Junior on his way to 600
It’s hard to believe that it’s been twenty one years since the Seattle Mariners had the first pick in the amateur draft. The years just flew by and now the game has watched the season home run record change hands twice, along with Hank Aaron’s record that fell last year.
Back in 1987, Ken Griffey Jr. was on his way to being one of the players to break those records. He hit 56 homers and 147 RBI in 1997 in 157 games, then produced nearly identical numbers the following year with 56 homers and 146 RBI in 161 games. After the 1998 season, the number of games started to decline. In 2001,he hit 22 home runs in just 111 games. The next three years, the most home runs he hit was in 2004 with 20 after appearing in 83 games. During the 2005 campaign, he played in 128 games with 35 homeruns. These numbers are staggering in the fact that he has been a victim to injury. One can only imagine the numbers Jr. would have put up in those three years he was hurt. As of this writing, Ken Griffey Jr. has 597 career home runs, 6th on the all-time list, 12 behind Sammy Sosa. There are those that thought that he could have easily broken the single season record, after all, he was so close in 1997 and 1998. Had he stayed healthy, Mark Maguire and Barry Bonds would possibly be right behind him, but he would be the leader, the first one to get it done. His defensive skills were equal to his offensive skills.
It would be nice to see him hit number 600, he has always been a guy you like to root for, but one can’t help but wonder where he would be if he didn’t get hurt. At one time, back in the day, based upon his HR pace, we could possibly be anticipating number 800. I know it sounds absurd, but he certainly would not have an asterisk by his name that’s for sure.
