The sweet swing. The backwards cap. The video games. All synonymous with one of the most memorable Major League Baseball figures to ever play on a diamond: Ken Griffey Jr.
No player was more admired or considered cooler than ‘The Kid’ during the 1990s when he wore a Seattle Mariners uniform.
He came into the sport as a young phenom and not only lived up to the lofty expectations, but blew them away as he cemented his legacy as one of the greatest baseball players of all-time. Griffey was a prolific two-way force, knocking 630 home runs – ranking sixth-most in MLB history – while earning 10 Gold Glove Awards for his patrolling of centre field.
His perpetuity for the long-ball fit perfectly in an era in which home runs were more common than ever. Now, whether it’s the decline of slugging or other factors, there’s a narrative that the sport is losing popularity, especially among the younger generations.
“It could be better,” Griffey said while playing for Team USA at the recent Icons Cup in Dubai. “I think we’re losing kids because the commercials and stuff. The NFL does a great job marketing for kids. The NBA does the same thing. Baseball, we need to get younger and hipper to get kids to want to go out and play baseball and drive those parents into letting them play baseball.
Watch Ken Griffey Jr. make one of the most amazing (and painful) catches of his career: http://t.co/F7wdLyic4y pic.twitter.com/VW6vPJj7O8
— Cut4 (@Cut4) May 26, 2015
“I think with basketball, you have the ‘FANtastic’ (commercials) back in the 80s and in the NFL with the blooper reels and they’ve shown a lighter side of football even though it is a collision sport.
“Baseball doesn’t really show that. The last time we had a show like that was ‘This Week in Baseball’. I remember that people couldn’t wait for it to come on Saturdays and listen to this and that. We just don’t have that type of enthusiasm.
“The dads who love baseball are definitely going to teach their kids about baseball, but you need to give these younger dads who aren’t into baseball to get them interested in baseball so they’ll take their kids to games.”
One argument for the perceived drop-off in interest is the length of games. Unlike basketball or football, baseball has no quarters or periods which end after a certain amount of time.
Ken Griffey Jr. will represent the club at the 2015 MLB June Draft. Griffey was the number one overall selection in the 1987 June Draft .
— MarinersPR (@MarinersPR) May 26, 2015
The average length of MLB games in 1981 was two hours, 33 minutes. For the entire 2014 season, that number was 3:02. There’s no doubt the league has identified pace to be a concern, implementing rules for this season to quicken contests and through the first 79 nine-inning games of the year, the average length was shortened to 2:54.
“Everyone tries to compare baseball to a movie, but you can’t,” Griffey said. “If someone gets hurt on the football field, they don’t move them to the sideline and say there’s a time limit. Baseball doesn’t have a time limit and that’s part of the beauty of it. We have 27 outs. Baseball is a game where there’s a whole lot of thinking and a whole lot of making moves and countering, and things that make it fun.”
A major storyline in MLB this season has featured Griffey’s former team-mate, Alex Rodriguez. The superstar-turned-villain is one of the most hated athletes not just in baseball, but all of sport, for his admitted use of performance-enhancing drugs during the prime of his career.
Rodriguez has drawn the ire of baseball fans, but his own team, the New York Yankees, would wish he would just go away and take his substantial contract with him.
“It’s unfortunate. You don’t wish that on your worst enemy,” Griffey said of his Mariners co-star from 1994-99. “You have a lot of good young players that baseball needs to focus on and I think that’s the direction we need to lean towards. Not what happened five, six, eight, 10 years ago, but the kids who are doing it now.
“Obviously you see the drug testing is working because the people who decided to cheat are getting caught. It’s a shame that people think they’re bigger than the system. It is what it is, but there are some young players that need to be recognised for what they’re doing and not worry about one person because one person doesn’t carry baseball. It takes a group.”
As for whether or not Rodriguez, who passed the legendary Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time home run list with 661 earlier this month, should be inducted into the Hall of Fame despite his tainted career, Griffey isn’t taking a stance either way.
“It’s not up to me to vote, so I don’t worry about things that are out of my control,” he said. “They’re going to figure out who did what, who deserves to go in and who doesn’t and for me, it’s up to them.”
Having retired in 2010, Griffey himself shouldn’t have any trouble getting a plaque at Cooperstown when he’s eligible to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016.
Even if he wasn’t the same dominant force during the second half of his career as he was with Seattle, there were few players in the sport more iconic.
“It would mean a lot. Obviously, you play the game because you love it and if you’re ever put in that situation where your name gets called, it says a lot,” Griffey said.
“Everybody looks at winning titles and things like that, but to go out there and give a team 100 per cent and the guys know and the people who see you and recognise you’ve done a great job, that means a lot to me.”
