Wednesday, May 08, 2002
Bowden: Happy days ahead for Griffey
By John Erardi jerardi@enquirer.com
and John Fay jfay@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Fans display a banner in support of Ken Griffey Jr.
(Ernest Coleman photo)
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It's probably no consolation to Ken Griffey Jr., but Reds fans booed Ted Kluszewski out of town in 1957 and rode Joe Nuxhall so hard in 1960 that Reds owner Powel Crosley told his general manager to trade the once-popular pitcher to save his career.
And hard though it may be to imagine in the current climate, Griffey also will change the minds of those fans who have turned against him, Reds general manager Jim Bowden predicted.
“When Junior gets back to playing the way he can play, those same (fans) who are bashing him now will be giving him standing ovations,” Bowden said. “He will finish his career here. We want him to help get us back to the World Series. We want him to break Henry Aaron's and maybe Barry Bonds' home run record here. We've got a short right field in Great American Ball Park for him and Adam Dunn.
“As long as I'm general manager, he won't be traded,” Bowden said.
Bowden mentioned Eric Davis and Dave Parker as two other former Reds greats whom fans also turned against. But on the fan popularity meter, Big Klu and Nuxhall far outranked those two. Yet, they, too, drew the fans' wrath.
As John Murdough, the former longtime Reds vice president points out, nobody is as much a lightning rod for fans' applause or criticism as native sons. Hamilton Joe is a perfect example. The boos were relentless and unmerciful in 1960, Murdough said.
“Powel Crosley was thinking only of Joe's career when he told Bill DeWitt to trade Joe if he could,” Murdough said.
Klu's last season as a Red was also miserable. Reds fans grew unhappy with both his lengthy rehabilitation and reported feuds with Reds management, as the once-beloved first baseman who hit 136 homers from 1953-55 could muster only 127 at-bats (six HR).
An Enquirer cartoon from that year shows a big-headed caricature of Klu swinging a bat as the “Boos” from a human-headed animal labeled “Boo Birds” rain upon him.
“People have expectations for superstars,” explained Tony Grasha, a psychologist at UC. “The superstars are not supposed to be fallible. They are supposed to walk on water.
“When one's ego is on the line, it isn't easy for one to ignore the criticism once one has opened ones ears to it,” Grasha said.
He said it's human nature for fans to seek and attribute fault to something inside the player — for instance, they “lack motivation” or are “lazy” or “don't care” — when, in fact, there's a less simple explanation involving external forces, Grasha said. In Griffey's case, those forces are injury, being restrained by medical advice from coming back sooner, and management not surrounding him with enough pitching to contend over the long haul.
Add in Griffey's known sensitivity — especially given the way some fans have personalized their criticisms to Griffey's family — and presto: The aggrieved superstar is going to defend himself, Grasha said. Grasha called it a “very natural reaction.”
Reds manager Bob Boone alluded to that Tuesday.
“So much of the world thinks we have skins as thick as rhinoceros,” he said. “But Junior is a very sensitive human being.”
That doesn't figure to change.
Brian Goldberg, Griffey's attorney, has counseled his client to “not put too much stock in the vocal minority ... who don't have full knowledge of what's going on.”
Junior's response?
“He always says: "You're right, but it's not always easy to do when it's you they're talking about. It's not always easy to just turn it off,'” Goldberg said.
But Goldberg also didn't spare the verbal rod to the malcontents and those who traffic in their unrest.
“Everybody has an opinion on what's right or wrong, relative to them or other people,” Goldberg said. “It's a sad commentary when so much media time and space is (focused on that) when the Reds are surprisingly in first place and playing well, especially with the excellent (starting) pitching that nobody expected them to have. It's a shame that some people don't know how to just enjoy this success.”
Despite the rough treatment by fans, Griffey has not said he wants out of the city.
“Junior wants to be here,” Bowden said. “He wouldn't have taken 50 percent less than he got on the open market to come here if he didn't.”
Tuesday story: Griffey tired of negative remarks
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Bowden: Happy days ahead for Griffey
