Former baseball great and future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. turns 43  today.

1. Ken Griffey Jr. is the second greatest left handed hitting outfielder born on November 21st in Donora, Pennsylvania. The best- a man named Stanley Frank Musial aka Stan The Man. Not a knock on Junior he is one of the greats but Stan The Man was better.

2. I will always think of Griffey as a Seattle Mariner. That is where he had his greatest years. His years in Cincinnati were injury filled and overall disappointing because of those injuries. Still you look at his career numbers and they are outstanding. A sure thing first ballot Hall of Famer. Also in an era of juicers Junior Griffey appears to be a player who played it straight. I think had he been juicing he wouldn’t have aged so quickly and had so many injuries in his 30’s.

3. Junior ended up with 630 home runs in his career,  1836 runs batted in, his career batting average was .284. He made 13 All-Star teams, won 10 Gold Glove Awards, 1 MVP Award and 4 AL Home Run titles. He was a member of baseball’s All-Century Team. He was fun and exciting to watch. In his prime Ken Griffey Jr. was the best player in baseball. He played with a lot of joy and enthusiasm.

4. His father Ken Griffey Sr. was an outstanding ballplayer. He was a 3 time All-Star and played in MLB from 1973-91. He was a better average hitter than his son but had nowhere near the power that Junior possesssed. He played with 4 teams most famously with the Big Red Machine in the 1970’s.

5. At the end of his career Ken Griffey Sr joined Ken Griffey Jr as a Seattle Mariner and they played together. They became the first father-son tandems to play together. Junior’s brother Craig played minor league baseball but never made the majors. Junior and Craig played together in spring training games.

6. Junior’s son Trey is a freshman wide receiver at the University of Arizona.

7. Junior was the first played taken in the 1987 MLB draft. I always look back and think what might have been, my Pittsburgh Pirates had the second pick. What if they Pirates had had that #1 pick. Griffey and Bonds the two best players in baseball on the same team? Of course the Pirates probably wouldn’t even have taken him. What did the Pirates do with their pick? They took an outfielder named Mark Merchant who never even smelled the major leagues.

8.Junior hit home runs in 8 straight games tying the record of Dale Long and Don Mattingly.

9. Ken Griffey Jr.s nicknames were Junior and The Kid. It is hard for me to believe that Junior is 43 years old. It seems like he just broke into the majors as a 19 year old. Time does fly.

10. Junior’s best seasons- I’d have to go with 1997 or 1998. He hit 56 home runs both seasons and had 147 and 148 RBI’s those years. The two greatest players of the era were Junior and Barry Bonds. Junior never played in a World Series, Bonds only played in one and his team lost that one. Great baseball players aren’t judged like a Quarterback is in football or a great basketball player is. It seems like there is always a sign on Dan Marino’s chest saying “Never won a Super Bowl” or Patrick Ewing’s “Never won a World Championship”