Thursday, February 10, 2000

Profile of a Cincinnati star

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BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Griffey wore a Moeller uniform the last time he played in Cincinnati. (Jim Callaway photo) | ZOOM |

        Ken Griffey Jr. gives Ken Griffey Sr. credit for his swing, his knowledge of the game, his professional demeanor. Like father, like son.

        Junior always wanted to be like Senior. But he wanted to be different in one way. And that more than anything is why Junior is a member of the Cincinnati Reds today.

        Griffey demanded a trade from the Seattle Mariners essentially to be closer to his family. That goes back to Junior's days as the son of a big leaguer.

        “The only thing I would do different than my dad is to move the family with me if I was traded,” Griffey said in his autobiography, Junior: Griffey on Griffey. “We stayed in Cincinnati those years my dad played in New York and Atlanta. I can understand where my dad was coming from with regard to New York ... But I think if it were anywhere else, we should have gone. Then again, it was kind of fun because every time he'd come home he had something for us.”

        Griffey's children, son Trey and daughter Taryn, are school age now. Trey turned 6 in January; Taryn will be 5 in October. Griffey wanted to play closer to his Orlando, Fla., home.

A youthful Ken Jr., right, and brother Craig with dad in the Reds dugout. (Enquirer file photo) | ZOOM |

        The Reds train in Sarasota, Fla. — the Mariners in Arizona — so Griffey can go home to Orlando during the six weeks of spring training. His parents still live in Cincinnati, so it makes coming to Cincinnati during the season much easier for Junior's family to visit.

The Natural
        Junior's roots were set in Cincinnati when his dad played for the Reds. The Griffeys moved from Donora. Pa., where Ken Jr. was born, to Cincinnati when Junior was a toddler. Kenny and younger brother, Craig, were the stars of Reds Father and Son games shortly thereafter.

        That was the first hint of the future. Robert Redford played The Natural. Ken Griffey Jr., his early coaches say, is The Natural.

        “It came very naturally to him,” said Mike Cameron, his coach at Moeller High School. “A lot of times, kids that have more ability sometimes don't realize how hard it is until the point where they fail. But, to be honest, where has Kenny failed?”

        Nowhere.

        Not as a Knotholer.

        Not as a high schooler.

        Not as a minor leaguer.

        And certainly not as a major leaguer.

        Griffey on Griffey:

        “When I was a kid, I used to mimic the swings of all the Reds players, guys like Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Bobby Tolan,” Griffey said.

        “I was pretty good at it, too. When I was about 9, I put on my baseball uniform and put on a talent show. I did all the swings and afterward everybody sang, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game.' My dad found out about it and he wasn't very happy. He said, "You're not them. You are my son and I want you to swing the way you want to swing. I don't want you to be Pete Rose, Johnny Bench or anyone else ...' And that's true. I tell kids that now. Don't be me. Just be yourself.”

The early years
        Ken and his brother, Craig, made their impact on organized baseball as Class D Knotholers in Mount Airy.

        “They're good for about five runs a game,” said their coach, Duke Hall, at the time. “We count on Craig always gets on base, and Kenny hits one out every game.”

        Junior was also a pitcher then. He started five no-hitters for a 12-0 team.

        Barry Strasser was coaching Knothole ball in West Chester when he heard the Griffeys were building a house in Beckett Ridge.

        “I went out and talked to his father,” Strasser said. “I had heard he was a good player. We had a good team before we got him.”

        Junior was 13 then. Most of the other kids were 14 and had played together for six or seven years. Junior was the best player by far.

        “People are always kidding me, "I guess you taught him everything he knows,'” said Strasser. “I didn't teach him anything. He came with all tools. There wasn't a lot I could teach him. He had it all.”

        Strasser still marvels at a home run Griffey hit to right-center.

        “We were playing in Sharonville. They had outfield fences there,” Strasser said. “We figured it went at least 380 feet, and he was 13 at the time.”

        Griffey only played as a junior and senior at Moeller. He was already a polished player by then.

        “He was just such a superior athlete,” Cameron said. “But he wasn't just a great athlete. He had outstanding baseball skills, too. He could have been a great pitcher.”

        Cameron coached six big leaguers at Moeller, including stars like Barry Larkin and Buddy Bell. None of the six was in Griffey's class.

        “Not even close,” Cameron said. “You knew those guys had a chance to get drafted. With Kenny, you knew he'd make it to the big leagues. There was no question.”

        Griffey went on to have a great career at Moeller.

        Cameron's favorite Griffey moment at the plate came in a game at Lakota — and it was a foul ball.

        “I think it went out fair,” Cameron said. “But he hit it so far and so high that ump couldn't call it. It ended up landing way foul in the parking lot.”

        Griffey hit .478 with 23 RBI as a senior. But that wasn't good enough for him to win The Enquirer player of the year honor alone. He shared it with Rodney Hutson of Western Hills. Hutson didn't know at the time, but he was about to become the answer to a trivia question.

He's No. 1
        Scouts from every major league team in baseball saw Griffey play at Moeller.

        “You could tell from the all the activity of the scouts that he was something special,” Cameron said. “Then all of a sudden, teams that didn't draft in the top four or five quit coming. They knew he wasn't going to be there.

        “A lot of general managers came out to see him. That's unusual.”

        Griffey was a rare five-tool player. He could hit, hit with power, run, throw and field. Scouts rated Griffey as major league average or above in all five categories, and he was four months from his 18th birthday.

        The Mariners had the first pick in June 1987 draft. They nabbed Junior. He signed a then-lavish $180,000 bonus.

The minor years
        Griffey was on his way. The Mariners sent him to Bellingham, Wash., for rookie ball. He hit .313 with 14 homers and 40 RBI in 54 games. The Mariners knew all about his power and bat speed. They were most impressed with his speed and instincts. He stole 13 bases that year.

        Griffey started the next season at Single-A San Bernadino. His numbers — .338, 11 HRs, 40 RBI — were remarkably similar to what he did in rookie ball. He was leading the California League in homers and total bases when he went on the disabled list June 9.

        When he came back, the Mariners bumped him up to Double-A Vermont. He hit .444 in the Eastern League playoffs. He didn't know it at the time, but that would be the last time he would play in the minors.

Big chance; big results
        The Mariners invited Griffey to their spring training camp in 1989. It was the kind of perk a former No. 1 pick often gets. No one expected him to made the team. He was a non-roster invitee.

        Again, that natural ability took over. That and a feeling of confidence from growing up around the game.

        “His dad took him to Yankee Stadium when he was a kid,” Strasser said. “That helped. He was a good ballplayer. But he was never awed by it. Going into a major league clubhouse never fazed him. He didn't think about in same terms as other kids. It wasn't anything new to him.”

        Griffey hit .359 with two homers and 21 RBI in 26 games in spring training. He set Seattle records for hits (33), RBI and hitting streak (15 games).

        The Mariners had no choice but to put him on their 1989 Opening Day roster.

The rookie
        How's this for The Natural: Griffey doubled in his first at-bat, against Oakland's Dave Stewart, one of the dominant pitchers of the time. A week later, in his Seattle Kingdome debut, Griffey hit a home run on the first pitch thrown to him.

        Remember, Griffey had only played 16 games at Double A before his promotion to the major. But he clearly belonged. Said Mike Brumley, a teammate, at the time: “High school cost Junior three years on the (major league) pension program.”

        Griffey was well on his way to the rookie of the year award when he broke the little finger on his right hand. He was leading major league rookies in average (.287), home runs (13) and RBI (45) at the time of his injury.

        His rise to stardom would accelerate the following year, 1990. He hit .300 with 22 home runs and 80 RBI. But he also caught the collective attention of America's baseball fans. They loved his style as much as his stats.

        His exuberance for the game was clear.

        “If it were up to me, I'd play year-round,” Griffey said in his autobiography. “I'd maybe take a month off to play golf, then I'd go right back to playing baseball.”

        Griffey made his first All-Star Game. The fan voting was the first indication of Griffey's growing popularity. He received 2.1 million votes, second to only Jose Canseco, then considered baseball's best player.

        It was just a matter of time before Griffey would take the crown as baseball's best.

        Join the discussion on our Reds forum

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