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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.
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.
Griffey Hits 600th Career Home Run
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.
Jimmie Foxx was the youngest player to hit 500 homers, reaching the milestone at 32. Willie Mays, Sammy Sosa, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth also hit theirs at 34. Jung Keun Bong (1-1) allowed three hits in six scoreless innings and three relievers finished a combined four-hit shutout to end the Reds' nine-game road losing streak. The slump was the team's longest since they dropped 10 in a row from June 1-24, 1998. The star center fielder ended a frustrating stretch with the swing, which helped theCincinnati Reds beat theSt.
Ken Griffey Jr. hits 600th homer
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.
Even now, Griffey says those two seasons he spent playing with his father in Seattle were the best times of his career. And he has suggested that he would like to finish his career back there. His game is so well-rounded that he was voted an All-Century outfielder with Seattle before his 30th birthday. By then, his backward cap and light-up smile were the face of baseball. The 38-year-old homered with Jerry Hairston on third and one out.
Ken Griffey Jr. Hits 600th Home Run
"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.
Griffey Sr. wanted Perez to look at his son, then in high school, and give him a professional evaluation. Griffey spent 11 seasons in Seattle, which traded him to Cincinnati for Brett Tomko, Mike Cameron, Antonio Perez and Jake Meyer on Feb. 10, 2000. Chicago White Sox starter Eric King served up the historic homer. "My father hit 152 home runs and that was who I wanted to be like," Griffey said.
Griffey hit 40 homers in his first season with the Reds, when he became the youngest to reach 400 career. Then came a succession of major injuries — torn hamstrings, torn patella tendon, separated shoulder, torn ankle — that knocked him way off Aaron's pace. Then came a succession of major injuries - torn hamstrings, torn patella tendon, separated shoulder, torn ankle - that knocked him way off Aaron's pace. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run on Monday night, completing his long ascent and becoming the sixth player in history to reach that milestone. Barry Bonds is third on the career list with 676, Sosa has 549 and Rafael Palmeiro has 538.
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.
Yes, with all those close similarities, he hit his 50th homer of the year on the same exact day, two years in a row. This is a guy who has been loved, respected, and admired by coaches, teammates, and fans everywhere he’s been. In 2000, Griffey returned to his hometown of Cincinnati where he was greeted with a king’s welcome. Coming to a team with such great traditions as the Reds seemed important, not only to him, but to the city of Cincinnati. Griffey hit No. 597 on April 23 at Great American Ball Park, then went 90 at-bats — the second-longest drought of his career — before connecting again in San Diego on May 22.
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.
Ken Griffey Jr. became the sixth major leaguer to reach 600 career home runs and then got a big hug from Cincinnati Reds Manager Dusty Baker. He homered for the Cincinnati Reds off the Florida left-hander Mark Hendrickson in the first inning of the Reds’ 9-4 victory over the Marlins. Griffey joined Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sammy Sosa on the list. Thanks to an incredibly powerful few years in the late ‘90s, The Kid put himself in what seemed to be a favorable position to challenge Hank Aaron’s career homer record of 755.
Until then, his personal homer list would have to speak for itself. While he closed in on the prominent power number, Griffey gave it little thought. He's never spent much time thinking about his statistics. He preferred to wait and talk about No. 600 when he got it.
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.
