Ken Griffey's swing embodies all that is beautiful about baseball. I put it up there with Ozzie's fielding and Marichal's wind-up. I'm still a fan, and I certainly wish his career would have turned out better.
Let's not forget that for almost 10 years straight in the 90s he was the best baseball player on the planet. 600 homeruns is amazing. People talk about what "could have been" had he not gotten injured so much, but still look at his body of work. He's stil, despite injuries, one of the top 10 to 20 players EVER. I guess the biggest disappointment with "could have been" is that he might have been THE greatest ever without all the injuries. Not only was he a monster at the plate with the sweetest swing in baseball history, he was also a monster in the outfield with something like 10 gold gloves.
Edit: 704 (That's what you get when you do math on paper early in the morning!) Using some rough math I did the following. In his 2000 season with Cincinnati, Junior played in 145 games. This actually a pretty low total, but considering he was getting older and such, I think this is a fair number to shoot for to use in calculating his "what if" numbers. So, I took the next 6 season (01-06) when the injuries REALLY took a hold of him and calculated his numbers out. Here's what I got: Using 145 games as his "expected" games played, Junior missed a total of 425 games. His career at bats per game total is 3.7. His career at bats/homerun total is 15. Therefore, projecting out over 425 games, Junior missed a total potential number 1572 at bats which computes to 104 (roughly) homeruns. Ken Griffey Junior should, if not for injury, be sitting at 704 homeruns as of yesterday. But hey, that's why they play the games.
Congrats to a great player! I've always respected him and look forward to Griffey's induction to the Hall of Fame. It's too bad he wasn't the one to break Aaron's home run record because it would have been a great event for baseball.
Yeah but you've got to factor that his AB/HR is going to go up with age. That's not to say that he wouldn't be at or past the record right now, but I don't think he would be that much higher.
Griffey is like the Chris Webber of baseball. One of the best pure talents the league has ever seen they just couldn't overcome the injury problems.
Dang, those are some staggering numbers. I knew that he missed a lot of games.. but 425... dang! nearly 1600 at bats! Thanks for posting this!
Fair point, but that AB/HR statistic is including all of his injury riddled years and his post-prime years. Your point still stands though.
The only problem here is that Griffey's best year was 10.8 AB/HR, not 5.2. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=2148
Woops! I left the 1 off the per at bats number when I jotted it down and totally screwed up my calculations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Could have compared him to someone better, like Ronaldo in soccer or something. Chris Webber wasn't THAT good lol.
LMAO - this has got to be the dumbest post ever? Griffey would never have hit 900+ homeruns so those calculations are way off. Did you factor in Walks/HBP/DNP (for rest)? And like the other poster said Griffey's BEST year was 10.8 AB/HR. IF we go by your homerun calculations Barry Bonds should have over a 1000 homeruns. IF Bonds never got walked 2558 times, HBP 106 times, played another 60 games during the strike season. Add in another 450 games (roughtly 1572 more at bats) not played because of injuries wow how much is that? 1200? Should could've would've... Bonds is still the all-time homerun champ whether anyone hates it or not... Griffey will always be in my book a great player but couldn't overcome injuries and never played in the big one. To the poster who mentioned that he hated Bonds because he healed faster (because of steroids) than Griffey obviously doesn't watch baseball. Did you see how or why Griffey got injured? He didn't have a good workout ethic, ran recklessly into walls, and foolishly around bases, was the main reasons why hes currently at 600.
Yes, the at bats per game total DOES account for his walks, hbps, etc. Those don't register as an official at bat, therefore it accounts for them. That said, I totally botched the homerun per at bat total because I forgot to write down the 1. My mistake. Also, your point about Griffey is dead on. He used to brag about he was such a great natural athlete that he never had to stretch his legs out...
LOL well it looked impressive... run it again an see what the total should have been. Oh and the poster above me (edit: above Justtxyank)... don't be a hater. and Bonds sucks. ( )
Point remains, he would have healed quicker if he was on the juice. I hardly see how that proves that I don't watch baseball...
He was certainly a great player, but he was also probably a little overrated in his prime. There was talk of him being the best player of his generation, but he was never as good as Bonds. Even skinny Bonds. Glad he got to 600, maybe now Cincy will trade him and he can go out on a contender.
He has one of the purest swings the game has ever seen. He has been my favorite player since he came up with Seattle. What is scary is he was not only one of the top 5 hitters in the game during his prime, he was also the top centerfielder during his prime as well. Definately first ballot HOF and one of the best ever!
