Ken Griffey Jr. joins the elite 600 club

Griffey Jr. joins the ELITE 600 club, rocks his 600th HR.

ESPN - Griffey simply breathtaking in his prime - MLB (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=3377636)

Good for him. No one has ever had any reason to think he had "help" along the way...and that probably kept him from going after the all-time record now.

It's a shame to think where he would be right now if it weren't for his injuries. Still, the guy has had a hell of a career.

Injuries and all, this man has quietly played ball at the highest level for going on 20 years. What a milestone 600 HR mighty big company he's aligned with! Without ever even a whisper of Jr. ever being mentioned in all the baseball steroid scandals. No doubt a future HOFer. What an accomplishment.

It's a shame to think where he would be right now if it weren't for his injuries. Still, the guy has had a hell of a career.

No doubt. He was easily robbed of 100 HRs by now. Quite possibly more. He's a 800 HR guy stuck with the worst injury luck in the world. I hope he can gut it out for a few more seasons and put up enough to to get to 650 or maybe 700 but it's not likely I guess.

wonder why more wasn't made of this? all round good guy, with no history of doing anything against the rules. you would think he would be Bud Selig's poster boy for baseball

Great for the oft-injured star. I'm just glad it didn't happen against my Phillies.

That's right, I said "My Phillies". Wanna fight about it?

Injuries and all, this man has quietly played ball at the highest level for going on 20 years. What a milestone 600 HR mighty big company he's aligned with! Without ever even a whisper of Jr. ever being mentioned in all the baseball steroid scandals. No doubt a future HOFer. What an accomplishment.

He was a lock at 30, doubtful at 35 (remember all of (http://www.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20030115&content_id=191516&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=null) the (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03EFD6123BF930A25757C0A9659C8B 63) articles (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/story?id=1586361) trashing him?), but now I think is on pretty sure footing again after the last few seasons.

I've been a big fan of Griffey Jr. since he started with the M's in '89. He was always an exciting player to watch with his incredible speed, fielding abilities, his cannon of an arm and of course his power from that smooth swing of his. He has one of the best looking swings I've ever seen.

Adding in that he's always been a great guy on and off the field is a big bonus too.

I only wish he had stayed healthy. We'd be celebrating his 800th home run and Barry Bonds would not be on top of the HR list. But, even with the injuries he had to battle and overcame, 600 home runs is still a giant accomplishment.


OK, here's the stats nerd in me. Don't say I didn't warn you.

In his full/healthy seasons (played 140+ games), he averaged 39.55 HRs. There were only 11 of those seasons of out his 20 in the majors. If he could have played in those seasons, not even 162 games but just 140+, he would have had 752 HRs coming into this season. He'd he knocking on the door of 760 right now. He hit 30 last season, so about this time next year, he'd be near 800. Sad to think about, but he's still one of the best players of all time and he did it cleanly and with a smile.

He's been healthy for the last 2 seasons, so I expect we'll see him for 2-3 more years. Maybe if he returns to Seattle as a DH, he can play even longer. There were rumors about a month ago about a trade back to the Mariners, but it was just that, a rumor with no real truth to it.





I'm glad I own him on a fantasy team too. He hit my team's only homer last night. :D

eK-MY3nALcQ

Junior Griffey...what could have been. And since Buster broke out the stats, I don't have to...

Great ball player, although I'm still bitter about him robbing the Twins' Lou Collins in that 1 game playoff. Collins really teed off on Randy Johnson...
[/Little Big League reference]