It's sad we forgot about Ken Griffey Jr.

Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens...Steriods, Syringes, PED's, Asterisks, Mitchell Report, cheating...Baseball news for the past couple years.

Maybe we forgot about Ken Griffey Jr. when we was traded to the Reds. Maybe we didn't understand how he wasn't still a Seattle Mariner. Remember Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Joey Cora and Jay Buhner with Griffey? Everyone loved that team. It seemed like every young kid would root for the Mariners. I would root for the Mariners because of Griffey. I bought his jersey and a Mariners pennant. (I don't root for the Mariners anymore)

Griffey was the player I always wanted to be even though I was right handed and he was left handed. When I was growing up and we were playing baseball or wiffle ball we'd always pretend that we were Ken Griffey Jr. at the plate. Similarly whenever we played video games my friends and I would argue over who could be the Mariners so we could have Ken Griffey on our team. The first video game I ever had was Triple Play 99 for the computer. (Classic game that I wish I could play...who wouldn't want to have John Olerud, Rey Ordonez and Butch Husky to play with on the Mets) I always played as the Mariners because I liked Griffey. My friend would say that a kid in his little league would be the next Ken Griffey Jr. (which he was WAY off on) Everyone wanted to be like him.

Ken Griffey hasn't been in the news for the better part of this decade and because of that I think he was the best player to come out of this era in baseball. No one will say Ruth, Gehrig, Robinson, Mays, Aaron, Clemente, McGwire, Sosa, A Roid and Bonds. They won't go in the same sentence. The only player from this generation
who deserves to be mentioned with Ruth, Gehrig, Robinson, Mays, Aaron and Clemente is Ken Griffey Jr. The only one.

He was a terrific talent and it's sad to see that he has been largely forgotten of late. His 630 career homeruns have been overshadowed by other players stupidity. That is sad. One of the only players who I would tell my grand kids about from this era of baseball is Ken Griffey Jr.