Ken Griffey Jr "The Natural"

Ken Griffey Jr. Announced his retirement from the baseball fields last wednesday june 2nd
He is for me one of the top 10 baseball players ever, the man could run, could hit for avg, could hit for power, he was a great deffensive player at the center field, possesed a great range overthere reaching balls that an average fielder couldn't, he had a cannon for arm and had the finest swing in baseball.
if you ask me i'd rather see him playing untill he reached at least 700 hommers, but noone can tell which is the best moment to retire than himself, a 22 year career is more than enough. I'm sure he feels satisfied with what he has done through these years.

He reached the majors in 1989 at the age 19, playing for the Seattle Mariners with his dad as a teammate, playing 127 games hitting 16 home runs and a batting average of 264, they called him "The Natural"; Everyone knew he was a rising star, he was above the game.
on september 14 of 1990 he and his father became the first father/son duo to hit back to back home runs.
through the 90's he was one of the most important sluggers, setting career highs in home runs with 56 in 1997 and 1998, batting in 146 and 147 runs.

He played for the Seattle Mariners until 1999 when he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Mike Cameron, Brett Tomko, Antonio Perez and Jake Meyer.The first two seasons in Cincinnati where acceptable, but then he started to suffer several injuries being the most relevant the one he had in his harmstring. From that moment his playing time started to decrase a lot, and his skills were lowered because of his aging and injuries.

In 2004 "The Junior" joined the 500 home run club, he was the 20th memeber to get there.

His home run number 600 was hit on April of 2008, at Land Shark Stadium in Miami, Receiving a great ovation.
That same year he was traded to the Chicago White Sox at the very trade deadline. He could play in the play offs again since hi did with the Mariners in 1997, they lost teh ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays.

in the off-season Griffey signed a contract again with the Seattle Mariners, the prodigal son had returned.
the crowd received him standing in the first game of the 2009 season. That season he played 117 games with 19 home runs and a batting average of  214.

In 2010 Griffey was mostly on the bench, sometimes he appeared on the DH spot, but as we maight see he has not comfortable with hi playing time.

he announced his retirement on June 2nd, 2010


career numbers and acheivements:

22 seasons played with three different teams
2671 games played
11304 Plate Appearances
2781 hits
630 home runs (5th all time)
1836 Runs Batted In
284 Batting Average

13 time all-star
10 Golden Gloves
1 time MVP
8 Silver Slugger Awards

No doubt this player is a Hall Of Famer

the most natural player ever, the finest swing ever, one of the best center fielders I have ever seen.