Baseball's Last, True American Hero

In light of recent events, Mark McGwire's revelation, I thought about the one player in Major League Baseball who hasn't been linked to anything, Ken Griffey Jr., remember him? You should, he's still playing baseball. Injuries and all. Obviously, his trainer is not in the know. If his trainer was any good, he would have "hooked up" Junior with some steroids. Wow, could you imagine the numbers he would have put up if he juiced? If Junior was on the juice he might have done something ridiculous, like hit 70* home runs in a season. Oh yeah, no big deal, that's already been done. Oddly enough, it's already been done by someone who was on the juice. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, everything that Junior has accomplished is real. All 630 home runs, all 1829 RBI, a .285 batting average, and 10 gold gloves. First ballot Hall of Famer, no doubt. I know, I know, no one is arguing that point. My problem is; no one is mentioning Junior at all......

1998, "the season that saved baseball." Saved it from what? Baseball had a lot of promising stars. Stars that were on the way to accomplishing some major baseball feats. Guys like; Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriquez, Juan Gonzalez, oh boy, now I see what baseball needed to be saved from. Well anyway, McGwire and Sosa's battle royal was amazing. Who knew? We should have. McGwire hit 52 home runs in 1996, 58 in 1997, and then that amazing 70* in 1998. A natural progression, nothing to alarm us, right? Prior to 1996, his highest home run total was 49, way back in 1987. That's a little fishy, especially considering all the ailments he was supposedly playing with. Sosa, not quite as inconspicuous. Prior to his 66* home runs in 1998, he never hit over 40 in a season. Including 1998 and the next 5 years, he never hit under 40. Now that is really fishy....But I, like most of baseball America, was mesmerized. I watched every night to see which one of the two hit a home run. If I wasn't watching, I was talking about it. It was captivating. But anyway, this is all common knowledge, back to Junior.

All George Kenneth Griffey Junior did in 1998; was hit .284, 56 home runs, 146 RBI, steal 20 bases, and win a Gold Glove. For a team that finished with 76 wins and 85 losses. With his 120 runs scored, he accounted for over 30% of the Mariners offense. All that, and not a needle in sight. Junior didn't win the American League MVP, that honor went to Juan Gonzalez. Yes, the same Juan Gonzalez who's trainer was found in possession of HGH and other steroids, while vacationing in Canada. This scenario can be repeated over and over again. From 1993 to 2000, Junior never had a season with less than 40 home runs, hitting 56 twice, both in 1997 and 1998. Oh, by the way, he hit 49 in 1996, 40 in 1994, and 45 in 1993. The only time he didn't reach these numbers, was in 1995, due to injury. 1995, the year his trainer treated him without steroids. What a loser. Junior had to actually re-hab his injury. Thus, never completely recovering, never growing massive biceps, or massive head size, and never again hitting home runs with any consistency. Wait a minute, that's not what happened. Why didn't that happen?

That didn't happen because Junior is a true baseball superstar. He has one of the "sweetest" swings in baseball, then and now. He played the outfield with reckless abandon, diving for balls, bouncing off walls, and gunning out runners on the fly. For most of the 1990's he was the face of baseball. The magical number 500 wasn't a question of if, with Junior, it was a question of when. Some of us even thought that he had a shot at the unreachable 61. Before his injuries, some of us thought he had a shot at the unreachable 70*.

So, after all this "hodge podge" of numbers, what am I trying to say? If you take out all the statistics of all the players who used steroids, hgh, or any banned substance, where does that leave Junior? How many more MVP awards, how many more Home Run titles? We'll never know. We'll never know how truly lucky we were to be able to watch Junior play the game of baseball. This is why, to me, it's not just about who gets in the Hall and who doesn't. To me it's about a true baseball great, like Junior, being over shadowed by guys who chose to cheat, instead of compete........