Monday, July 30, 2001
Griffey should keep sounding off
Junior Griffey was in full funk mode Sunday morning. Telling the truth comes with a price, even if you're Junior. Maybe especially if you're Junior. He said his wife won't be coming back to the ballpark anytime soon, not after the mean-spirited junk she heard about him in the stands Saturday night. What a world.
The only thing Griffey did wrong all weekend was back off. Don't back off, Junior. Keep talking. What you said needed saying. These days, a great player not only has the right to wonder publicly about the direction his team is going. He has a responsibility.
No other Red has the juice to pull it off. What is the team going to do? Cut him?
Keep talking, Junior. Keep telling the truth: Without more money for payroll, this is a lower middle class team. Even with a shiny, new taxpayer-funded ballpark. A frog in a mink is still a frog.
Talk on. Because you're right. When the Reds brought Griffey here, it was with the idea they would build a winning team around him. Junior assumed that team would include lots of players of legal drinking age, not a gaggle of teen-agers named Wily Mo. Your mistake, Junior.
Keep talking. Because Cincinnati is a shut-up-and-play town, the local airwaves have burned with indignation. It's funny: When Sean Casey says the Reds would be better off dealing him than Dmitri Young, little is made of it. When Griffey speaks, all hell breaks loose.
It's the same reaction Cincinnati offered when Eric Davis had the gall to say anything but let's play two. I wonder why that is.
Ignore it, Junior. Hold this organization to its implied word: That the new ballpark will open with revived promise, and that promise will include a nucleus of talented veterans.
At the moment, the nucleus is being hawked like beers at an afternoon game. Remember when Pokey Reese was the future?
What you say does matter
Talk on, Junior.
In baseball, when you don't have money — or in the Reds' case, you choose not to spend it — all you do is rebuild the rebuilding. The Reds are doing it already. Right now, they're a half-step ahead of the Montreal Expos. To paraphrase: What Montreal makes, the Yankees take. Teams that trade established major leaguers for Class A pitchers spend most of their seasons hoping to play .500. In baseball language, “prospect” means “hasn't done anything yet.”
Talk on, Junior. Do not let anyone tell you to cool it, or try to convince you things will get better. Because you are dead on. Once an organization gets into its fans' wallets, it owes its fans more than prospects. Its obligation is greater than seasons of Maybe.
The effort to win here is dwarfed by the effort to control costs. Maybe that worked five years ago, when 2003 was a 500-foot homerun away. It doesn't now. Fans put faith in this team, to the tune of $200-plus million. They deserve more than what they're getting now.
“It doesn't matter what I say” was all Griffey managed Sunday morning.
Oh yes, it does. Talk on, Junior. This time, you're absolutely right.
E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/daugherty.
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DAUGHERTY: Griffey should keep sounding off
