Griffey joins the 600 club

Congratulations are in order for Ken Griffey Jr. today after he became the sixth player in Major League Baseball history to hit 600 career home runs with his blast off Florida's Mark Hendrickson last night.
Junior's first-inning homer to right field added another milestone to what has been a legendary career, one that has had some of the shine taken off of it thanks to his turbulent time in Cincinnati. It's easy to forget just how great this guy was during the 1990s after watching this diminished version of Griffey struggle through his late 30s, his career derailed by injuries and hurt feelings.
It was Griffey, not Barry Bonds, who was supposed to challenge Hank Aaron's title as baseball's Home Run King. The Kid was voted baseball's Player of the Decade in the 1990s despite Bonds winning all of those MVP awards in Pittsburgh. Griffey's combination of speed, power and grace in the outfield made him the game's marquee player and his highlight reel full of spectacular catches still plays when his career is being discussed.
Griffey bashed 398 homers playing in Seattle, but that seems like a lifetime ago. His 2000 move to the Reds sparked off a series of injuries that ended his 2002, 2003 and 2004 seasons. Griffey's legs betrayed him, his hamstrings exploding and his knees falling apart to rob him of his outfield gifts. My buddy Urs and I have him in the starting outfield of our all-DL team (coming soon in a future post), not a squad that you want to be named to, and Griffey's name was one of the first that we wrote down. It took about 10 seconds to place him in center field. Griffey gained weight during the inactivity and his swing changed because he was so often playing in pain, killing his production at the plate.
Griffey's confidence took a hit because of this and Cincinnati fans let him know that they weren't all that thrilled about paying their best player nine figures to sit on the bench or receive treatment in the training room. They booed Griffey, a hometown kid playing in a place where his father, Ken Sr., was a legend on multiple World Series winners. Griffey's feelings were hurt and he became a sort of tragic figure, unable to understand that every fan base anywhere looks at winning as the bottom line. Griffey became a symbol for Cincinnati's failure because he was the club's franchise player, not because they didn't love him anymore. Mike Schmidt was booed constantly in Philadelphia. Ted Williams was booed in Boston. They're two of the game's greats. Griffey had been rendered too insecure by his declining performance to stand up to his critics.
But Griffey will always hold a better place than Bonds in baseball history regardless of what the numbers say. Griffey has aged and declined, a sign that he's been a clean player, while Bonds started hitting home runs by the handful while aging into his late 30s. He's under federal indictment and will face a perjury trial in 2009, a disgraced clubhouse cancer who sits by his phone in California waiting for a call that will never come from some unsuspecting team. Griffey soldiers on, a shadow of what he once was, but a man with one more distinguished item to place on his resume for Cooperstown. He could have started making those reservations years ago. His plaque will have to be that much bigger after last night.