A Reunion By The Sound: Is Seattle's Biggest Star Coming Home?

For as long as baseball has been played great nick-names have been part of the game: The Babe; The Georgia Peach; The Say Hey Kid; The Mick; The Yankee Clipper; The Big Unit; The Bash Brothers; Hammerin’ Hank; Charlie Hustle; Stan the Man; The Splendid Splinter; The Wizard of Oz; Mr. October; The Rocket; we can go on forever.

That brings me to my personal favorite: The Kid. One of the first things I remember about baseball, or sports for that matter, was Ken Griffey Jr. I grew up in New York, a place where the West Coast sports scene gets about as much attention as European soccer. However, The Kid was a different story. He may have been playing closer to Alaska than Brooklyn or Queens, but it was almost like he was a Yankee or Met.

He arrived on the baseball scene when the soon-to-be alternative-rock generation was just becoming teenagers. It wasn’t long before his majestic homeruns and youthful exuberance captivated the country, just like Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Fast forward two decades and things have flip-flopped. Now I live in Seattle and The Kid is a 39 year old outfielder without a job. Boy, it’s funny how time has a way of changing things.

Long gone are the back-to-back 56 homerun seasons. Or the slide at home plate in the ’96 playoffs that toppled Mattingly’s Yankees. Still, it’s impossible to forget a time when a 19-year-old kid from Donora, Pennsylvania came to the Pacific Northwest and lit baseball on fire.

From 1996-99 Griffey hit 209 homeruns. Ten years later and not a single steroid allegation, ever. It was probably the greatest half decade of homerun hitting baseball has ever seen. And it was clean. No horse steroids or anabolic steroids or HGH or the Cream or the Clear.

Yes, injuries may have ultimately reduced his numbers, but at least history will show that they weren’t inflated by performance-enhancing drugs. In a very dark period of Major League Baseball history, Ken Griffey Jr. did things right.

As the 2009 baseball season bears down on us, I think it’s a travesty that Ken Griffey Jr. can’t find a job. Last season, he played on only one and a half legs and was still productive, hitting 18 homeruns and 71 RBI’s. Two years ago, when the 37-year-old Griffey was healthy, he hit 30 homeruns with 93 RBI’s. The year before that; 27 homeruns and 72 RBI’s. The year before that; 35 homeruns and 92 RBI’s. It may be a far cry from those Seattle days, but it’s still pretty good.

If reports are accurate, then Griffey will be entering 2009 healthy. In my mind, that translates into a 25 homerun, 75+ RBI season---just sitting there---waiting to be had.

So how about a reunion in Seattle? How great would it be to see Junior come back to where it all began? How many times do we actually get the chance for a perfect ending in sports? Answer: Not that often. And, make no mistake; this would be the perfect ending.

With that said, I believe it’s time for Seattle’s new GM Jack Zduriencik to step up. At this point, Griffey could be had for a bag of balls and a rosin bag. Offer a one-year, five million dollar deal and he’s almost certainy yours. Even for a team trying to keep payroll down, money isn’t an obstacle.

Anybody following Zduriencik’s first offseason in Seattle is aware of the team’s new direction. He’s at the beginning stages of a full-blown youth movement, similar to the one he head-manned in Milwaukee. But the case can be still be made that Griffey would only help that process.

First of all, the current opening day left fielder on the Mariner’s depth chart is Endy Chavez. Chavez was a throw-in in the J.J. Putz deal. Griffey’s arrival would allow Chavez to slip into his more familiar role as a utility outfielder. Or even if Griffey played DH the majority of the time, he would not, in any way, impede the progress of the organization's youth movement.

Secondly, it’s not like a team who won 61 games last season, and who lost Raul Ibanez in free agency, can’t use the added production. This lineup is in dire need of some pop, even if we’re only talking about 20-25 homeruns.

And finally, the move would make Jack Zduriencik a hero among Mariner fans. It’s the single easiest way for this first-time GM to win an avalanche of fan support. Plus, it makes baseball sense. Not to mention the added revenue Griffey’s arrival would surely generate at the box office. All around, from every angle, this would be a win-win for Zduriencik and the Mariner’s.

As baseball waits for a new ambassador to carry the torch out of the Steroid Era, maybe it’s time to hand that torch back to Ken Griffey Jr. The Kid had a firm grasp on it before this era fully engulfed the sport. Now, twenty years later, baseball should be smart and once again turn to Griffey in their time of need. He’s one of the very few untainted giants of the game remaining that can somewhat validate this very awkward era.

Thank you, Ken Griffey Jr., for giving us all hope that this game can still be played the right way…clean. And hopefully fate brings you back to a place where a 19-year-old teenager earned the simplest and most fitting nickname you’ll ever find: The Kid.

If anybody in this era deserves to go out in style, it’s you.