Ken Griffey Jr - A Very Special Player

Today is a sad day for myself and I believe many others baseball fans. My favorite player has announced today that he is retiring from the game of baseball. Ken Griffey Jr has been my favorite player since he entered the major leagues. The reason he became my favorite player were the simple facts that we share the same first name and that I really liked (still do) his Upper Deck rookie card. Because of those two simple facts, I began to keep track of his career. I would watch all the sports shows to see if there were any mentioned of him or read the sports page of the newspaper just to see how he did in his last game. Little did I know that in 1989that I would be following the career of a Hall of Fame player.

Thinking back on his career, there were so many highlights of Griffey robbing someone of a home run or diving to catch the ball for a out. In my eyes, he was the greatest player I ever seen. In a era of baseball that has been damaged by steroid use, Ken Griffey Jr has to be considered to be one of the few elite players of that era to be free of steroid suspicion. He never showed up to spring training looking like a giant sized GI Joe like Mark McGwire or Alex Rodriguez. He was a natural on the field. On top of all of his records and awards, I believed that is something he would be most proud of. With all of his hard work, He developed one of the most beautiful swings ever. When he would hit the ball, you wouldn't have to watch the ball to see if it was a home run. All you had to do is keep your eye on Griffey as he would follow through on his swing and take those first five steps to tell if it was a home run. It was a beautiful thing to watch.

Griffey to me was one of those special players that we get to experience once in our lifetimes. He just went out there and played the best he could and for being the best, he was on the box of Wheaties and was the first baseball player to have a signature shoe. I was lucky to be able to see him play live a few times and felt like I won the lottery to see him hit a couple of home runs at those games. Those are things I will think of when I hear them talk about him. Ken Griffey Jr will always be my all time favorite baseball player. Now that this era has come to an end its time to look for those rookie cards I have and see how much I can get for them!!!