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Sports TwitterBruce, eager to learn, leans on Griffey
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
SARASOTA, Fla. — Ken Griffey Jr. was seated on his familiar, black four-wheeled traveling trunk in the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse. He smiled when asked if new manager Dusty Baker asked him to assume leadership and said, "Uh, yeah."
Then he pointed to a far corner of the clubhouse where outfielder Jay Bruce was seated and said, "Jay has asked me a bunch of questions and I'm helping him get on the right track."
Extras
Bruce, 20, acknowledges that he is picking Griffey's brain like a crow picking corn and said, "I hope I'm not annoying him. He is my idol and always has been. It's a little different now because I consider him a friend and pretty soon, hopefully, a teammate."
Bruce asks Griffey everything from the nuances to playing right field to batting against left-handed pitchers to the way to tie his spikes.
"For me, he is the greatest outfielder I've ever seen," Bruce added. "Just a great player and I'm trying to get everything I can from him. He's a great guy and has been nothing but great to me."
Bruce wears a red rubberized bracelet on his wrist to honor a friend, David Murphy, a baseball players at the University of Houston, who is battling leukemia.
"I had a baseball camp to raise money for him and Griffey sent me an autographed jersey," said Bruce. "He didn't have to do that, being who he is."
Griffey isn't just helping Bruce, but any young player.
"Mainly, though, Dusty wants me to do what I've done throughout my career," he said. "Help the young guys. Continue to do what I'm supposed to do on the field."
Of Bruce, Griffey said, "He asks a bunch of questions. How tough was it to learn right field? I told him a lot tougher than people think. I mean, I played center field since I was 14 and then had to learn to read balls differently off the bat, the view angle is different. Wasn't easy.
"It took three-fourths of the year to get comfortable in right," Griffey added. "In center I knew where I was supposed to play. In right, you don't know and you rely on the outfield coach (Billy Hatcher) and he's telling you where to play and you look at him funny and say, 'OK, I'm going to do this, but I don't feel comfortable doing it.' "
Baker hasn't seen Bruce play and saw him Tuesday for the first time, taking batting practice.
"I like his stroke, a real good stroke," said Baker. "Talking to him, he is very confident he can hit without being arrogant about it. You like that in a young hitter. The confidence part is something you can't give them. You don't want to see arrogance because they won't listen if you try to correct something."
Bruce, named Minor League Player of the Year last year by Baseball America and The Sporting News, grinned broadly when told what Baker said.
"I hope he likes me enough so that I can stay in Cincinnati," said Bruce. "But I'm happy to be in my first big-league camp and I'm ready to do what they want."
Contact this reporter at hmccoy@DaytonDailyNews.com.
