In honor of Ken Griffey Jr’s induction into the Seattle Mariner Hall of Fame a few weeks ago, the 9 Inning Crew has each written up a post talking about how Griffey impacted them as a fan. He was The Kid and in many people’s eyes, the savior of baseball in Seattle.
By Josh:
There is no hiding the fact that I was born to be a baseball fan. It’s in my blood. The real question was how fanatical of a fan I would become. Would I just be the casual fan who understood the game but would watch only if there wasn’t anything else to do, or would I become what I am today, where I’ve taken my 16 month old daughter to about a hundred different baseball games in her life already?
Looking back on my life there are some key moments that changed me as a baseball fan. Going to countless tournaments with my dad for his softball, learning how to keep score at a young age and playing little league as soon as I was old enough all impacted me as a fan. However, I know that some of the greatest moments in my baseball fan life came because of one person; Ken Griffey Jr.
I was at the game where Griffey hit an inside the park home run off of Roberto Kelly’s head. I got to talk with both Griffey Jr and Griffey Sr. the season that they played in the same outfield together in Seattle. I was in the Kingdome when Griffey and Edgar went back to back twice in the same game. These are just the moments I remember seeing in person.
When you add in all of the amazing moments I watched live on television, like the winning run against the Yankees in the 1995 playoffs and the eight straight games with a home run, it is not wonder why I know a large part of my baseball fanatic fandom is rooted in my love for watching Ken Griffey Jr. play the game.
Griffey played the game in a way that made me smile each time he smiled. He loved the game and always approached the game in the right way. Having fun was always important to Griffey. To many players act like baseball is life and death, but not Griffey. He understood that this was a game that grown men play and get paid for. Every moment on the field was a gift and he played with amazing love for the game.
I once got the opportunity to meet Ken Griffey Jr. and talk with him for about a half an hour. I was truly just a kid, not even a teenager, and Griffey was still in many ways a kid, not just in nickname. He had every right to just walk by me and go into the stadium but he stopped and talked with me. We talked baseball, soccer, food and a ton of other things while my dad and Ken Griffey Sr. talked. This moment is still something that my dad and I talk about.
I’m a fan of baseball because I love the game and was raised to appreciate the game by my dad. I’m a fanatic of the game because of players like Ken Griffey Jr.