career?"

I would say both.

Consider this....besides Frank Robinson, can you name any other BB player that has succeeded in both
Leagues since WWII ?
There have been several pitchers (Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, etc.), but not too many players (if any).


TED Z

[glynparson]

Dave Winfield. There may be others I am just drawing a blank. Of course there's also McGwire but he didn't play all that long in the NL and he was aided in his production.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Any excellent to great player would have done fine in both leagues, had he been in that situation, in my opinion. Griffey's problem was injuries. The best player of the 90s, hands down.

[barrysloate]

Of course a hitter has to deal with many things switching leagues, most prominently a slew of pitchers he has never faced before. Some have succeeded, some haven't. I have no idea of the percentages.

[B O'Brien]

I went to see JR and SR at a card show in Nashville back in the 1990 (ish) when he had the flat top and giant Griffey chain. It was a good day. I had to crack my 1989 Upper Deck factory set to get a card auto'd.
It sure was fun trying to catch like him!

Bob

[martyogelvie]

I saw Griffey Jr play at the old Kingdome in '94....

he was one of a kind.

[FUBAR]

Griffey was one of my favorite players... i remember back in the day, i cracked 4 boxes trying to get his rookie card but never pulled one. I finally bought one a few years back.

I found out later from a guy, who used to work at the card store i bought from, that they knew how the distribution went within the box so you could open one pack, then figure out where the Griffey was. Then they would put extra packs back into the box and re-shrink wrap it. No wonder they didn't stick around long!

[baseball tourist]

Great player and good to talk to as well.

Met him at the 1991 All Star Game in Toronto and was able to chat with him for approx 20 mins. We are almost the same age and looking back on it now, I believe he midly enjoyed the non-baseball, peer to peer nature of the chat (I was clerking in a in-Hotel men's tie and shirt store that Griff ran into to escape from the press for a while.).

As luck would have it, my fiancee and I attended the game last month in Seattle, in which Ken got his last hit - a pinch hit, game winning, bottom of the ninth, rbi single.

He beat my Jays with the hit (wasn't the first time...but will be the last...and that's good, but still a bit sad.).

chris

[Sixtofan]

Consider this....besides Frank Robinson, can you name any other BB player that has succeeded in both
Leagues since WWII ?

I could only think of a few:
Vladimir Guerrero had tremendous success in both leagues
Ted Simmons
Gary Sheffield

[barrysloate]

Dave Winfield was cited earlier.

[sox1903wschamp]

Originally Posted by FUBAR

Griffey was one of my favorite players... i remember back in the day, i cracked 4 boxes trying to get his rookie card but never pulled one. I finally bought one a few years back.

I found out later from a guy, who used to work at the card store i bought from, that they knew how the distribution went within the box so you could open one pack, then figure out where the Griffey was. Then they would put extra packs back into the box and re-shrink wrap it. No wonder they didn't stick around long!

Way too much of this went on during the height of the hobby in the early 90's.

[sgbernard]

From both a collector side and a baseball fan side, I'm a big fan of the Kid. Of course, I was pulling open those '89 UD packs to find his card: all I came up with was a Ricky Jordan RC, which at the time was not so bad. Uh....

But more importantly, in his prime years, Griffey had the most beautiful and fluid swing I have ever seen live, by far. It got a bit more compact in his later years; earlier, it was really the smoothest thing I've ever seen. Poetry in baseball.

[FUBAR]

trust me it still happens today, except now its jerseys and autos they pull out. check out hotpacksecrets.com and it will make you shake your head and be happy you dont collect shinies!!!