[Scav]

I was thinking about this last night. Ken Griffey, to me, was my Mickey Mantle. Griffey came into the league when I was 8 years old I think (1989 right) and was just amazing. He was my favorite player growing up, the one that I tried to be (Then I got a stomach and was put behind the plate, best move ever actually but that is another story).

I have actually had the pleasure to meet both Mickey Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr. My high school baseball team use to take a trip to Arizona EVERY spring break to practice out there becuase the winter/spring was just too bad here, this gave us a distinct advantage over other teams because while we weren't able to play against other teams there, we were able to play against other teams. We went to Ho-Ho Kam Park to see the Mariners vs Cubs play a spring training game. Now, I was just wandering around and I see a huge amount of people going nuts and there I see Griffey Jr signing things. Now, I wasn't a kid, nor was I an adult so I had to do something wild to get him to sign the ball that I caught in batting practice. My huge hawaiian friend goes "Get on my shoulders" and I am like "You are nuts" and he is like "here is my camera, get a good picture"

I have a ball in my hand with the camera, and griffey Jr looks at me and goes "Throw me the ball", signs it, and flips it back to me.....Pretty f'n awesome and great to see him reach this achievement, he easily could have hung it up after all the hamstring and calf problems.