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His name has never come up in baseball's steroids scandal. Unlike Sosa, he's never been caught using a doctored bat. He went another 29 at-bats, and even got a day off during the week to work on his swing, before hitting No. 599. The game was the last one of an eight-game road trip for the Reds, who will return home Tuesday night to play the St. Louis Cardinals. Griffey received a standing ovation from the crowd of 16,003 and responded by coming out of the Reds dugout and waving his helmet to the fans.
I mean, when you rifle through 100 homers every couple of years, it’s hard not to think about that. The 2000 season was also his first with the Cincinnati Reds after getting traded and signing a big extension with the organization. Griffey spent the first 11 years of his career with the Seattle Mariners, where he put up some of the most staggering numbers seen in baseball history. It came one batter after his father, Ken Sr., homered off California's Kirk McCaskill on Sept. 14, 1990, an unprecedented father-and-son moment in the majors.
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He’d hit three more that season with Chicago, with the first one being number 609, which tied him for fifth all-time with Sammy Sosa on the all-time list. Many have argued that his career has been a disappointment with his struggles in Cincinnati. Still, others have sworn that Griffey is the greatest player to don a professional baseball uniform.
Griffey Jr. has long since proved Perez and others who made similar forecasts correct. About all that’s left to be determined are the final numbers to stamp on his Hall of Fame plaque. Like his 400th and 500th, Ken Griffey Jr.‘s milestone home run came on the road.
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The Reds erected a countdown board at Great American Ball Park, and featured him on the cover of the 2008 media guide. Griffey homered with Jerry Hairston on third and one out. The left-handed swinger launched a 3-1 pitch 413 feet into the right-field seats.
"It was a nice Father's Day present, but it's an easy way to get out of giving me something," Griffey Sr. said. Griffey then went to a box next to the Reds' dugout and hugged his father, Ken Griffey, and children. The elder Griffey said Junior told him, simply, "Happy Father's Day." You probably also love those noisy NFL wide receivers, club house divas, and those flashy athletes who leave little to be desired off the field and in the locker room. He has been a positive influence in the clubhouse, on the field, and in the community as well. In 2006, he even switched his number from "30" to "3," in honor of his three children.
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From the standpoint of fWAR, 1996 was Griffey’s finest work, as he posted 9.7 fWAR in 140 games played. At that time, he had enjoyed his third season of 40-plus homers and set a new career-high for the time being with 49 dingers and 140 RBI. If you’re looking for another sweet swing that can torch baseballs, be sure to also check out milestone Miguel Cabrera home runs through the years.
MIAMI — Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run on Monday night, becoming the sixth player to reach that milestone. Griffey came in fourth for the AL MVP voting in 1998, but he just further cemented himself as an inner-circle Hall of Famer, and he wasn’t even 30 years old yet. When you hit 112 homers over the span of two seasons, it’s easy to make quick work of the all-time leaderboard while ascending to the top.
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"It is just one of those things where I'm going to pitch to these guys and don't back down from it. You're going to give up home runs." The Reds, who got a three-run homer from Jason LaRue in the fourth, also averted a three-game sweep and ended the Cardinals' six-game winning streak. "Under those circumstances, it wasn't like it was a game winner," Cardinals right fielder Reggie Sanders said.
Can you imagine what it feels like to hit 300 homers in the big leagues before you turn 30 years old? Only a select few know what that feels like, and Griffey is one of them. At the time of this homer, he was the second-youngest hitter to reach the milestone. His home run total is good for sixth all-time, RBI good for 19th , and he is third among active players in runs scored. In his 20-plus seasons, Griffey has 596 home runs, 2,574 hits, 1,712 RBI, and is a career .290 hitter.
Fred McGriff needs seven homers to become the 21st player to hit 500. Who knows where Griffey could’ve landed on the all-time home run list if he didn’t miss the equivalent of two full seasons between 2002 and 2004 because of injuries. But still, finishing with 630 homers over the span of 22 years is incredible. And we can’t forget about the style/swag he brought to the game when nobody else was really doing it. The every-two-years-for-a-milestone-homer streak ended, but by the time Griffey entered the 500-homer club in 2004, he did it on what was already a memorable day.
Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. "It's awesome every time you see a milestone like that," Baker said. When Perez was the Reds’ hitting coach in the late 1980s, one of his Big Red Machine teammates brought him a special assignment.
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