Thanks Junior

On a crazy Wednesday night of sports, one of the best players in baseball retired from the Major Leagues and rides off into the sunset. That man is Ken Griffey Jr.  He is probably one of the best cases in baseball of asking ourselves "what if?" because his career obviously was hindered by all of the injuries throughout the years. 

I am glad that he finished his career with the Seattle Mariners and not the New York Yankees or the Los Angeles Dodgers. He did it the way that everyone envisions their personal hero to end their career, I mean in the perfect world for me, Brett Favre would have retired on March 4th.  The Ken Griffey Jr. everyone has etched in their minds is the guy who made spectacular catches at the Kingdome plus his monster home runs to all fields with his perfect swing.  Other than the Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball game for SNES I played religiously, my childhood memories bring me back to his backwards hat.

It might sound funny to you, but as a kid, I always remember him in the backwards hat and found it to be the coolest thing (same goes for Deion Sanders and his bandannas). I thought that Griffey obviously was cooler than the other guys who wore their hats the right way and why couldn't he wear like that the whole the game. If you were a kid growing up in the mid to late 90s you wanted to be Griffey Jr.

Granted, a few impact players of the 90s are still playing but most of the guys I grew up and whose baseball cards I have are long gone from the game.  Griffey Jr. was one of the remaining hold outs from that group and I believe he will remembered highly as the years go on because when people look back at the steroid era, they will look for the best player who did the right way... Ken Griffey Jr.

-Charlie.

Backwards Hat Back in Seattle

It seems like all is well again. Ken Griffey Jr. is back in Seattle.

Griffey made his career in Seattle where he was the biggest kid on the field in the Kingdome. He was hitting home runs to the left, center, right field just watching it go by with his classic swagger. Griffey had a perfect swing, no PEDs involved there when you saw Griffey hit a home run or just a double to deep center.

In addition, watching Griffey play defense in Seattle was something else. He would make all sorts of catches that you didnt think were possible. I remember being an AL Brewer fan where a ball would be hit to center and think it was hit until Griffey found a way to run it down.

When all of us watched him in Seattle; we believed that he would surpass Hank Aaron as the all-time home run winner.. until he came back home to Cincinnati where he would just dominate heading into the prime of his career. That didnt happen because he has a slew of injuries and many people didnt think he had it anymore.

Now he is back with Seattle where it all began. No city in America deserved this more than the city of Seattle. They got screwed by losing their NBA team to Oklahoma City, their promising NFL team folded like Sergio Garcia on a back nine of a major on Sunday, and the worst MLB team. They need something to lift their spirits and trust me Junior could do it. No doubt, Junior is on the "Mount Rushmore" of Seattle sports stars and if I were a Mariner fan, I hope be buying so many tickets to see Junior for just one more time.

I hope he hits anywhere from 20-30 home runs and keeps the Mariners at least at a decent standpoint. With having Jack Z from the Brewers and now Junior, the Mariners are definitely team I hope for much success this year.

-Charlie.