Ken Griffey Jr.: Countdown to 600

Aaron, Ruth, Bonds*, Sosa* Mays. Five people in the history of the game have accomplished what Ken Griffey Jr is about to accomplish. 

This club, so rare and exclusive is on the brink of initiating a new member, and no one cares. 

Ken Griffey is quite possibly the greatest player of my generation and as he sits on 599 waiting to swing his way into history no one seems to care.  He started his career in Seattle where he was worshiped like a god, playing among men.  All Century Team, All Gold Glove team, All everything, eight years and four injury plagued seasons later he is about to do what only five men before him have done. 

No one cares. 

Manny goes for 500, doing something Griffey did on Fathers Day in St. Louis a few years ago, gets all the publicity.  He gets live televised at-bats on ESPN, he gets all the hype for what? 

One home run gets him in a group with 24 other men.  Griffey goes yard in the bottom of the first and all of the sudden softball is more important than letting millions take a live view at history. 

Griffey, owner of the sweetest swing anyone has ever scene, deserves better.  He deserves to be talked about, hyped up for a week, a month, or however long it may take him to hit the shot.  He has done everything the right way and never once thought about “what if I had never gotten injured.”

Instead of commending him for this, the media continues to talk about Bonds perjury charges, and Sosa’s retirement. Take more steroids... you deserve it. 

Ken Griffey Jr will have done it the right way.  Those who fall down have two choices get up or stay down.  Griffey never took the easy way out; he never took the second option.  Never concerned with what could have been, he got up and rehabbed just so he could played again.