| 02 June 2010
It turned out to be a pretty busy night. The story of the day ended up being the blown call by umpire Jim Joyce with two outs in the top of the ninth that prevented Armando Galarraga - obviously a gem of a human being - from getting the perfect game he absolutely deserved (I suspect you'll hear more on this from me and every other blogger in the world in the next day or so). When the night began, though, the smart money would have been on a completely different story: the retirement of Ken Griffey, Jr.
Only hours before game time, and without informing anyone beforehand, Griffey made the announcement that he would be retiring from baseball, effectively immediately. He said: "I feel that without enough occasional starts to be sharper coming off the bench, my continued presence as a player would be an unfair distraction to my teammates and their success as a team is what the ultimate goal should be." It was a smart and classy move by a player who realized that his time in baseball was finally up.
I've written a lot about Griffey recently (this piece on the 20 year careers of Griffey and the Simpsons and this one about the less-than-graceful exits of some all-time greats come to mind), so I won't rehash any of that. He was never my favorite player, but he was the "best player in baseball" for all of my formative years (even if advanced stats prove that to be slightly inaccurate). From the first time I saw that 1989 Upper Deck #1 card through the moment I heard he was traded to the Reds (and signed for such a modest contract that I heard rumor that Bud Selig said "Thank God"), there was never any doubt who the face of baseball was.
The years since then have been nothing short of disappointing, but I feel grateful to have been able to watch him when he truly dominated the game (I'm especially glad that I was able to see at least one of those 630 home runs he hit: #384, a deep fly ball to left off of the illustrious Sidney Ponson). Kid Griffey will be missed, but I suspect we'll have a nice reunion with him in the summer of 2016.
