Griffey finally does it!

Written by Consigliere
With the emergence of Joey Votto and the Cinderella run of Jay Bruce, it was easy to forget the real story for the Cincinnati Reds coming into the 2008 MLB Season.When will Ken Griffey Jr make history? How long until he joins a select few of baseball’s greatest hitters? What day will he hit #600?Griffey seemed to be stuck on #599 for far longer than he had hoped, but on Monday, the wait was over. Junior joined Sammy Sosa, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays as only the 6th player in MLB history to hit 600 HR.With 10 more homeruns, he’ll pass Sammy Sosa for 5th place on the All Time HR list, but that’s probably about as far as “The Kid” will make it.He needs 61 more to pass Willie Mays and over 100 to catch Ruth, Aaron and Bonds.What if Griffey had been able to stay healthy for his entire career? For the young man that dominated the 90’s, it only seemed like a matter of time until he was crowned as the greatest homerun hitter of all time. In Seattle, Griffey will always be known as a Gold Glove centerfielder with the most beautiful swing that’s ever made contact with a ball.In Cincinnati, he’ll always be known as the former Gold Glove centerfielder that couldn’t seem to round the bases without reaching for his hamstring.From 2001-2006, Griffey missed 418 games. Those 418 games may be the difference between being one of 6 players to hit 600 HR and being the best homerun hitter ever.If you compare his games played to Barry Bonds, Junior comes up 547 games short. Considering that he’s hit a homerun every 4 games over the course of his career, we’re talking about 137 HR lost. That would put his current total at 737 and counting. The 137 HR total is probably actually selling him short based on the fact that the 5 seasons prior to 2001, Griffey hit an average of 49.8 HR per year. While it’s easy to see how Ken Griffey Jr could have been the best ever, just sit back and enjoy the fact that you have been able to witness a true legend of the game for nearly 2 decades.