Before I begin this post I just want to say I love "the Kid"!! (So this post might sound a bit biased.) He is one of baseball's greats! In this era of steroids I find it extremely interesting that his name is never mentioned in the steroid talks. If he could have stayed healthly we would have been seeing baseball's all-time greatest player leave the game yesterday. I just hope he does not Brett Favre IT and wear out his welcome!
My love affair with baseball was tremendously enhanced on one day in the summer of 1989. (My love affair began in 1986 at the age of ten, with the Red Sox playing for the World Series Championship.) I was in Seattle, Washington at Uncle Steve's & Aunt Beanie's house for the summer. Then one day Uncle Steve asked me if I wanted to see the Mariners play. I don't know what I said, but I responded in the affirmative and we were off to the Kingdome. I was so excited to watch the Mariners I could hardly wait. Then I realized I was going to watch"The Kid" Ken Griffey Jr. play.
It was an amazing experience. Griffey was 19 years old at the time; it was his rookie year in the Majors and I was in awe. The whole baseball world was a buzz about him and the city was nuts. They had billboards of him by the roadside. He was painted on buildings in the downtown area for advertisements. I remembered his plate appearance like it was yesterday. He got ahead in the count so the pitcher keep pitching it out to first to "pick off the runner's attempted steal". Between you and me and the whole entire Kingdom crowd, the runner was going nowhere! The pitcher just keep pitching it out to disrupt Griffey's routine and rhythm and hopefully get him to pop up or ground out.
So once the pitcher thought he was in Griffey's head, Griffey kept stepping out of the box at home plate. (So for those of you who don't know the pitcher has to wait for the batter to be ready.) By continually stepping out of the box I realized Griffey was getting into the pitcher's head by doing the same thing back to the pitcher, throwing off his timing and rhythm. By this time the crowd was booing and yelling. They were sick of the games and they just wanted to see the game. The ump stopped all this dancing from the pitch outs to the in and out of the box dance.
They the next pitch came and Griffey parked it! Dead centerinto center field it was outta here! I was amazed to see this "Kid" do what he did. I then realized this was a great ball player.
Years later at the age of 33, I saw Griffey in Denver, Colorado. (Check my June 21st post.) It was not the same as before. I was excited to see Griffey, but this time as I sat and watched the game I realized how blessed I was to be there with Dad. Just the two of us and the field of dreams in front of us to watch.
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