Another day at the office
Junior Griffey an outfielder and a gentlemen
The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.-Langston Hughes, My peopleKen Griffey Jr. is my favorite baseball players, so when I had the opportunity to interview him, there was no doubt that I would be there. I love baseball, and while the game is often passed down from generation to generation, I taught myself the game at the precocious age of 13. I used to watch NBA Inside Stuff and one commercial for Upper Deck trading cards used to stand out, as it showed Griffey Jr. robbing some unlucky hitter of a home run. His grace, swing, and number 24 intrigued me, so I begin to watch the Seattle Mariners, as I learned the game through the American League. Now I cheer for the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies, however that is another story.
Junior Griffey is a very respectful, humble, and talented person. I was honored to interview one of the true legends of the Major League Baseball. Below is the conversation we had around the diamond, during the Phillies batting practice: Talk about your relationship with Nike:
“[Big smile] It started with my first pair of Air Jordan…actually I had Nike before then, but I remember getting them. My brother had the red and black and I had the red, black, and white Air Jordan. We tried to talk my dad into Nike…he was into Converse, but we finally got him to go with Nike, and we have been a Nike family ever since. When I got to pro ball, I signed a contract…in the minor leagues I got 3 pairs of shoes, and when I got to the big leagues it was $1500 dollars, with $750 in merchandise and $750 in cash.
It’s not a company, it’s more of a family, and I think they have been through the ups and downs with me as far as my getting hurt, and all that I have been through. When I broke my wrist, I had to get a plate and 9 screws, and they [Nike] had a little small wall and everybody wrote get well soon. I detached a hamstring and one of the guys, Lynn Merritt who I’ve known since I was 19 came and visited me for a few days. I went to a basketball game and I sat between LeBron [James] and Phil [Knight]…it’s really just more of a family than it is a business relationship and I wouldn’t have it any other way. When my family needed something Nike was there.
On the commemorative 600 home runs sneaker:
“Yeah we are working on that, I just have to hit it [laughs]. Nike has taken care of my family…they always send a gift for Christmas, or a fruit basket, and the same thing on mother’s day and father’s day. Everybody that wears Nike, even if they play for the other team, we know all about them.”
Talk about your signature line and which sneaker is your favorite?
“The first one...it’s always the first one. What’s really interesting is that my son always gets my shoe before me. His baseball season would start off a month before mine, and I’d look at his shoes and say ‘man they look nice, I can’t wait to get mine…and he’d give me a look like yeah! He would get the shoes, and even now he gets them before me. If I come home and he has on the 600 home runs shoe, I’m going to look at him like he’s crazy, [laughs]. He’s my son and I can’t really argue.”
What was it like filming that baseball commercial with Michael Jordan and Spike Lee?
“My main man Spike! [Laughs] It was fun. I got to meet Spike Lee and I was so nervous…because I couldn’t wait to say ‘my main man Spike! You get nervous when you meet certain people and he is one of them. It wasn’t so much about meeting Mike…Mike was easy, it was just the fact that meeting Spike Lee and all of the things he has done, and I got a chance to see him this past off-season and I asked him if I could get that 3-movie deal [laughs]. I would like to one day go behind the scenes and sit there and watch him, because I think that is more entertaining than his actual work. His creativeness, how the Michael Jordan concept came about, etc., all the people that are a part of Nike is family. I can call Spike right now…his wife called my wife a couple of weeks ago, talking about getting together.”
When you look at 600 home runs what do you see?
“I start laughing; you have to understand that growing up in my house was a lot differently than other houses. Most people have to relate to their kids through sports…not in my house. Because my dad played sports, so we had other things to talk about. It wasn’t sports, it was how are you, how did you do this, and how did you do that? I knew how my dad did and that was the last thing we talked about. It didn’t matter if he went 0-4 or 4-4 he always came home with the same attitude. It was our turn, its was ‘hey lets go play, let’s do whatever. Now there is so much emphasis on the individual instead of the team. I remember going to the games and over 50% of the people in the stands had a program so they could mark down how the team was doing, they kept score; how many people are doing that now? You don’t see it anymore.”
So why do you wear the number 3? You used to wear 24, and I wore that number because I was born on October 24th:
“Really, October 24th…that’s my wedding day! I hit 24 home runs in one year, and one of my favorite players growing up was Ricky Henderson and he wore 24, and I really didn’t think about that…and growing up having guys around like Joe Black, Willie Mays, Chuck Harmon Sr., you know all these guys in my house day in and day out…I got a sense of history…a sense of history early, and what an African American had to go through and what they had to do for guys like me now to put on a uniform. I remember laughing because my dad would tell me stories, ‘I walked in the snow to school 12-miles, up hill both ways, you know that sort of thing. I grew up on those stories, and you say that didn’t really happen, that didn’t happen, and then you start listening to the other people talk and then you think…that really did happen. Maybe I should start believing it. And they would always make the stories funny, and some of the stories they told, I would start cracking up. When I check into hotels, a couple aliases I used were Joe Black; I tried to mix it up every now and then. I have 3 kids, I picked 24, 14 home runs and then 10 home runs in summer ball and in school, and then it was 30 for my dad, and then I picked 3 for my three kids. My oldest is Trey, which means 3, my daughter we named a boat after her, Taryn and we have another boat named the Chosen One because my youngest [Tevin] is adopted. So Trey asked me why I don’t do anything for him, so it’s for him and because I have three kids.”
What was it like playing with your dad in 1990?
“It was a lot of fun, but it was different. Everyone would talk to him and say ‘hey Ken how are you doing, and I would say hey dad let’s go…where are we going to eat? It was always dad, dad, dad. On the field he would say this is your team go out and play, have fun…I’m here to help you. He didn’t treat me like his son, he treated me like I was his teammate and I learned a lot by watching him and what he did. He was a guy that didn’t hit very many home runs, but he knew how to set up pitchers. He helped me out in the long run, I wouldn’t take certain pitches and then the next one, I’d hit it because I was looking for it. I miss those days.”
What did the Negro Leagues mean to you?
“It means everything! Guys went out there and they didn’t have the same opportunities nor the same equipment…I can sit here all day and the stories that Willie [Mays] told me…he said they used to wash their clothes, and then put them in the window on the bus and close the window to let the clothes dry in the wind. And I’m like ‘nah, and then I saw a picture, so those guys never gave up on their dream of being a professional athlete, and whatever they had to do they did it, and a lot of people don’t see that. Jackie Robinson took a whole lot of punishment so we could be here, and every generation gets farther and farther away from it, because they don’t know those stories. I had a dad that watched those games, and I grew up with people in my house that played in the league and against each other. I have a 1956 World Series baseball that Joe [Black] gave me, and it’s sitting in my house. He wanted to give it someone that would respect it and understand it. I was 22 when he gave it to me and I understood, but then I started reading about it and learning. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to go out and live my dream. The only thing that makes me upset is that Buck [O’Neil] should be in the Hall of Fame. They asked him to speak about the importance of the Negro League and he did it, but he should have been in there. That’s the only thing that I am upset about with the Hall of Fame because that man has done more for baseball…one man, than anybody, other than Jackie Robinson. He has carried the torch for African-Americans hands down!”
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