The first ever jersey I remember owning was a Ken Griffey Jr., #30 for the Cincinnati Reds. I was no older than probably six years old and he was the coolest person I could imagine. He was the Kid. I would always pick him for my Backyard Baseball team and wear his jersey while I played. Jr. was the first icon I had when it came to my baseball career. It was this childhood glorification that urged me to write about one of the greatest bonds ever shared on the field in the game of baseball.
Sports have seen their fair share of successful families. You have the Mannings, who have produced three excellent professional football careers in two generation’s time. There are the Williams sisters (Venus and Serena), who have provided the most dynamic duo that the sport of women’s tennis has ever seen. But perhaps the best of all of these “in the family” type sports combinations is the playing of Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ken Griffey, Sr. on the same Seattle Mariners team in 1990.
(image by the Seattle Times)
The making of history
You don’t have to be a sports expert to figure that the odds of a father and son playing on the same professional team are very slim to none. To put into perspective, here is an abridged list of everything that would have to go right in order for this to happen:
- The father must play well enough and stay healthy to play professionally for decades, until his son is old enough to at least have the chance of playing in the MLB. (According to Lookoutlanding.com, The Mariner’s average player age is between 28 and 29 in 2015. Griffey, Sr. was 41 when he played with his son).
- The father must have a son at a relatively young age who is an absolute beast at the game; a phenom, if you will. We are talking about needing the talent level of a modern day Bryce Harper to even have a shot of making the Big Leagues by your early 20’s.
- A team would require the need for the positions that both the father and son play. A team doesn’t just give out spots based on how good a potential player is; a roster is constantly shifting with injuries and contracts. The chance that a single team would even have the spots available to accommodate both members of the family would be hard to come by. Fortunately for the Griffey duo, they both played outfield. There are three outfield players on the field at a given time; this would give the father and son the ability to play simultaneously.
Meeting all of these requirements, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ken Griffey, Sr. landed on the same Seattle Mariners team in 1990. On August 31st of this year, they trotted to the outfield together in what became the first father-son duo to play on the same team in baseball’s 112 year history.
(Image by sportsencyclopedia.com)
icons of the 90’s
This combination gave America a taste of an ideal that had never been thought possible. When you say the words “American Dream”, a very common picture that is associated is a father and son playing catch. The image that Griffey, Jr. and his father gave to the nation was one that transcended time and would have ultimately left even Hunter S. Thompson sastisfied. All of a sudden, the impact of a sport was in the forefront of one of the most iconic father-son relationships in American baseball’s history.
Jr.’s role as the “emerging” Griffey and Sr.’s role as the “fading” Griffey during their playing time together really served as a metaphor for this time period. As far as baseball was concerned, the game was beginning to be taken over by the youngsters. Numbered were the days where the game was mostly played by men in their 30’s. Griffey, Jr. was 20 years old when he played in his major league debut in 1990. He was appropriately branded as “The Kid”. His emergence shifted the attitude of the game of baseball to focus more on the development of raw, young talent. This passing of the torch type relationship that Jr. and Sr. possessed ran parallel with America’s development during the early 1990’s as well.
The 90’s decade demonstrated the impact that young people had on American culture. MTV had dug it’s roots into the music industry and highlighted the emergence of “teen pop”. The significant advancement of online technology saw college level students at the front lines of breakthroughs. As Griffey, Jr. dug into the batter’s box for his first major league at bat, America was being shifted to the hands of a younger generation. Suddenly, having an impact in the nation’s culture became very accessible to this new wave of youth.
(image by mjfanatic.niketalk via yuku.com)
like father, like son
The story is heightened by both Jr. and Sr. had successful careers. Ken Griffey, Sr. won two world championships (1975, 1976), was a 3 time all star, and won the MVP award in 1980. Jr. had to go and outdo his dad, however, with 10 Gold Glove awards, 7 Silver Slugger awards, 13 All-Star selections, and an MVP winner in 1997. Jr. was also voted on to the Major League Baseball All-Century team and ranks sixth all time with 630 home runs. Some nerve that kids have to go and prove a point to their parents, isn’t it?
In light of all of his accomplishments, Ken Griffey, Sr. stated, “This is the pinnacle for me… This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” in response to playing with his son in a professional game for the first time. Possibly the greatest memory that this duo blessed us with was when they hit back to back home runs on September 14, 1990. Ken Griffey, Sr. hit a two run home run off of the California Angel’s Kirk McCaskill. He was to be followed up by Jr.’s own home run in the very next at bat. They remain the only father and son combination to claim back to back home runs in baseball.
Sr. officially retired in 1991, but got to enjoy watching his son’s Hall of Fame career for 19 more years. It was only fitting that on Father’s Day in 2004, Jr. hit his 500th career home run (a milestone that all but solidifies a player’s spot in the Hall of Fame) as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, the club that his father won two World Series titles with previously. Following his trip around the bases, Jr. went straight for the stands to share the moment with his father.
(image by redlegsreview.com)
A universal story
As I’ve grown up, I have learned to appreciate the story of Ken Griffey, Jr. and his father on a deeper level. The fact that they got to play on the same team together for a period of time is an incredible feat. The game of baseball created a bond for these two, as it has done for my father and myself. For this, I am forever thankful. It was always my father pointing out new accomplishments that Griffey was achieving and all the home runs he was hitting. From an early age on, he provided me with numerous idols that eventually led to my falling in love with the game. Through this process, he became one of my greatest icons himself. I’ve come to realize, years later, that one of the biggest pieces of enjoyment I get from the game of baseball is the ability to share it with my father. I believe that this is what makes the story of Ken Griffey, Jr. and his father so universal. Their combined success was incredible; but at the end of the day, they were just a father and son enjoying the game together.
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