Ken Griffey Jr: The Third Best Hitter of All Time

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Wait, what? Ken Griffey Jr? Best third best hitter of all time? No way!

Yeah, believe it. Ken Griffey is probably the most underrated player in Major League history.

This day in age, baseball icons are dropping like flies. They have been accused or have even admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. Guys like Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriquez, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens have been accused of using steroids and their legacies are tarnished forever.

Has Ken Griffey ever been linked to steroids? The answer is no, and this separates him from all the great hitters in our era. Now, what about players outside the steroid era like Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays? Is he better then them?

I think he is. In my opinion, most of Babe Ruth’s numbers are overrated. When he was playing baseball, arguably half of the league's talent was not allowed to participate. Yes, this may be unfair for him, but the fact is the best players were not playing in the Majors.

I think the only two players better than Griffey are Hank Aaron and Willy Mays. Griffey has averaged a home run per 15.24 at bats, while Aaron and Mays averaged 16.4 each.

Griffey has had six seasons with 40 plus home runs and two seasons with 50 plus. He has also recorded eight seasons with 800 plus RBI’s.    

Throughout his career, Griffey has been hurt numerous amount of times, as evident by his 126 games per season stat.

If he had stayed healthy, he could have broke a lot of records. But that’s an “if” and it’s very unfortunate that we as fans were not able to see Griffey reach his full potential.

Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that Griffey has played in the steroid era, and still dominated for years. Quietly, Griffey has built up a tremendous resume, and once his career comes to end, he will be missed by all of us. 

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