Jr. brought up right
Griffey used to be viewed as a new-school punk, but CHRIS DE LUCA says that's no longer true
Turns out, The Kid is about as old-school as they come.
Especially in the post-Steroid Era days.
(AP)
''You have all the media outlets that show the individual and what they are doing, instead of showing what teams do,'' said Griffey, whose father was one of the components of the Cincinnati Reds' Big Red Machine days of the 1970s. ''So much is focused on what people are doing instead of what the team is doing. I try to help the young guys understand it's a team sport.''
That's easy to forget when the home run -- a singular aspect of the game -- has become more of a focal point than ever. Power is equated with star power. As opposed to the 1970s ''Me Generation,'' the Steroid Era became the ''Me-First Generation.''
And baseball seemed to be buying it.
Griffey broke into the big leagues with the Seattle Mariners in 1989, three years after Barry Bonds debuted with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Eleven years later, Griffey was the runaway favorite to break Henry Aaron's all-time home-run record of 755. Now Bonds stands on the doorstep, five away from breaking the record after being a late scratch from the San Francisco Giants' lineup on Monday night for the opener of a four-game series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
The Kid is 37 now. He's a feared slugger for the Reds, but his 587 home runs don't mean as much as they once did.
During the 2000 season, Aaron predicted Griffey would be the one to eventually be kicking down his door.
''If I had to make a bet on who'll break my record -- and I'm not a betting man -- I'd bet on Griffey, simply because he's 30,'' Aaron told TV Guide in July 2000. ''[Mark] McGwire, at 36, is getting up there, and it'll get tough, being the kind of hitter he is.''
Bonds, who entered the 2000 season with 445 home runs when he was 35, wasn't even mentioned.
Injuries derailed Griffey's run at Aaron.
Despite all of the early hoopla, Griffey insists his early goal never was to lap Aaron.
''If you find yourself thinking about hitting home runs, you're going to find yourself not playing baseball,'' Griffey said. ''What you want to do is go out there and do the things that got you there. Hitting the baseball, getting them over, getting them in, doing all of the little things -- and big things happen.''
Not anymore.
Thanks in large part to how the game changed during the Steroid Era, the little things meant even less. The game was -- for the most part -- tailored around home-run hitters in the last 20 years or so. Everything else took a back seat.
''Look at strikeouts,'' said former Cubs pitcher and minor-league coach Jim Colborn, a longtime Pacific Rim scouting executive who's now the Pittsburgh Pirates' pitching coach. ''Nobody cares that you strike out 150 times. In fact, every run-producing hitter in baseball has over 100 strikeouts, except Vladimir Guerrero, and nobody cares.''
Joe DiMaggio's career high for strikeouts came during his rookie year of 1936, when he had 39. He also had 29 home runs and 125 RBI and hit .323 as a rookie with the New York Yankees. He finished his career with 369 strikeouts and 361 home runs.
Aaron never reached triple digits in strikeouts, with his career high at 97 in 1967, when he hit 39 home runs. Willie Mays, who belted 660 career home runs, reached triple-digit strikeouts only once during his career, fanning 123 times as a 40-year-old in 1971.
Fast-forward to the Steroid Era. McGwire and the Cubs' Sammy Sosa were credited with saving the game during their home-run chase in 1998. Sosa struck out 171 times and hit 66 home runs. McGwire struck out 155 times on his way to 70 home runs.
To his credit, Bonds has had only one 100-plus strikeout season during his career, when he had 102 as a rookie. He hit 16 home runs that season.
But during the Steroid Era, he was the exception to the rule.
Striking out was acceptable because the big power hitters weren't being asked to do anything else other than belt the ball out of the ballpark.
Booming home runs might have added up to bigger crowds, but that home-run star wasn't going to stamp your ticket to glory. That change in philosophy caused the White Sox to alter their offense that was based almost entirely on power hitters to adding more speed and versatile bats to the lineup in 2005. Yes, they still hit home runs, but their offense had plenty of weapons that led to a World Series title.
Keep in mind, Sosa still doesn't own a World Series ring. McGwire -- despite all of his productive seasons in St. Louis -- never won a ring with the Cardinals.
''The era of a Joe DiMaggio, where he has [369 strikeouts vs. 361 home runs] is completely unimaginable in today's world,'' Colborn said. ''The best contact home-run hitters are still 100-strikeout-a-year guys.''
Griffey's career high in home runs is 56 in 1998, when he struck out a career-high 121 times.
He still considers himself more than a home-run hitter.
''I grew up in an old-time house, so the first question was, 'How did your team do?' '' Griffey said. ''I would explain that to him, then he would say, 'And what did you do?' That's how I grew up -- your team comes first.''
Contributing: Gordon Wittenmyer