Yesterday when Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run he wasn’t the first player to do it, and he probably wasn’t the last to reach the milestone that only 5 others have reached before him, but what can be said is that Ken Griffey Jr. reaching the 600 home run mark is a great thing for baseball. In an era in baseball that has shadows cast over it with corker bats, player strikes, and performance enhancing drugs, it isn’t often that you get to hear about any of the good guys doing something outstanding.
In hitting his 600th home run Griffey joined legends Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays in a club reserved for an elite group of players. Mind you, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa are also members of this exclusive club but it seems more and more realistic that they used some sort of fake I.D. to make their way in to the 600 home run club. If you’re one of the few individuals that think that Bonds and Sosa hit their dingers naturally it’s time to get your head out of the dirt and realize that Griffey Jr. is the first clean guy to hit 600 home runs since Hank Aaron in 1971.
It is actually unfortunate for baseball and this amazing feat that Bonds and Sosa were able to fly under the radar for so long and get away with what they were doing. It’s just one more piece of baseball history that is tarnished, and while it may not seem like a big deal because so much of baseball and professional sports are tarnished now, it really is because the 600 home run club is one that only the most elite of players can ever think about reaching.
Obviously if Ken Griffey Jr. hadn’t missed over 400 games during his career we would probably be talking about him taking over the all time home run record from Barry Bonds in the near future. Unfortunately that isn’t the case and the record looks like it will be Bonds’ for a while and even then it appears the next in line is one of baseballs least liked players Alex Rodriguez. If you’re a real baseball fan just be happy that something good happened for one of the clean playing good guys still in the league. It may have taken Griffey 19 years to make it in to this elite club but we’re excited and congratulate him. We’d love to see him last long enough to take the overall record, but we’ll settle for whatever he finishes with.
