The Kid, What will Ken Griffey Jr.'s Baseball legacy be?

Did he retire today or something? If not, we'll have to wait till that time to make a fair decision. He could go Bonds on us. Ya never know.

 

Ken's legacy though hurt because of the injuries should be solidified because he is the only home run hitter of this era no one questions about steroids. The guy is truly a natural.

 

A guy who was on track to become the best player ever, but because of injuries he never achieved that accolade. He is a certain Hall of Famer though, and has the prettiest swing in baseball.

 

Despite the last few years being injury prone, the guy was the definite #1 player in baseball for about 10 years in a row.

First ballot no brainer. If people don't vote for him to go into the hall, those people don't deserve a vote. You can't be the best player in baseball for an entire decade and not go to the hall of fame.

 

His battle back from Gigantism was inspiring.

 

i hate to say it but i think in my mind it will always be about what could have been. he's been so ridiculously injury-prone over the last years of his career...i hope that isn't the image i'll have when he's gone from the game...but it is the one he's leaving with.

 

I think he could have prevented some injury if he warmed up before stretching or stretched before warming up. I've never been injured.

 

ummm im pretty sure he does extensive stretching and warming up

 

I think he is probably the gold standard for seeing a player move out of a good situation and seeing his career go downhill.

Sure its probably a coincidence, but it it happens alot oin sports. A guy plays really well at one club, moves to another clubs and everything seems to go wrong.

I think he'll go down as a semi dissapointment. I mean, the way he was playing, he was going to be THE guy in Baseball. People would have thought of him as the Gretzky of Baseball.

Now I think he'll be looked as just another good player which is a shame.

That probably sounds like I dont like that guy, but thats fare from the truth. If I had my way he'd have only got better once he joined the Reds.

 

i totally agree but at the same time i think he's a clear first-ballot hall of famer. what he did before he came to the reds is impressive enough. he's been the best in his sport and he's hit the 500 mark with basically no steroid question. he's also got the prettiest swing i've ever seen. of course daryl ward has a nice swing and that really hasn't payed off for him.

 

oh, i agree he'll hit the HOF. no question, there.

but this is the prettiest swing i ever saw:

 

And don't forget that he could have made a huge impact as an African American in the sport, helping to draw more African Americans to the game. Bonds could never have this impact because he does not have the personality like Griffey had. Had Griffey not been injured the effect he would have had on baseball globally would have been huge.

 

Nuff said.

 

And what's your profession?

 

He'll retire with 600+ home runs. He hit over 40 eight times. I say future HOF'er.

 

I live in Sydney Australia and growing up I knew who he was. That tells you the type of impact he could have had if things had stayed on course.

Im not saying he'll be written off as a poor player or anything, I just think he'll now be looked at as just another good player as opposed to being possibly the best player of all time as he was on track to do.

 

I think his legacy will be tarnished somewhat by the forcing the trade to Cincinatti and the resultant years - it's like karma didn't like the way he pulled that off. Years of lax training caught up with him, a lot of half-assing it in the field, slightly surly at times.

Though it has resulted in his early years being overrated.

 

Grant Hill didn't dominate the way Griffey did back in the 90s. Statwise, hypewise, mediawise, potentialwise...Junior had it all.

Like how I feel about Randy Johnson and ARod, Junior should have never left Seattle.

 

I wonder if his career (and also RJ's and ARod's) would have been different if they had stayed in Seattle. I dunno if they would have still gotten Ichiro, but if they did, that would have been a dynasty type team.