Sporty Blog - The Sport Blog

Recently, after reluctantly returning for one final season of Major League Baseball, Ken Griffey Jr. also known previously as “The Kid,” upon his insertion into the MLB limelight as the Seattle Mariners Franchise savior at the tender age of 19, decided that he was no longer contributing to the game he so dearly loves, having become a distraction for the Mariners and announced his Ad Hoc retirement from the sport on Wednesday, June 2nd.

Interestingly, “Junior” has long been linked as the catalyst for the construction of Seattle’s Safeco Field, which is commonly known as “The House Griffey Built,” even though it failed to pass its initial Bond referendum, as voters unanimously voted NO upon approval of the State’s request to build it, as then Governor Gary Locke simply overrode the People’s wishes and went ahead anyways.

Thus Griffey leaves the game at the age of 40, after hitting a stellar 630 Home runs, leaving him currently fifth overall, along with not being one of the Sport’s countless Steroids abusers…

Yet for many longtime Western Washingtonians, Junior will always be indelibly linked to those Mega Mariners of Yesteryear, when the likes of Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner and Alex Rodriguez just to name a few amazingly upset those pesky Pinstripes of the all conquering New York Yankees in the American League finals way back in 1995. As I recall this being the series that saw long time Mariners commentator Dave Niehaus coin his immortal phrase upon Griffey’s trifecta, exclaiming; “Get out the Rye bread and mustard Grandma, its Grand Salami time!” Upon The Kid having hit a Grand Slam, while another Niehaus classic is simply known as “My, Oh My!”