Friday, March 17, 2000
Griffey beats shift with HR
BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Ken Griffey Jr. gave the sellout crowd at Hammond Stadium what they wanted by hitting a first-inning home run Thursday night off Minnesota Twins right-hander LaTroy Hawkins.
Griffey's fourth homer of the spring also demonstrated the best way to beat a defensive shift: hit the ball over everybody.
The Twins weren't employing a shift at the time, because Barry Larkin was on third base. But as one of the handful of teams that have tried this ploy during the exhibition season, they did so when Griffey led off the third inning, stationing three infielders to the right of second base as the shortstop joined the first and second basemen. Griffey, a left-handed batter who pulls most of his hits to the right side, hit a meek comebacker to Hawkins.
Wednesday against Boston, Griffey grounded into a rare 6-5-3 double play — shortstop to third base to first base — as the result of such a shift. The third baseman, pulled toward the middle of the diamond, covered second base.
A veteran of 11 American League seasons, Griffey said that opponents tend to overload their defenses against him only in exhibition play, because they sense that he won't bunt in the spring.
“During the season I'll lay a bunt down,” Griffey said Thursday. “The more pressure you put on the defense, the harder it is (to position against him).”
Griffey pointed out that teams using a shift run the risk of defeating themselves.
“All those (fielders), once they start moving like that, they're out of position,” he said. “They have no idea. It's like putting somebody at shortstop who's a natural second baseman. He's sitting there lost. It's like if you move me to left or right field, for the first couple of times I'm going to feel awkward.”
Griffey recalled that the Colorado Rockies used four outfielders against him in an interleague game last year, sending then-third baseman Vinny Castilla to play deep. Several teams have played St. Louis slugger Mark McGwire with this strategy.
“I thought Vinny was running out there to grab something on the field. He just kept going,” Griffey said. “I started laughing. I made a comment, "I'm not trying to hit it where they're standing.'”
The next day, Griffey belted a pair of home runs.
“Put the whole team out there,” Griffey said in a gleefully challenging tone. “You can stick all 22 or 23 of the other guys out there. If you hit it hard enough or far enough, they can't catch it. They'll do the same thing as the people sitting in the first row. They'll be looking up.”
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