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About the Author - CriticalFanatic
"Hell."

Jason
Chicago, IL
Male 28 years old

About Me:
Somehow remain a passionate sports fan despite living and dying with the Chicago Cubs and Michigan State athletics. Born in California, grew up in Michigan and went to college at Miami U (Ohio). All of which have shaped my sports fandom. Also a featured blogger and editor of this fine website you might have heard about called FanIQ.
Greg Maddux and Ken Griffey Jr. Milestones
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Accomplishing Outstanding Feats the Natural Way Goes Unnoticed
by CriticalFanatic
>7 days ago

Friday night Greg Maddux accomplished a feat that will likely NEVER be repeated again in Major League baseball history. Ken Griffey Jr. will reach 600 HR's in the next couple weeks (hopefully), a feat that only five other players in Major League history have accomplished, two of which were heavily juiced.

Where are the Sunday Conversations, the live at-bat look-ins, the daily attention to these legends?

What Roger Clemens ate for breakfast or who he slept with last year gets more pub these days that the best pitcher of our era reaching a major milestone. Just because Mad Dog was ho-hum about his 350th, doesn't mean we need to be. Maddux sits at 9th on the all-time wins list but in the modern era he trails only Warren Spahn (363 wins from 1942-1965) and Roger Clemens (354 from 1984-2007).

I respect Greg for not being an attention whore about this, but still, he deserves a parade, a day on the baseball calendar honoring him and every other honor we can hand out.

Ken Griffey Jr. will always hold the title of best home run hitter during my lifetime. It's scary to think how many HR's he may have hit with some assistance to stay healthy like another left handed slugger. You'd hardly know that Junior was just three away from 600 unless you followed the Reds on a daily basis. All three of you.

After Barry Bonds 24/7 last summer, maybe we're exhausted with the hub-bub of the home run. I know I've felt that way. But that doesn't mean we ignore the one player who's gone about it the right way. Griff is the one who deserves live break-ins to every at-bat and all that absurdity.

Like Maddux, he's not asking for it, but for the sake of younger baseball fans learning the game I hope these guys don't go unnoticed. These are the two worth emulating.
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69 days ago
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Jr. has the sweetest swing ever.  Imagine how many records he could have broken had he stayed healthy.  A testament to him doing things naturally is unfortunately his ability to injure himself. But Griffey always gives his all and sould be mentioned as one of the greatest ever.  Maddux would have a few more wins if the Padres could hit.
 
69 days ago
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Jr. has the sweetest swing ever.  Imagine how many records he could have broken had he stayed healthy.  A testament to him doing things naturally is unfortunately his ability to injure himself. But Griffey always gives his all and sould be mentioned as one of the greatest ever.  Maddux would have a few more wins if the Padres could hit.
 
69 days ago
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It's an unfortunate thing that these two are suffering the punishment for players of the past decade and their choices(they made) to be in the spot light.

 

I can say that I have followed these stats on web articles this season. But it is a shame to watch good great players not get the news time they deserve from the media.

 

But instead we hear how MLB is screwing Barry Bonds and not letting him play the game he loves destroyed.

 
69 days ago
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A-Rod is a better home run hitter than Griffey, and still would be even if Griffey had stayed healthy.  But Junior wasn't a douche, and that's the key to getting respect.
 
69 days ago
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Agreed on Junior. Didn't always appreciate him - early on I thought he was pretty self absorbed, but that's true of alot of people. He's the genuine article and desrves more attention than he's getting. 
 
69 days ago
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I have nothing more to add to this post... you hit the nail on the head.
 
69 days ago
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Lets not forget that Jr. played CF as well as anyone EVER.  He injured himself slamming into walls and playing all out.  Take all those miles off his legs and he could have hit 1000 home runs.  A-Rod is a great HR hitter himself but nobody hit 'em like Junior did.
 
69 days ago
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(Edited 05/12/08 3:26PM by RenegadeLG)
EdSpeshel wrote:
Lets not forget that Jr. played CF as well as anyone EVER.  He injured himself slamming into walls and playing all out.  Take all those miles off his legs and he could have hit 1000 home runs.  A-Rod is a great HR hitter himself but nobody hit 'em like Junior did.
Griffey has a career average of 1 homer ever 4.05 games played.  A-Rod hits one every 3.69 games.  Even when healthy Jr's numbers weren't as good as A-Rods, so I'm not sure how the math adds up there.
 
69 days ago
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RenegadeLG wrote:
Griffey has a career average of 1 homer ever 4.05 games played.  A-Rod hits one every 3.69 games.  Even when healthy Jr's numbers weren't as good as A-Rods, so I'm not sure how the math adds up there.
I didn't say he hit a better ratio than A-Rod did I said nobody hit them like Jr. did.  If you don't know what I meant, I can't help you.  Keep your head in those stats though... we all know thats always been the best way to judge a baseball player.
 
69 days ago
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EdSpeshel wrote:
I didn't say he hit a better ratio than A-Rod did I said nobody hit them like Jr. did.  If you don't know what I meant, I can't help you.  Keep your head in those stats though... we all know thats always been the best way to judge a baseball player.
Are you talking about the way his ass looks in the pants?  I realize his swing was the prettiest but stats are a pretty good indicator of overall worth, and one of the foundations of this website.
 
69 days ago
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(Edited 05/12/08 3:47PM by RenegadeLG)
And considering you went on to say Griffey could have hit 1,000 home runs, you appeared to be somewhere near the stat department yourself, even if you were just laughingly adding to his John Henry-esque tale.  "Nobody hit them like Jr did, he could have had 1,000" "A-Rod hits more and won't reach 1,000" "Stats don't show the worth of a player!!!111"

Whatever.
 
69 days ago
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RenegadeLG wrote:
And considering you went on to say Griffey could have hit 1,000 home runs, you appeared to be somewhere near the stat department yourself, even if you were just laughingly adding to his John Henry-esque tale.  "Nobody hit them like Jr did, he could have had 1,000" "A-Rod hits more and won't reach 1,000" "Stats don't show the worth of a player!!!111"

Whatever.

Did you drink too much coffee this morning? 
 
69 days ago
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kappafla211 wrote:

Did you drink too much coffee this morning? 

Although there is no such thing as too much coffee the exuberance exhibited in the last post was more a way of making light of his over-defensiveness of Griffey.

I'll just end with this.  The Griffey commercial they used to play before movies in the theater ruled.
 
69 days ago
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We should celebrate the accomplishments of Griffey Jr. and Maddux.

I think too many fans are looking at them like they are a couple of granola eating, Dead listening, VW Mircobus driving hippies. They did it the way we all clamor to see, hard work, dedication and without the use of PED's. Sure I would have like to seen Griffey stats if he had not gotten hurt, but it happened it does not diminish what he has accomplished. Look Ted Williams is still one of the greats and he gave up 5 1/2 years of his prime to be a pilot.

As for Maddux, the dude just punches the clock. He may have never had more than 25 wins in a season, but each year he seems to keep delivering. Hell he is delivering all the way to upstate New York.

 

If any of this rambling has made sense, please let me know.
 
69 days ago
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Thing is about these two, is that we've become too accustomed to seeing them perform consistently that we're no longer impressed. It's more like we knew they would get to this point so there is no excitement.

 

During the mid-'90's Maddux and Griffey dominated the sport with an blitzkreig that has yet to rivaled. They are most likely to be 1st Balloters and still be held in a distinguished light opposed to most of the other players that played in the same time frame.

 

The one thing that I felt that Griffey did to diminsh some of his light was join the NL. I admire that he did it for the honor of his father and his love for his hometown, but he is best suited for the AL in the DH role. Whereas Maddux is still best for the NL.
 
69 days ago
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primo wrote:

Thing is about these two, is that we've become too accustomed to seeing them perform consistently that we're no longer impressed. It's more like we knew they would get to this point so there is no excitement.

 

During the mid-'90's Maddux and Griffey dominated the sport with an blitzkreig that has yet to rivaled. They are most likely to be 1st Balloters and still be held in a distinguished light opposed to most of the other players that played in the same time frame.

 

The one thing that I felt that Griffey did to diminsh some of his light was join the NL. I admire that he did it for the honor of his father and his love for his hometown, but he is best suited for the AL in the DH role. Whereas Maddux is still best for the NL.

Hindsight is 20/20.  When Griffey left for the Reds he still had a bunch of Centerfield left in the tank.  Injuries piled up quickly.  I think he would rather have had a handful of epic offensive years coupled with a full career of great defense than a full career of only hitting, even though his numbers would have been astronomical.  He's a genuine competitor and wants to help his team in every way possible.
 
68 days ago
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Griffey and Maddux are 2 baseball players who, no matter how hard you try to hate, you can't help but love the guys.  It's already been said about how they got to where they are, and when the good guys do well, they don't get the spotlight that should be on them.  Both of them are class acts, both are guaranteed to be in the HOF, and rightfully so.  For once, let's see the media give these 2 guys their due instead of Roger this and Barry that.
 
68 days ago
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I'm actually excited about the latest Griffey rumor... Griffey back to Seattle! Let's sit back and watch how quickly Jr. becomes everyone's favorite player again.
 
68 days ago
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Griffey's impossible to hate but I've never liked Maddux and I don't think people should feel compelled to just because he's a good pitcher.  He's always seemed like kind of a smug weasel to me.  He's a less fat Tony Stewart.
 
68 days ago
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Maddux is pretty darn good defensively as well, albeit with limited chances
 
49 days ago
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(Edited 06/01/08 2:42PM by nlbrenner)

Actually, when he was with Seattle, Griffey had an average of around 1 hr every 3.605 games which is better than A-rod's . Also, if he had played even 130 games per year when he was with the Reds hitting home runs at the same pace (he probably wouldn't be that good b/c of aging but it makes the math easier. This is about 36 HR's per season), he'd be at 722 by now.

 

Greg Maddux's feat is made all the more amazing to me considering his fastball is anything but overpowering. His accuracy and ability to mix speeds are the reasons he was able to reach this incredible mile stone and why he's still going strong at age 50 or however old he is now :).

 
 
49 days ago
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(Edited 06/01/08 12:49PM by ML31)
The thing I find horribly amusing is that many are assuming that Jr never took any kind of supplement whatsoever.  And none have any reason to think he didn't except, "the media loved him".  Or, "He's a nice guy who obviously enjoys playing the game."

I'm not accusing him of taking stuff, but I'm not letting him off the hook of suspicion either.  Especially in an era where probably 80+% of all players were on something.  It is completely reasonable to suspect EVERYONE.
 
49 days ago
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nlbrenner wrote:

Actually, when he was with Seattle, Griffey had an average of around 1 hr every 3.605 games which is better than A-rod's . Also, if he had played even 130 games per year when he was with the Reds hitting home runs at the same pace (he probably wouldn't be that good b/c of aging but it makes the math easier. This is about 36 HR's per season), he'd be at 722 by now.

 

Greg Maddux's feat is made all the more amazing to me considering his fastball is anything but overpowering. His accuracy and ability to mix speeds are the reasons he was able to reach this incredible mile stone and why he's still going strong at age 50 or however old he is now :).

 

had an average of around 3.605 hr's per game

I hope that is a typo.  That means Jr hit almost 500 homers every 162 games!
 
49 days ago
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