Tuesday, June 10, 2008

It's not his fault he's great in this era...

My favorite baseball swing of all time smacked its 600th homerun last night- Ken Griffey Jr. hit another effortless, smooth home run, the way he always has. In an era of (at best) android-aided or (at worst) steroid-aided sluggers, Kenny Grif has simply used his immense amount of talent to put him into elite company.

I remember when his career began...I believe he was 19 when he first played for the Mariners back when I was in 8th grade. I grew up playing baseball, and my playing days were still a few years from being over when Griffey first entered the majors. As a result, I was still very interested in the game; even watching it on TV. Plenty of young people see Griffey as an old guy who has whined his way through injury-prone season atop injury-prone season, but it wasn't always that way.

Sure, it's not that big of a deal to the average jaded sports fan to see another guy hit his 600th home run, but I'm actually very happy to see one of the great athletic talents of our generation reach a pretty impressive milestone...naturally. Unlike some of his counterparts whose literal heads grew and grew as their dependence on substances increased, Griffey's rearend increased in size with age like the rest of us who are growing old...But this old guy can still play the game.

Congrats, Junior.

2 comments:

Tim said...

I didn't know you had a man crush on Griffey Jr.

Nothing wrong with a little bromance. I guess.

boilerdowd said...

I think it's more than just a crush...a crush comes and goes; I've loved him for a long, long time.

One day, you'll find the right athlete to love on as well.

I guess it is kind of a weird post from me; I usually like short guys.

What?