Of Griffey's gestures | The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > July > 27 > Entry

Of Griffey’s gestures

By Hal McCoy | Sunday, July 27, 2008, 11:27 AM

As former President George Bush once said, “Read my lips.”

That’s pretty much what Ken Griffey Jr. was mouthing to the radio booth Saturday night after he hit a home run. And for those who can (or those who can’t) read lips, yes, that was an epithet Griffey uttered as he make a cut gesture across his throat at home plate.

It was aimed at radio broadcaster Jeff Brantley.

“Oh, you saw that?” said Griffey. Yes, and so did the television world.

Griffey said he was upset that Brantley said Griffey was pouting because the Reds haven’t picked up his $16 million option for next year.

“If I was worried about money, would I have even come here in the first place?” said Griffey.

Brantley denies ever saying that on the air and, in fact, said he didn’t say it until he and Griffey had an early-morning chat Sunday in the players dining room. Brantley believes Griffey was angry over comments he made about the defense of the corner outfielders (Griffey and Adam Dunn).

Anyway, that’s the genesis of Griffey’s gesture. And do you know how I found out about this?

I was nearly Josh Fogg-ed in the press box Saturday night. With my eyes on my laptop as I wrote, I heard Reds PR man Rob Butcher yell, “Hal, duck.” I dropped my head and covered it with both hands. I felt the ball graze the hairs on the back of my hands.

The ball was fouled by Griffey.

After the game, I said to him, “I thought you were my friend?”

Said Griffey, “That wasn’t meant for you. That was meant to boxes down.”

Griffey didn’t know his foul ball nearly maimed me. He thought I was referring to his gesture toward Brantley.

JAY BRUCE, 0 for 11, took a seat Sunday, replaced by Corey Patterson. Said Bruce to Griffey, “A good, solid, benching.”

“No, no,” said Griffey. “You are getting a day off before you go home to Houston and have to deal with your first game in front of the home folks.”

Griffey was right on.

“Griffey knows,” said manager Dusty Baker. “That’s exactly why. Give him a day before he goes home. “Guys generally perform well near their hometown, but it can wear you down, too.”

Bruce produced a sheet of paper from an e-mail - his ticket requests for the three games in Houston, “65 the first game, 63 the second game, 53 the third game.”

“You know how many tickets I left for my rookie debut in Seattle, my first game?” said Griffey. “Two. One for my mom and one for the seat next to her for her purse.”

Baker also acknowledged that Bruce is on one of his bad-pitch chasing modes, striking out a lot on pitches outside the strike zone.

“He’s chasing that rabbit instead of stalking it,” said Baker. “You never catch a rabbit by chasing it. You have to stalk it.”

WHEN THE media walked into Baker’s office Sunday morning, he was finishing a phone call.

“My sister (Tanya),” said Baker. “She always calls when we’re losing. She calls and says, ‘You OK? I know how you are when you’re losing.’”

Baker then talked about getting only two hits Saturday against lefthander Jorge De La Rosa.

“We went fishing against him,” said Baker. “We went fishing but we weren’t catching anything. He was throwing a lot of bait at us.”

Dunn had one of the two hits off De La Rosa and said, “That guy had a 6.71 ERA. How can that be? I swear he was throwing a change-split-cutter. Really. I was on second base and that’s exactly what it looked like - a change-split-cutter.”

JAVIER VALENTIN walked into the clubhouse Sunday and saw a writer near his locker.

“You waiting for me?” he asked.

“Yeah, you’ve been traded,” the writer said, kidding.

“Where? To The Bahamas?” said Valentin.

Griffey, hearing that, popped up with, “If that’s the case, when you get there you will find me in your suitcase and you’ll have to buy some new clothes.”

Permalink | Comments (120) | Post your comment |