Taking It Back

I remember being a very young baseball fan and being very unaware of the great players baseball had to offer outside of New York. It must be said, a Mets fan in the early 90's was deprived of anything that could be described as great. I was unaware of Gwynn's hitting abilities in San Diego and Cal's consistency in Baltimore, but I did remember Ozzie and his flips. I realize my baseball knowledge had a lot of growing to do. Then there was Junior. The young kid with the backwards cap and the ear-to-ear grin. He was always making some ridiculous catch on my TV, or hitting a home run with his Griffey-esque swing. He is the reason I knew baseball existed in Seattle.

He was the charismatic kid who appealed to everyone is baseball. Old fans, young fans, you name it, you couldn't knock Junior. I even had a softball glove with his name on it. His face was everywhere as he became one of the bright spots of Major League Baseball, at a time when baseball was in its unhealthiest days.

Griffey Jr. was easily my first "favorite" as a kid that didn't wear the blue and orange. Looking back, he was the "Jose Reyes" of the 90's. Maybe not as off the wall, but you get the comparison. He was a player, a catalyst, an energy. He escaped the "Steroid Era" unscathed, shared the spotlight with A-Rod in Seattle, and then moved on to begin his career in Cincinatti. The color red has not treated him well as it seems like he has never gotten healthy since the switch, and with the neverending injuries, he slipped off my radar.

Fast Forward to 2007. Griffey Jr. is healthy again it seems. There are days at 37 that it looks like he hasn't missed a step. He's not as young as he once was, but he shows glimmers of the kid in Seattle who took over baseball 15 years ago. I couldn't be more excited to see him having a fantastic season and hope that he has a few more left in him.

I have a tendency to get caught up in certain moments during a season and the All-Star Game Introductions were one of those. Watching Junior, a favorite of the past, stand next to Wright, a favorite of today, and Reyes a few guys away, I oddly felt a bit old. I found myself saying to my brother, "Man, I remember Griffey's first Home Run Derby & All-Star Game." Beyond nostalgia, I was grateful at the chance to watch the generations overlap and see them play at least once on the same field. That is unless the impossible can come true and we see Junior in Orange and Blue.