Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Happy Birthday, Junior!

Episode Date: November 22, 2020

Today, November 21, is Ken Griffey Jr.'s birthday. On The Kid's birthday, D.C. talks about his career, both with the Mariners and at large. In the show's second half, he talks about some other Major League Baseball players who share Junior's birthday, including two Hall of Famers. (One of whom was also born in the same city.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thank you for tuning in to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Yes, indeed. Thank you very much, Joey Martin. Welcome to the second part of an unplanned double-header today on Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on podcast network, or for short, T-L-O-P-N, or for shorter, T-L-O-P-N. Please remember to download rate and subscribe to this program using whichever podcast. app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked on Mariner's podcast or any program here on Tlopin.

All you got to do is say, hey, smart device, go ahead and play locked on whichever podcast. Follow us on Twitter at L-O underscore Mariners. Follow me on Twitter at DC underscore Lundberg, L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G, if you're scoring at home. Today is November 21st, 2020-O-Dominee, the birthday of probably the greatest Seattle Mariner ever and one of the best center fielders ever to play the game of baseball. I speak, of course, of Ricky Cradle, no, Ken Griffey Jr., of course, who was born on this date in 1969. He is not the only prominent major leaguer to be born on November 21st, but I found out that

he is the only Seattle Mariner ever to be born on November 21st. I found that very, very interesting. Among all the other players who have played for the Seattle Mariners, Junior's the only one who has this particular birthday. Junior does share his birthday with two other Hall of Famers. We'll get to some of the other players who share his birthday in the second half of today's show. And in the first half of the show, it's going to be all junior, ladies and gentlemen. Incidentally, earlier this year, I believe in May,

I did something that I called the Ken Griffey Jr. project, where I projected his career number out to see what they may have looked like if he didn't get injured so often if the injury bug didn't bite him. I wanted to see if he would come close to Hank Aaron's home run record of 756 and what his other career numbers would look like as well. So if you want to see the result of that, go back and listen to that series of three or four shows that I did in May. But his actual career numbers, his first major league game, the beginning of the 1989 season, April 3rd, 1988. He played 127 games that year,

slash 264, 329, 420, 16 home runs, 23 doubles, 61 runs driven in. Pretty good rookie season. Good enough for third in the American League rookie of the year race. Winner that year was Greg Olson of the Baltimore Orioles, who had a serviceable Major League career, didn't go on to do all that much. Tom Gordon was second, who had a,

pretty good major league career, mostly as a starting pitcher and as a short reliever, and he is the father, ladies and gentlemen, of now former Mariner D. Strange Gordon. Craig Griffey Jr. was third. He was first among position players. Fourth was a man named Craig Worthington, who basically did not have much of a major league career. Beyond this point, Jim Abbott was fifth, a man who was born with one hand, and not only managed to pitch in the big leagues, but he managed to throw a no-hitter as well. Very inspiring story, and he is now a motivational speaker.

Jim Abbott's one of my favorite players. Six was Kevin Brown, the Sinkerball pitcher, who went on to pitch in multiple All-Star games. Back to Junior, though. His first All-Star season was his next season, 1990, and the remainder of his Mariners' career, his first tenure with the Mariners, every single one of them was an All-Star season.

In 1990, he hit 300 for the first season. first time and slashed 300, 366, 481. This was also his first season with 20 or more home runs, hitting 22 of them. He hit 22 home runs also in 1991. His batting average went way up in 91, as did his doubles total. 327, 399, 527 slash line in 1991 in his age 21 season. Think about what you were doing at age 21. I wasn't doing much of anything. And this man hits 3.5.5. It's 327 and wax 42 doubles. This was also his first season with 100 more RBIs, 100 of them exactly. His first season with 40 or more home runs was 1993, 45 home runs that year and he was still a 300 hitter. 309, 408, 617 slugging, and 109 runs batted in. Prior to the 1994 season, stepping away from statistics for a bit, prior to the 94 season, his first video game,

was released. Ken Griffey Jr. presents Major League Baseball. Was released in March of 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It featured a Major League Baseball license, but not an MLBPA license. Junior is the only real player in the game. However, it came with a name editor so you can edit the player's names. And the fake players did have real-life counterparts and real statistics from the 1993 season and closing day rosters from the 1993 season were used. This was the first of four video games that Nintendo would release featuring Ken Griffey Jr.

The first of two on the Super Nintendo. The other two would be released on the Nintendo 64 a few years later. 1994 was strike shortened, so take these numbers a little bit with a grain of salt. 111 games, he would have added to these numbers is what I'm saying. 110 games, 40 home runs, 90 runs driven in, 323. 4-0-2, 6474 slash line, an OPS of 1.076, second in the American League MVP race that year behind Frank Thomas of the Chicago White Sox. And while 1995 was certainly a memorable year for the Seattle Mariners, Griffey was injured

for more than half of it. He played 72 games, and only slashed 258, 379, 481. This is a throwaway season for junior. year. He just never got on track because of that wrist injury, although he did play a prominent role in the Mariners postseason that year. 1996, he came back with a vengeance. 49 home runs, and he would have had 50 if a home run in Cleveland hadn't been washed away because of a rain-canceled game. I think they stopped after three innings or something and never made it up. He slashed 303, 392, 628 that year, and drove in 140 runs in 140.

games. That's an insane total. He had more RBI the next season while uping his home run total to 56 and he led the American League in slugging percentage that year and total bases, not to mention runs scored and intentional walks. He was intentionally walked 23 times that year and he was the American League MVP. 1995 was the race for the record, so to speak, the home run record. His batting average dropped 20 points, but he still hit 50. 56 home runs and drove in 146. 1999 was his last year, as a Seattle Mariner, his first tenure at least. He did lead the American League with 48 home runs, hit 285, 384 on base, and a 576 slugging

percentage. I think he was kind of distracted more or less towards the end of that season, and he requested the trade and wound up with the Cincinnati Reds, where he had a pretty good first season as a red. Career numbers for Junior. 2,671 games played. Slash line, 284, 370, 538, OPS of 907, 630 home runs, which puts him among the elite, among the very elite.

524 doubles, 1,836 runs batted in, 2,781 hits. That hit total alone puts him among elite company, not to mention. the other numbers that I've already named. This guy had a fantastic major league career, and we haven't even touched on his defense yet. He was fun to watch play center field, ladies and gentlemen. He made some of the most spectacular highlight real catches you would ever want to see, including diving catches, robbing people of home runs. The guy could do it all. Well, he wasn't the best base stealer out there, and he admitted it's because he was not the best slider. He probably would have stolen more bases if he were able to slide better. But as that was not

really part of his repertoire, he really didn't need it that much. I mean, these numbers, my goodness, and he really passes the eye test, not only at bat and in center field. That swing of his was a sight to behold. Career numbers as a Seattle Mariner, ladies and gentlemen, slash line of 292, 374, 533. 1,685 games as a Mariner. This includes the beginning and end of his career. 417 home runs as a Mariner. 341 doubles.

1,216 RBI as a Mariner and 1,843 hits as a Mariner. Certainly one of the best players ever to put on a Seattle Mariner's uniform and among the best players to have ever played Major League Base. baseball. We will talk about some of the other November 21st birthdays on the other side of this break. Have you got a question or a comment? If you do keep it to yourself. No, no, no, no, no. If you have a question or a comment, I don't know why I said that. If you've got a question or a comment send it into Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com, and I will read it and reply to it on an upcoming email episode. Questions and comments on any subject are welcome and in fact

encouraged during this offseason as there's not a whole lot of baseball stuff to talk about. As to about music, bowling, curling, any other sports I watch. Well, those are the other sports I watch. But ask me anything that's on your mind. Send it into Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com. I'll read it and reply to it. Remember, it's a family show, so keep it appropriate, please. More Locked on Mariners after this.

Now time for the second half of Locked on Mariners. Once again, your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, J.M. We're back on Lockedon Mariners. Talking about Ken Griffey Jr. on his birthday. Well, we did talk about Ken Griffey Jr. in the first half of the show, and we're going to go into some other players who share his birthday of November 21st. He does share his birthday with two other Hall of Famers, and one of them is one of the all-time

greats to have ever played Major League Baseball. Ken Griffey Jr. is not the best player born on November 21st. Hard to believe as that is, but he shares his birthday with the legendary Stan Musial, who slashed 331, 417, 550. in his 22-year big league career with an OPS of 967, 475 home runs, 3,630 hits, 1,949 runs scored. Monster numbers, monster numbers from Stan Musial. And remember, gang, Ken Griffey Jr. and Stan Musial not only share a birthday, they were born in the same city, De Nora, Pennsylvania.

The other Hall of Famer with whom Jr. shares a birthday is Freddie. Lindstrom, who primarily played third base and outfield in a 13-year big league career, which spanned from 1924 to 1936 with the New York Giants mostly. He slashed 311, 351, 449 in his 13 big league seasons. He had 103 home runs, but that was an era where home runs were not that prevalent. 301 doubles and RBI total of 779 OPS of 800. Lindstrom was voted. into the Hall of Fame in 1976. Some of the other players with whom Crancrieffield Jr. shares a birthday,

who you may remember or who were more prominent, in terms of games played on this day, Stan Musial has played the most games of any men born on this date, 3,026. Junior is second at 2,671. Third is a man named Tommy McCraw with 1468 games played in 13 seasons, 1963 through 1975.

He was primarily a first baseman and outfielder. He slashed 246, 309, 361 in his big league career. He drove in 404 runs. Some of the others include Dick Schofield, a shortstop who played primarily with the Angels, and Hank Blaylock, one of the more recent players on this list. He played nine seasons, mostly with the Texas Rangers, before winding up his career,

with 26 games with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, or the Tampa Bay Rays at that point, in 2010. Came up as a third baseman, played some first base in DH towards the end of his career. He could hit. His career slash line was 269, 329, 463. He had some injury problems towards the middle of his career. He came up at age 21 and then started to have injury problems in his mid-20s,

and that really derailed his career. He could have had a much better career than that. On the pitching side, the man who has pitched the most games among players who were born on November 21st is a man named Bobby Matthews. He was born in 1851 and played 15 seasons from 1871 to 1887. The man in number two position is a little bit more contemporary. In fact, you may have heard of him. Mark Icorn, who pitched for the Angels and Blue Jays primarily in an 11-year career

that spanned from 1982 to 1996. He pitched seven games in 82 and then came back to the big leagues in 1986. As a relief pitcher pitched 69 games and had an ERA of 172. And the following year, 1987, he pitched in an American League leading 89 games. That's a lot of games, ladies and gentlemen. He had a very productive career as a middle reliever, again, mostly with the Blue Jays and Angels, mostly with the Blue Jays, and in fact was part of both of their World Series championship teams in 1992 and 1993. Brian Meadows was also born on this date, a pitcher who pitched nine seasons.

born in 1975, and some of the other contemporary players on this list really are not that significant of players Robert Stock, Jason Garcia, born in 1992, and also Abel de los Santos born in 1992. I have to admit, I've never heard of the last three gentlemen. Well, that's about going to wrap it up for today. Kind of a brief look at November 21st birthdays across Major League Baseball, as this is again the birthday of the great Ken Griffey Jr. Happy birthday once again to the kid. to be back tomorrow going back to talking about classic world series which specific one i'm not exactly sure yet i'm thinking maybe 1954 maybe 1947 or maybe something a little bit more recent

1985 maybe 1980 there are quite a few of them that i still want to talk about in any case we're going to be joined tomorrow by mr magoo grignac and a spicy chicken sandwich i think i'm getting hungry and i'm pretty sure i'm going to wendies after this is done in any case uh please remember to download right and subscribe to this program using whichever podcasting app that may happen to spring into your brainhead. Follow us on Twitter at DC underscore Lundberg. We'll now follow us on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. Follow me on Twitter at DC underscore Lundberg.

I think I'm really in need of food right now. We're going to be back tomorrow, like I said, and this is not going well, so goodbye. This is Joey Martin saying join us back here next time for another edition of Locked-on Mariner's, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.