The Cincinnati Enquirer
June 10, 2008
MIAMI - JUNE 9: Ken Griffey Jr. #3 of the Cincinnati Reds hits his 600th career home run against the Florida Marlins in the first inning on June 9, 2008 at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images)
You are known by the company you keep, and that has only a little to do with hitting a lot of home runs.
Willie Mays was at home near San Francisco when the phone sounded. He picked it up on the first ring. Mays’ voice was a little faint, even as his words were anything but. Even now, 35 years after he last played, it’s hard to imagine the Say Hey Kid turning 77 in May.
“Great kid," Mays decided. “What else is there to say? Respectful. Aware. Has both his feet firmly on the ground."
Willie Mays was talking about Ken Griffey Jr.: One Kid to another. Each a little older than we imagine, both keenly aware of what really matters, and it’s not necessarily 600 home runs.
“Good family. You could tell he was raised right," said Mays. “He’d always come over to our (San Francisco Giants) clubhouse and find me. Even when he was little. Just to say hello, ask me how I’m doing."
A few years back, Mays visited Griffey’s adopted home state of Florida. Griffey knew Mays’ affection for children. Junior made sure his kids met Willie, and understood the significance of Mays’ baseball achievements.
Griffey has 600 home runs now. Only five other players in history can say the same. Mays is at 660. Three current players have a chance to hit 600: Alex Rodriguez, barring severe injury, seems a lock. Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome have outside chances.
There is something different in the way Griffey got to 600, of course. It’s a difference that restores some of the joy to the history. Griffey’s 600 is entirely honorable and free of the cynicism that coats like rust the longball achievements of his peers.
Sammy Sosa hit No. 600 last year. It passed with little notice, save the knowing nods of fans who by now know taint when they see it.
What we take from Griffey’s 600th is more than a milestone reached. His 600 showed respect for the game, respect for the record book and respect for those who came before him. It’s not just that Griffey honors Mays, or that he was the first to suggest players wear Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 on the anniversary of Robinson’s first Major League game. Or that he was the only current Reds player to attend Joe Nuxhall’s visitation and funeral.
It’s not even that Griffey has persevered through an orthopedist’s list of leg ailments to get to 600. It’s that he has cared enough about the game, about himself and about those most dear to him to make his achievement fully worthy.
Griffey has been asked a thousand times in the past few years about performance enhancers: Did you think about using them? What do you think of those who might have used them? And so on. He never answers, directly. The best I got from him came last year, after this question: “What would you like your kids to take from your career?’’ or some such.
Griffey’s answer, paraphrasing: “That I can look them in the eye and say I did it the right way." Which, of course, means more than any home run he ever hit.
The Say Hey Kid led the NL in homers four times and posted 11 30-homer seasons. His 600th career homer came on September 22, 1969, against Mike Corkins of the San Diego Padres. The 24-time All-Star is perhaps still best remembered for his over-the-shoulder catch of a Vic Wertz fly ball in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.
Photo: John G. Zimmerman/SI
Willie Mays won’t talk about steroids. “That junk," he calls the subject. He is not one to pass judgment, he says, about people he doesn’t know personally. He isn’t big on the whole, tired notion of athletes as role models, either. “First mistake you make, (media) jump all over you," Mays says.
What he has done is be good by example. “Stop and talk to kids," Mays says. “Sign autographs. If kids liked what I did and they try to emulate me, that’s good. Role models should be parents."
Griffey shares something else, then, with Willie Mays, beyond 600 home runs: He’s a role model without advertising it. Never has a great player enjoyed talking about himself less. Never has a player done more behind the scenes for children. Never has a baseball player honored his game more thoroughly. Six hundred home runs might shine a brighter light on that legacy. But it’s always been there.
Willie Mays once said that Ken Griffey Jr. was the current player who most reminded him of himself. He was talking about the way Griffey played baseball. But the comparison extends beyond the diamond. “Great kid," says Mays. “What else would you like me to say?"
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