Chris Sabo’s Goggles

I’ll never forget the day the Reds traded for Ken Griffey, Jr. – Feb. 10, 2000.

Back then I still lived in Cincinnati, and I was still licking my wounds from the crushing loss four months earlier (I hate you, Steve Parris) to the New York Mets in the Wildcard play-in game.

I don’t remember when the Griffey trade rumors started, but like most Reds fans, I doubted that someone of Griffey’s caliber would end up in a city primarily known its chili dogs and the Bungals. But I was wrong (Shh… don’t tell my wife!) and Griffey came to the Reds for Mike Cameron, Brett Tomko, three cans of Skyline Chili and a bottle of Montgomery Inn barbeque sauce (Jim Bowden threw those last two in… of course).

I laughed back in 2000 when I saw who we had to give up (or not give up) to get Griffey, and eight years later I’m still laughing.

The press conference announcing the trade was broadcast live – at night – on all of the local networks.  If memory serves me correctly, they even had live footage of Griffey’s plane landing at the airport, and live arial coverage of Griffey’s car pulling up to Riverfront Stadium.  Despite all of the attention this trade was getting, the Cincinnati news networks still probably only devoted about half of the resources that they would devote to a one-inch snow storm.

For me, I didn’t really care what Griffey, or Carl Linder, or Jim Bowden had to say – all I wanted to see was Junior put on that Reds hat.  And when he did… man, it was sweet. 

I remember the phone ringing at my house just as the press conference started, and I was shocked that the rest of the world hadn’t stopped moving like it had in my world.

WHO CALLS DURING KEN GRIFFEY, JR’s PRESS CONFERENCE?!  

The Reds had just come off a decent ‘99 season, and many (including me) felt that Griffey was the last piece of the puzzle.  The 2000 season didn’t go as planned, but you can’t really blame Griffey for that.  I blame Steve Parris again (I blame him for most things in life). 

I don’t have to mention that Griffey has had his fair share of injuries during his eight-year tenure with the Reds (believe me, I’ve been in the seats to witness at least four of those catostrophic injuries), but he always manages to bounce back and regain the fans’ interest again.  As frustrating as it can be to see him pull up lame as he’s trying to stretch a single into a double, I’ve never stopped admiring the guy. 

There are only a handful of baseball players out there today that are geniunely fun to watch, and Griffey is one of them.  I could watch that swing all day.  Hell, I even liked watching Michael Tucker swing the bat because he was the only other guy in the Majors that swung the bat like Griffey.*

*Just to be clear, that will be the first and last Michael Tucker/Ken Griffey, Jr. comparisson I will ever make.

Last year was a great season for Ken Griffey, Jr. fans, and I hope we all get to see more of The Kid in action in 2008. 

So, until Opening Day gets here, read this nice article and be thankful that Barry Bonds was never a Cincinnati Red.