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George
Kenneth Griffey
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George
Kenneth Griffey, Jr. was born on November 21, 1969 in Donora,
Pennsylvania. Griffey hit his 500th home run leading off the
sixth inning of the Reds' 6-0 victory over the St. Louis
Cardinals at Busch Stadium and became the 20th member
of Major League Baseball's 500-home run club. His father Ken
Griffey, Sr. played with the Cincinnati Reds. Griffey, Jr.
played at Moeller High School, which was famous for its football
program. He started his career with the Seattle Mariners in
1989. He became the recipient of American League Most Valuable
Player award in 1997 after hitting 304, with 56 home runs and
147 runs batted in. Following the 1999 season he contracted with
the Cincinnati Reds where his father served as one of the team’s
coaches. After joining the Reds he became vulnerable to
injuries. |
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He had already established himself as one of baseball's
leading players in the Mariners jersey. A multi-dimensional
player hit with high average, batting over .300 for seven of
the ten years of the 1990s. He recorded hitting statistics,
and was awarded a Gold Glove for defensive excellence in 10
consecutive seasons, from 1990 to 1999. He possessed
unprecedented centerfield abilities.
Griffey often made over the shoulder catches and became one
of the most desired and respected players of the 1990s. He
even became the main star of the television commercials and
often appeared on cereal boxes. He also became the
dominating player of the All-Star Game. Even though his
performance was par excellence, however, he was dissatisfied
with playing for the Mariners. |
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He also showed his dissatisfaction openly. It was also
speculated that Griffey was not very happy with
Seattle's new
Safeco Field since it was not easy for him to retain the level
of power he had reached while playing in the peak of his career.
It was also reported that Griffey, Jr. requested the architects
of Safeco Field to bring the fences closer to home plate. But
the architects designed a park with a deep center field, which
gave it a moisture-laden atmosphere. Of all the average aspects
of the ballpark the best was that it stadium was
pitcher-friendly. In 1999 Ken Griffey demanded from the general
manager of Mariners to trade him since his hit, which would
likely have been a home run in the Kingdome turned into a long
fly-out to center in Safeco. The same season he set his
ambitions towards breaking Hank Aaron's all time home run
record. In 2000 he eventually joined his father’s former team,
the Cincinnati Reds. He received a warm welcome from the
admirers of the Reds. But he didn’t exhibit the performance as
was anticipated. His long and steady status of superstar started
declining. Though his statistics were satisfactory but were
unable to match his previous level of play. From the 2001
season, he became susceptible to injuries and played only 206
out of 486 games in the last three years. Many claimed the
injuries are the consequence of a decade of playing on the
Kingdome's artificial turf, which is like playing the game on
asphalt. |
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On
20th June 2004, he became the 20th player to reach 500 career
home runs. He ended the 2004 season the disabled list after
suffering a complete break of his right hamstring when he raced
toward the gap to try to cut off a ball before it got to the
wall. |
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