On Wednesday one of baseball's greats called it quits after 22 seasons. While his glory days came in Seattle, he was somewhat successful in Cincinnati and Chicago. I grew up with Griffey and Sammy Sosa as my favorite players. Lets not forget about the major contributions Griffey has graced the sneaker community with, he has also left his mark in the video game scene with his game Ken Grifffey Jr's Major League Baseball game for the Nintendo 64 and Ken Griffey's Slugfest. He is among the best in almost every offensive category, 5th overall in home runs with 630 in his career and a life time batting average of .284, and 2671 career hits,10 time Gold Glove Winner,1997 American League MVP. Lets be honest here there have been many great ones to play this game but Griffey Jr is close to the best, even with all the injuries he has continuously fought back and continued to play. In my own honest opinion had it not been for the injuries he would be the G.O.A.T.(greatest of all time)Some might remember him as "the kid" while others might remember one of the sweetest swings in baseball, I will remember him for him smile on the field, the famous backwards hat in the Home Run Derby, and his desire to never give up hope . One important part of his career was never being linked to Steroids or any sort of drugs,which in this day and time is rare. He was one one of the best teams ever had they kept that Mariners teams of the 90s together, Griffey, A-Rod, Randy Johnson, and others. Griffeys retirement announcement was kind of random and unexpected Griffey had this to say on his retirement "While I feel I am still able to make a contribution on the field and nobody in the Mariners front office has asked me to retire, I told the Mariners when I met with them prior to the 2009 season and was invited back that I will never allow myself to become a distraction." Its sad to say goodbye to a great player like this but at the age of 40 what else do you expect. Well hats off to Griffey and Thanks for a memorable and CLEAN career.
