Griffey Jr. Retires

[toys2cool]

Good bye to the sweetest swing in baseball history , always one of my faves and classiest guys in the MLB, you will be missed JR.
Mariners announce Ken Griffey Jr. retiring - ESPN

[bobbait]

classy player, i liked him alot.

[Zemo]

Great guy and player. To bad he had the injury bug.

[Hector]

Good bye to the sweetest swing in baseball history

That's a bold statement...considering other sweet hitters like Ted Williams and Will Clark played the game as well...just as pretty hitting hitters as Griffey.

[wilbs518]

Great Player.

[bgrimm77]

Jr. did have a sweet swing..... good glove too. what....took him less than a decade to hit 400 homers. in 2000 I think he was the youngest player named to the all century team. Great ball player.

[saildog]

I've come full circle (I remember when his Dad retired).

Here's to Griffey! The 1994 Strike damned near killed all of my love for MLB, but Griffey was good ambassador for the game and in the steroid era, he is one of the few elite players who has stayed true to the game. That means a lot. Had he chosen to go that route, he might have owned all of the records. (He may yet, if they decide to add an asterisk to some of the cheater record holders.)

Oh, how I love and hate MLB.

[BlackKnight]

They say Griffey Sucks here, ... and shoulda done the Move last yr...., I don't watch Baseball, so I am not really affected 1 way or the other.

[SeattleEd]

I beg to differ. I had chance to hang around the Mariners since I was good friends with Dan Wilson. This was before he left Seattle. Nice? Let's just say he walked around like he created the sport. I won't mention what he said about Seattle when he left. Really ****ed off many fans. Not because he bailed but the words he used to describe the club, Seattle and the people.
As Jason stated, he is much hated here by those that witnessed him the first time as a Mariner. Only those that are newbie fans like him.
I say good riddance and about time.

...and classiest guys in the MLB,

[Hector]

They say Griffey Sucks here, ... and shoulda done the Move last yr...., I don't watch Baseball, so I am not really affected 1 way or the other.

I don't care for baseball either...but no need to be a Debbie Downer here...

[kingdom warrior]

Never cared for the guy and he bailed on Seattle. He always seemed arrogant to me. Never understood his move to the Reds where he played hurt most of the time. I Thought at one time he might have been the HR champ but too many injuries stopped that.....also ends his career with no rings.......

[toys2cool]

the move to the Reds was cause that was his Hometown

did he suck? no, he was just getting up there in age and he had been injured a lot before.

He bailed like mostly every other does, that doesn't make him a bad guy... if Wade leaves the Heat now i'd be upset as well but that's the business

Look at A-Rod he bailed on Seattle as well for the richest contract in MLB history, does that make him a bad guy? nope just smart if you ask me

You Seattle guys were pretty darn lucky to have had A-Rod and Jr. on the same team so leave i would'nt complain

[toys2cool]

That's a bold statement...considering other sweet hitters like Ted Williams and Will Clark played the game as well...just as pretty hitting hitters as Griffey.

Not the best swing, but ask anyone who knows a lot about baseball and the majority will say his swing was the smoothest and sweetest swing of all time

it was an effortless swing and he still destroyed the ball

[toys2cool]

Sorry guys I grew up watching him play, so him and A-Rod are in my top 5 of all time

[saildog]

6 of the top 14 Home Run hitters of all-time have an asterisk by their name, but not Griffey (or Jim Thome, the only active player in that range without an asterisk). Above him, without an asterisk, are Mays and Ruth and I never saw them play. I barely remember Aaron (who holds the number 2, or in my opinion, the top spot).

****** or not, the number 5 (or number 4) Home Run hitter of all-time retired today and I feel that deserves a nod. Especially since Griffey, Jr. has never been implicated as a steroid user in an era when steroid use was rampant.
List of top 500 Major League Baseball home run hitters - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia