Ken Griffey Jr, show some resepct
Posted on April 23, 2008 - Filed Under baseball
Is it possible to say that Griffey Jr has become an underated super star in MLB today? It’s hard to fathom that someone who was once so great and such apart of day to day baseball news has fallen back into an almost invisible blind spot to baseball now. While the baseball world is so quick to tear down anyone suspect of steroid use, that is where all the attention goes.
A good portion of the readers on this site I know are not big sports fans, but even them would recognize names like Barry ‘barroids’ Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire and maybe even Jose Canseco. Sure Griffey might not be the player he was 5 years ago. However simple because he’s not at his prime means he should be placed on the back burner?
Everyone is so quick to talk about how A-rod is so great. How he is clean and this and that. Yet where is the praise for Griffey? There is no one pointing a finger at him labeling him a user. There was never even speculation to it. His head didn’t grow 3 hat sizes in his older age. His body didn’t suddenly become ripped and buff. He’s the same body type he was all those years ago. Not only is Griffey a slugger who can still hit for a good average. He’s an amazing defensive player. What baseball fan from the early part of this decade doesn’t remember Griffey scaling the walls to rob a HR? Even memories of Lofton doing it are still sharp in my mind.
But alas, Griffey Jr is getting little to know attention for approaching the 600 mark. Just 4 hr shy, how many people even know he’s approaching this milestone? Where is the espn countdown to griffey’s 600th on sports center? Alas, sports news has no interest in real sports news. They want the outside drama. They want Shaq subtely saying that Tim Duncan doesn’t play like a man. They want a money hungry Canseco accusing A-Rod of steroid use. They want the Giants taking down Barry’s stuff. They want Dirk not fighting back when get got tapped in the face. Not talk about the game, the sport, or the feats at hand.
It’s a sad state the world has become. No longer is it that you are rewarded for the work you’ve done. Putting your time and excelling at your job. Take a look around your work place the next chance you get. Are the hardest workers at the top? It’s the people that are more concerned with shortcuts that work their way to the top. Then once they get there, they are so quick to point out all the others doing just what they did.
It goes beyond sports, look at politics as a whole. Politicians that enjoy a smoke break trying to ban smoking in public areas. Politicans to busy with their jobs, then rasining their kids trying to ban Grand Theft Auto. While finding it perfectly okay to have a show like Desperate Housewives on a national broadcast. To have a show like 24 that focuses on terrorism. Or even to have the Soporanos to be allowed. There is always the double standard between what a person is allowed to do them self and what every other person is allowed to do.
So with that side track rant over, I’ll be keeping an eye on Griffey’s progress and be cheering him on his way to 600. He’s apart of a dying breed of players that play for the love of the game and not for the love of the paycheck.
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