By Kevin Kelly
Enquirer staff writer
ST. LOUIS - The moment was about family more than history or career validation.
And the significance did not register until Ken Griffey Jr. stepped on second base, looked up into the stands and saw a man wearing a bright blue shirt.
"I started smiling," Griffey said. "I looked up and saw my dad."
The Reds center fielder made Sunday a Father's Day to remember for Ken Griffey Sr. - and all the loved ones who supported him along the way - when he became the 20th major league player to hit 500 career home runs at 2:48 p.m. inside Busch Stadium.
The historic hit came on a 2-2 pitch from Cardinals starter Matt Morris to lead off the sixth inning, and landed in Section 218 beyond the right-field fence.
"I never thought that I would be sitting up here talking about 500," Griffey said following the Reds' 6-0 victory. "My dad hit 152 and that's the person I wanted to be like. He was my hero growing up. He's the one that taught me how to play and is still telling me how to play."
The ball traveled 393 feet and set off a stadium-wide celebration that extended into the following inning.
"I'd much rather give one up to Griffey," Morris said. "He's got 500 of them."
With 45,620 fans on their feet applauding Griffey as he jogged around the bases, Reds left fielder Adam Dunn greeted Griffey first upon completion of the long-awaited trip home.
Griffey had hit No. 499 one week earlier. He is the sixth-youngest to 500.
"All the aches and pains that I had this year were gone for like two minutes while I rounded the bases," he said.
After emerging from a team hug and shaking manager Dave Miley's hand, Griffey jogged over to the far end of the Reds dugout on the third baseline.
Seated in the section next to the dugout were his wife, the couple's three children and his mother and father.
"I think my kids were more excited about me getting it than I was," Griffey said. "Now they get to do their camps and stuff. All the camps they had planned, I ruined all of them."
Sunday marked the completion of a family road trip that began June 7 and had taken them to Oakland, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and St. Louis.
Griffey climbed over a railing and hugged every one of them, then received hugs from Reds relief pitchers who came onto the outfield grass before the start of the bottom of the sixth inning.
"I probably was under more pressure than he was," Griffey Sr. said. "He's still playing and I had to sit and watch."
The 500 mark has long been a threshold for baseball's most prolific sluggers. Every eligible player who has reached the number is immortalized inside the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro are the only other active players with more than 500 home runs.
This season has been a career renaissance for the 34-year-old Griffey, who in 1999 was named to Major League Baseball's All-Century Team and was once considered the favorite to challenge Hank Aaron's all-time mark of 755 career home runs.
The Reds trail first-place St. Louis by three games in the National League Central Division, and Griffey has been a key reason why.
Sunday's home run was his 19th this season. Griffey also leads the Reds, and ranks among the National League leaders, with 54 RBI in 65 games.
"He's a sensational item right now," Reds shortstop and longtime friend Barry Larkin said. "It's good for him because he's been so good for the game."
A rash of injuries in recent years slowed Griffey's charge up the statistical leader board to a labored crawl.
Torn hamstrings. A torn patellar tendon. A dislocated right shoulder. A torn peroneal tendon in his right ankle. Those are just the injuries that landed Griffey on the disabled list.
He missed more than 250 games from 2001-03. Injuries cost him all but 53 games during the 2003 season, when he hit 13 home runs.
"I don't worry about the time that I missed," Griffey said. "When you play hard and get hurt that's one thing. If I had done it doing something else then I could say, 'What if?' But I go out there with one goal and that's to play as hard as I can."
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E-mail kkelly@enquirer.com
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