Why Ken Griffey Jr. is the Greatest Role Model in Sports History

One must appreciate the gracefulness, the elegancy, the beauty, and that amazing swing that I am so badly jealous of.  Yes, I am talking about none other than the great Ken Griffey Jr.

The man has been nothing short of amazing in his historic 21-year career.  Gold glove after gold glove,  home run title after home run title, MLB MVPs, All-Star Game MVPs, you name it, he has it. 

But I want to look at the other side of Ken Griffey Jr. that not many people have noticed before. 

This has to be one of the darkest eras in MLB history.  Bud Selig has turned baseball upside down.  In this era known as the "steroid" era, players are juicing themselves up and taking the easy way.  Seemingly every great name has tested positive for the now banned substance.

Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and the list goes on and on.  It has come to a point when you wouldn't be surprised of the shorty (respectfully) David Eckstein was doing steroids.  How could a 5 foot 6 inch player 170 pound player have a career average of .283? 

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Roy Halladay was now on steroids.  Remember when Alex Rodriguez did steroids in 2003?  It was because he was pressured to do well because of his huge contract.

Same situation with Halladay, so many teams are interested in him you would have thought he was the only player on the free agent market.  Therefore there is more pressure for him to pitch well.

Back to Griffey now.  What amazes me about Griffey is that he has NEVER tested positive for steriods, HGH, or any banned substance.  In fact,  he is was one of the few people that was clean and yet still is one of the biggest superstars.    

Remember the 90's where we found a suspicious amount of home runs being hit.  Well most of them were off the bat of Griffey and yet he still didn't test positive in 2003 while other guys tested positive and still didn't put up better numbers.

Now when you look at him today,  he is batting .221 with 11 home runs but that is what happens when players get older, they start to decline unlike some hitters nowadays who are hitting half their home runs above the age of 35 (*cough cough* Jim Thome, Frank Thomas). 

Not to mention he is one of the most friendly players in the game.  Overall, he has had a decorated career, he is one of the all time fan favorites both in Seattle and out, he is drug free, and is a great teammate.  all these traits make him one of the finest baseball players both on and off the field.

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