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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > June > 09
Monday, June 9, 2008
The joys of 600 home runs
NOTE: For a column I did on Griffey and his legacy, see the post UNDER and BEFORE this one. Hope you enjoy it.
Love him or hate him — and there seems to be no in-between on Ken Griffey Jr. — hitting 600 home runs in a career is an accomplishment for which they should add a wing in Cooperstown.
As is nearly always the case, Griffey accomplished a milestone while wearing road gray and said, “I think the only milestone homer I hit at home was my 100th.”
No. 600 came Monday night in nearly empty Dolphin Stadium, in the first inning against Florida Marlins left-hander Mark Hendrickson. If he had waited one day, just one more day, he could have done it on Joe Nuxhall Night Tuesday in Great American Ball Park.
Or he could have done it on Friday the 13th. Or he could have done it on Father’s Day.
“You can’t control when you hit home runs,” he said. “Wish I could.”
Asked about home runs he’ll remember besides the 600th, he said, “Only two. My first one and the one I hit with my dad, the only father-son to go back-to-back.”
And besides joining five baseball immortals in The 600 Club (Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Sammy Sosa) here are some other Griffey home run noteworthies:
Three were inside the park.
Fifteen were grand slams.
Five were pinch-hit.
Eight came off David Wells, the most off any pitcher.
38 were hit against Minnesota, the most against any team.
Asked about being in the same residence with guys like Mays and Aaron, Griffey said, “Willie Mays called me about 10 days ago and Hank Aaron called me the next day. The told me to relax, keep going and have fun. That helped calm me down and settled my nerves.”
What, Barry Bonds didn’t call? Good.
Well, Griffey isn’t sure. A few minutes after the game ended, a 9-4 win, Griffey check his cell phone: “72 text messages and 18 phone calls. I don’t think I have that many friends.”
Asked who he would call first, he said, “My mother (Birdie), of course.”
Ken Griffey Sr., Griffey’s wife, Melissa, and Griffey’s three kids were in the stands, and when he crossed home plate he pointed to his family in the stands.
His 12-year-old son, Trey, was dressed in a Reds uniform and was in the dugout and was one of the first to congratulate dear ol’ dad. “I caught him staring at me later and I said, ‘What?’ ” said Griffey. “He said, ‘You hit 600 homers!’ “
“It meant a lot to have Trey in the dugout and for him to be one of the first to greet me,” said Griffey. “I’m more excited about what he does than what I do.”
Griffey said the trip around the bases was quick: “I floated and don’t remember touching the bases.”
The 16,003 fans gave him a standing ovation and demanded a curtain call, which he eventually did, “But it took me longer because I wanted to accept the congratulations and the handshakes of all my teammates first.”
Manager Dusty Baker said Griffey called his shot — hey, if Babe Ruth can do it, why not Griffey? “He told me Sunday he was going to do it and I assumed he meant Monday. When he hit it, the first thing he said to me was, ‘I’m a man of my word. I keep my word.’ “
Griffey was asked if ever thought he could hit 600 homers and, of course, said, “No.”
Why not?
“My father hit 152 career home runs and I thought I would be just like him — a No. 2 hitter, move the runner over. I never thought I’d hit 200 or 300 and especially not 600. I’m just a line-drive hitter and some of my line drives go further than others,” he said.
Baker said he hopes Griffey receives a hero’s welcome in Great American Ball Park, “That they show him the love and respect he deserves. What he has done is quite a feat, quite an accomplishment.”
Asked how he planned to celebrate, Griffey smiled and said, “First I have about a two-hour plane ride back to Cincinnati that’ll get us in about 3 a.m. Then I sleep. Maybe I’ll do a little celebrating at lunch.”
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TweetGriffey: Call him Mr. 600
He not only did it his his way, he did it the right way.
When home run No. 600 splashed down among a splattering of fans in the orange seats inside the right-field foul pole of Dolphin Stadium at 7:22 Monday night, Ken Griffey Jr. etched his name in history and he did it with a clean pen.
Griffey’s name never has appeared on a police blotter — not even for spitting on a sidewalk or jaywalking, has never been listed among those who cheated to gain an unfair advantage, has never been listed on any delinquent tax lists or bankruptcy lists for flushing his money away on drugs.
As his current manager, Dusty Baker says, “There is no cloud of suspicion over his head. Should he be held in higher esteem than he is? Yes. And I’m sure he will be down the road.”
He has played in more pain than any player should have to endure and he did it without complaint or excuse. He has rebuilt knees and brackets and pins and plates embedded in every nook and cranny of his body. Three screws in his tailbone keeps his hamstring attached to the bone, six screws hold his shoulders in place, “And I used to have five screws in my elbow.”
Baker didn’t know all that until recently, when he saw Griffey and his battered body in the training room.
“I’m surprised he can go through the airport metal detectors without setting something off. He must really love the game, because he doesn’t need the money,” said Baker. “He has gone through a lot of pain and suffering. I have to damn near drag him out of the lineup.”
Injuries between 2000 and 2005 cost him nearly 450 games games since he arrived in Cincinnati or Monday’s home run might have been No. 700.
He has never complained, “Because I don’t deal in ‘what-ifs,’ ” he said.
His name is found only near the top of most offensive baseball statistics and on any list of Best Father-Husband. He has given his time and his financial resources to help the less fortunate, without standing in front of TV cameras pounding his chest. He prefers anonymity.
He has been ejected only three times, “All for balls and strikes,” and he has never been suspended, “Because when there is a fight I’m too busy laughing.”
And now he is among six players who have hit 600 home runs, one of only four without a sniff of talk about steroids or human growth hormone. That stigma is attached to Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, but not Griffey, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron or Willie Mays.
Through it all, Griffey has not changed.
“I knew him when he was a little kid,” said Baker. “He’s the same guy I knew as a kid, except for a lot more scars and like most of us he has gained some weight.”
It is difficult to coax Griffey into talking about himself, especially his accomplishments.
Asked if he knew how close he was to Sammy Sosa, Griffey thought for a moment and said, “Uh, 609. And I only know that because they keep flashing it up on the scoreboard. I just want to be the same guy, day in and day out, a guy trying to get this team on track and get some wins.”
The sincerity is legitimate.
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TweetGriffey hits No. 600
And now it’s 600.
At 7:22, on a hot Florida night, Ken Griffey Jr. joined the ‘600’ Club, bashing a 3-and-1 pitch from Florida left-hander Mark Hendrickson into the right field seats - a no-doubt 413-footer.
Griffey joins an Elite Five with 600 or more home runs - Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sammy Sosa.
The Marlins picked their own poison on this one.
On Sunday, with first base open and one out and a runner on second in the first inning, the Marlins walked Griffey intentionally. On Monday, same situation - one out, runner on second, first inning, they decided to pitch to him.
With a quick flick of his ebony bat, the long wait was over and a very small turnout in Dolphin Stadium to witness history gave him a standing ovation and demanded a curtain call, which he gave them.
Griffey had gone 24 plate appearances (17 at-bats, 7 walks) since he hit No. 599 against Atlanta on May 31 in Great American Ball Park.
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TweetOf 600 - and much, much more
Sights & Sounds while awaiting 600 - and I don’t mean Alfred Lord Tennyson’s famous line in The Charge of the Light Brigade, “Into the Valley of Death rode the 600.”
A GOOD LINE from USA Today baseball writer Mel Antonen as he sat in the Florida pressbox awaiting Ken Griffey Jr.’s 600th home run: “I never saw a team below .500 with so many stories - Griffey, Jay Bruce, Edinson Volquez, Dusty Baker …”
THE ONLY COMMENT in the press box Sunday (not from me) when Corey Patterson broke a 0-for-24 slide-to-oblivion in the ninth inning was: “Yeah, it comes with the Reds behind, 9-1.”
Well, it was one of only three hits by the Reds. One of the other two was by pitcher Aaron Harang, which drove in the only run the Reds had until Patterson’s home run. Harang needs the late attorney Johnnie Cochran to file suit against the Reds for non-support: “If the team doesn’t score, I ain’t pitching no more.”
HOW MANY TIMES will we hear and read this in the future: “Yonder Alonso hit one yonder over the fence?”
That was in the Miami Herald Monday after the Reds’ No. 1 draft pick hit a two-run home run in the first inning for the Miami Hurricanes to help beat Arizona and send the ‘Canes to the College World Series in Omaha.
JAY BRUCE NOTICED that Griffey had ‘JR’ embroidered in small letters on the cuffs of his white dress shirt and asked, “What’s that for, in case you forget who you are?”
Said Griffey, “You forget I’m only a few years away from my Golden Buckeye card.” Bruce, a Texan, said he didn’t know what that was, but figured it out quickly and said, “Is that like an AARP card?”
PITCHERS ARE avoiding Griffey’s strike zone with obvious malice aforethought, as in, “It won’t be me giving up 600.”
Asked about his seven walks in his last 20 plate appearances, Griffey said, “One of those things. I’ll just wait it out.”
SPEAKING OF waiting it out, while Griffey waited on deck to bat early in Sunday’s game, a mother and three sons asked for his autograph from the stands, knowing not that players are not permitted to sign during games.
When Griffey refused, the mother and sons aimed some not-so-nice comments his way. Griffey spoke back, not in a complimentary way, but later in the game handed three signed balls to the kids.
“I WAS NOT too subtle when they first asked,” he said. “I said, ‘Do you see any other bleeping players signing bleeping autographs?’ ” He was sheepish about it and gave the kids the signed balls.
AMAZINGLY, GRIFFEY was intentionally walked in the first inning Sunday when the score was 0-0 with a runner on second base and no outs. Has he ever been intentionally walked in the first inning?
“Yeah. Not often, but I have,” he said. “I’ll admit it did shock me Sunday. I waited to get ready to hit and looked back at the catcher and he was standing with his arm out for intentional walk and I said, ‘Uh, well, OK.’ “
DAVID SAMSON, Florida Marlins president, stopped in the clubhouse to chat with Griffey. About 600?
“No, he stopped to give me a hard time about my wine-tasting party,” said Griffey. “He used to be in Seattle when I was there.”
On Father’s Day, after a game at Great American Ball Park, Griffey will host a post-game wine-tasting for the media to introduce his label, Junior’s Cabernet. Proceeds from wine sales go to Ken Griffey Jr.’s Family Foundation.
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