Ken Griffey Jr. is retiring? Impossible!
The greatest second-generation player in the history of the Great Game -- but only the second-greatest player born in tiny Donora, Penn. -- has apparently decided to call it quits.
Once considered the inevitable successor to Hank Aaron, The Kid "stalled" at 630 dingers. Anyone ever see him play live? Share your memories, live or otherwise, of Ken Griffey Jr. here on Da Box.
Thanks for 22 wonderful seasons, Junior.
In his prime, one of the ten best five-tool outfielders in the history Major League Baseball. take away the injuries, he'd have been one of the ten best players, period.
The greatest second-generation player in the history of the Great Game.
Josh Roenicke's career isn't over yet.
If you use just raw stats as a measurement, Barry was a better player than Junior. But if you use "helped teams win" as a measurement - factoring in measurements such as temperament - I'm not so sure.
If you could have either player in his prime, I'd probably consider going with Griffey. Any difference in performance between the two would be offset by the effect that Junior would have on his teammates.
With respect, this isn't even remotely close. Bonds was the best player in his league perhaps 10 times, while Griffey was at most 3 times. Make what you will of the steroids, but Bonds was great before Griffey, as great at the same time as Griffey, and phenomenal after Griffey had passed into the merely good, then poor phase of his career. I suppose defense falls in Griffey's favour, but Bonds was a better fielder than he is given credit for, and Griffey a worse one (albeit still good).
Lots of baseball players have been jerks; it doesnt mean that Enos Slaughter was a better player than Ty Cobb though. Furthermore, as nebulous as "helped teams win" is as a concept, its not even true in this case by any objective evaluation. Griffey's teams, in his career, made the playoffs twice and finished about .500 7 times, winning 90 games once. Bond's teams finished above .500 13 times, made the playoffs 7 times and won 90 games 7 times.
Not to take anything away from Jr., but Barry Bonds, warts aside, was a phenomenal and almost unmatched baseball player. And not that one should put too much stock in these things, but he had 90 WAR more in his career than Griffey, which on a per season basis was roughly the difference between Albert Pujols and Marco Scutaro last year.
Griffey was always one of my favourite players growing up. My best memory of him was the first game I ever went to see at the Dome. I was 12 or 13 years old and the Jays were playing the Mariners (obviously). My dad always took us to the games early to watch batting practice and I remember during the Mariner's batting practice, Griffey standing out in centre field and throwing balls straight up towards the (closed) roof. I remember thinking that was the coolest thing ever and wishing I could throw straight up with that much power. In retrospect I'm not entirely sure what practicle use that skill would have, but it was very cool.
As a kid, I collected everything Griffey. My prime baseball card collecting years were 1989->1993 and I"ve got every Griffey card from that time that I could find. Upper Deck was so cool!
Mantle ... had much better strike zone judgment and hit for a better average.
Mike, I was so positive you were wrong on this -- I never saw Mantle, obviously, but had several long looks at Griffey and knew Mickey's reputation for frequent strikeouts -- that I went to the greatness of BaseballReference.com to dig up the stats that would prove you wrong.
Which I think distinctly proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that, well, um, you're right. I will stop writing now ...
In that sense I actually feel bad for Junior, who stayed clean
I have no reason to doubt that this is true, but how do you know for sure?
Cobb, Mays, Speaker, Mantle, DiMaggio were pretty clearly better.
That seems reasonable to me as well, at least in terms of Peak Value, and in my mind Mantle is the clear Number One in terms of Peak Value, followed by Cobb, Mays, and Speaker. But both Mantle and DiMaggio retired fairly young, largely because of chronic injuries - and the war also takes a great big bite out of what should have been the prime of DiMaggio's career. So Griffey certainly has a case to rank ahead of them in terms of Career Value.
I never saw Speaker play, although I have spent much, much effort in imagining the 1912 Red Sox! But I did see the greatest player from Donora PA play.
I wish I could actually remember it...
