Back then, Sam would try to ruffle my feathers, and claim that his McGwire photo would be thousands of dollars, and that he definitely got the better of the two gifts.
And in 1999, he was right.
McGwire was belting home runs 500 feet, and looked like Paul Bunyan, with muscles on top of muscles bulging out of his skin-tight uniform.
When McGwire broke the single season home run record, Sammy was happier than a pig in slop. (This at the time was a pretty accurate statement of Sammy’s life by the way)
It seemed like Sam’s words were going to come true, and that his McGwire photo would end up being the more enviable and valuable item.
That was until we found out about steroids and PED's and what players were using them.
Eventually we figured out why McGwire suddenly looked like a WWF wrestler and was hitting moon rockets out of ball parks.
He was on the juice.
McGwire was accused of doing steroids and never denied the accusations, only claiming he didn’t want to talk about the past.
It’s fitting in a poetic sense that after moving two or three times, Sammy ended up losing his McGwire photo, while the Griffey photo has stayed with me through the years, and is located in my game room right now.
McGwire has been gone from baseball and the public eye since 2003, and we haven’t seen or heard from him since, except for one Congressional session when he was called to the stand, to testify about steroids.
Griffey on the other hand is still playing, and winding down what will be a first ballot Hall of Fame career.
Griffey came into the big leagues in 1989, and captivated fellow players and fans with his superb defensive skills in centerfield, as well as with in my opinion, the sweetest stroke in Major League history.
You couldn’t watch a summer SportsCenter top 10 in the 1990’s without a Griffey highlight in there at least once a week. This is a guy who had it all; speed, power, vision, grace and swagger, all mixed into one.
Spanning from 1989 to 1999, Griffey racked up 1,752 hits, 398 home runs, 1,152 RBIs, and 167 stolen bases. He led the American League in home runs four seasons (1994, 1997, 1998, and 1999), was voted the A.L. MVP in 1997, maintaining a .297 batting average throughout the decade.
He had crazy range in the outfield, tons of Web-Gem caliber diving catches, and he often dazzled fans with over-the-shoulder basket catches, Willie Mays style.
Thinking back to those days, I can still remember him robbing opposing hitters of home runs by leaping up over the wall and pulling them back, almost making it look easy. To this the day, there hasn’t been another player who robbed homer’s as often and as effortlessly as Jr. did. (Torri Hunter came close, but he didn’t do it as long Griffey did)
Griffey won 10 Gold Gloves, seven Silver Slugger awards, was the Home Run Derby champ three times and got one MVP award in the 1990’s. (Although looking back at the list of other MVP winners from 1994 and on, is like looking at a who’s who of steroid users)
Man, I would not have traded a Griffey baseball card for anything during the 5th grade. It seemed like he was a mortal lock to go down as the best player to ever play the game.
He was the coolest thing around, not just in baseball, but in all of sports.
The Kid had his own Nike shoes, which were always looking snazzy. He had his own Video Game, Ken Griffey Jr’s Winning Run for Super Nintendo and later Ken Griffey Baseball for Nintendo 64, both solid games that both me, my brother, and all our friends would play non-stop.
He was in a Simpson’s episode, the one where Mr. Burns “employed” Major League players at his Nuclear Power Plant, so they essentially could be ringers in a softball game. In the episode, Griffey overdoses on a nerve tonic given to him by Mr. Burns, causing him to have gigantic head.
He was the bad guy in the 1994 movie Little Big League. Well, he wasn’t really a bad guy, and he was only on screen for like 5 total minutes, but his scenes are what I can still remember of that movie.
And then the injuries came.
It started with the broken ankle while leaping into the outfield wall to rob a home run, and continued with other horrible leg (mostly hamstring) injuries.
Griffey had season-ending injuries in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Worse yet for Griffey, the cumulative effects of the injuries lowered his bat speed, resulting in less power and fewer home runs.
He missed 260 out of 486 games from 2002 through 2004, diminishing both his skills and his star reputation. Consequently, Griffey was no longer the ubiquitous presence he once was on cereal boxes, television commercials, and the All-Star Game.
Couple all these factors, with the rise of steroid use, giving players like McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds unheard of Home Run totals, and Griffey started to fade away from the forefront.
But the 2005 season saw the resurgence of a healthy Griffey. The picture perfect swing, which depends heavily on excellent lower body strength, returned to its original form.
His 35 home runs in 2005 were his highest since his first year with the Reds in 2001 as Griffey moved up the career home run list.
He would go on to have two more solid seasons in 2006 and 2007, but the Griffey that I grew up with and knew was long gone. There were no more Nike commercials, or video games or movie appearances. In his place was an aging outfielder with bad legs and a slower swing, and three kids of his own.
Yet, the memories of Ken Griffey Jr. circa 1990’s are still with me to this day, and once he retires, his numbers are going to look very impressive, considering most of his contemporaries from his days were on steroids.
I believe he will continue to gain more acknowledgements for his part in Baseball history as time wears on.
One came in August of 2007, when Griffey was selected as an all-time Gold Glove winner, a list of nine players considered the greatest defensive players in the last fifty years.
And for Sammy, he learns two more things; don’t count your chickens until they hatch and the most important one, the older Brother always wins.
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