News - National
Ken Griffey Jr Retires
Posted: Jun 2, 2010 7:23 PM by Chris Welty
Updated: Jun 2, 2010 7:23 PM
SEATTLE (AP) - Ken Griffey Jr. retired Wednesday night, ending
one of the great careers in baseball history.
The 40-year-old Griffey told the Mariners that he was done
playing, and manager Don Wakamatsu made the announcement before
Seattle faced Minnesota.
"While I feel I am still able to make a contribution on the
field and nobody in the Mariners front office has asked me to
retire, I told the Mariners when I met with them prior to the 2009
season and was invited back that I will never allow myself to
become a distraction," Griffey said in a statement.
"I feel that without enough occasional starts to be sharper
coming off the bench, my continued presence as a player would be an
unfair distraction to my teammates and their success as a team is
what the ultimate goal should be," he said.
Griffey was hitting only .184 with no homers and seven RBIs this
year and recently went a week without playing. There was a report
earlier this season - which Griffey denied - that he'd fallen
asleep in the clubhouse during a game.
Griffey was a perennial All-Star outfielder and ranks fifth on
the career home run list with 630. He won an MVP award and was a
Gold Glover. The only thing missing on his resume was a trip to the
World Series.
A star from the get-go, he played 22 years in the majors with
Seattle, his hometown Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox. He
hit .284 lifetime with 1,836 RBIs.
For a time in the 1990s, he was considered the best player in
baseball. But then injuries began to take their toll and his
production started to decline.
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