Good Bye Junior
Wally Aka Waleo
I remember growing up watching baseball on WDCA (local TV broadcast station) or HTS (local cable sports stations). Being a Baltimore Orioles fan, my favorite player was Cal Ripken, which I thought was the best player during that time until I saw the Kid. I caught a game with Ken Griffey Jr and the Seattle Mariner played against the O’s on TV and thought to myself that this baseball player had this swagger and grace about him that was unparalleled. For many youngsters, especially kids in the inner cities, Griffey’s image brought coolness to baseball.
In my neighborhood, we didn’t look at it as showing a pitcher up when a batter hit a homerun and pimped to first. I thought Griffiey’s homerun struck to first was the coolest thing. Hell as a kid I would practice my fake Junior homerun walk. Or even seeing him roam centerfield and rob multiple homeruns with leaping grabs. Then he would look back rocking a smile, basically saying I got you. Junior surpassed my admiration for Cal and was now that player that I related to. Griffey, in my opinion, was the last of a dying breed in baseball. A lot of kids wanted to be like the kid. He had a shoe deal with Nike, which I made sure I copped frequently. At the time he was baseball’s poster child. We are talking about a black player getting endorsed hard by Major League Baseball. I know folks now a days are saying “stop playing”. Yep, seriously! Like many people I feel bad for the Kid because we all know if he didn’t get hurt he would have Hank Aaron’s homerun record of 755, or he would already be a World Series Champion. But Junior as one of your all-time favorite fans I believe you have nothing to be ashamed of. Your career to me is still best career in my era!
The kid has 630 homeruns, he’s a 13-time All-Star, 10-time gold glover, 11-time silver slugger, three-time home run derby winner, and he has a MVP trophy. Wow that’s a lot of accomplishments. But most importantly in an era where African Americans played basketball and football, Junior made it cool to play baseball. So to the Kid, rock that hat backwards and ride off to the sunset because to many people you are still the best baseball player that we have ever seen!
I remember growing up watching baseball on WDCA (local TV broadcast station) or HTS (local cable sports stations). Being a Baltimore Orioles fan, my favorite player was Cal Ripken, which I thought was the best player during that time until I saw the Kid. I caught a game with Ken Griffey Jr and the Seattle Mariner played against the O’s on TV and thought to myself that this baseball player had this swagger and grace about him that was unparalleled. For many youngsters, especially kids in the inner cities, Griffey’s image brought coolness to baseball.
In my neighborhood, we didn’t look at it as showing a pitcher up when a batter hit a homerun and pimped to first. I thought Griffiey’s homerun struck to first was the coolest thing. Hell as a kid I would practice my fake Junior homerun walk. Or even seeing him roam centerfield and rob multiple homeruns with leaping grabs. Then he would look back rocking a smile, basically saying I got you. Junior surpassed my admiration for Cal and was now that player that I related to. Griffey, in my opinion, was the last of a dying breed in baseball. A lot of kids wanted to be like the kid. He had a shoe deal with Nike, which I made sure I copped frequently. At the time he was baseball’s poster child. We are talking about a black player getting endorsed hard by Major League Baseball. I know folks now a days are saying “stop playing”. Yep, seriously! Like many people I feel bad for the Kid because we all know if he didn’t get hurt he would have Hank Aaron’s homerun record of 755, or he would already be a World Series Champion. But Junior as one of your all-time favorite fans I believe you have nothing to be ashamed of. Your career to me is still best career in my era!
The kid has 630 homeruns, he’s a 13-time All-Star, 10-time gold glover, 11-time silver slugger, three-time home run derby winner, and he has a MVP trophy. Wow that’s a lot of accomplishments. But most importantly in an era where African Americans played basketball and football, Junior made it cool to play baseball. So to the Kid, rock that hat backwards and ride off to the sunset because to many people you are still the best baseball player that we have ever seen!
AMEN
ReplyDeleteIf not for the injuries would prolly be considered greatest baseball player of all time
ReplyDeleteHands down. He's the best player that I have ever seen.
ReplyDelete