Griffey Out of Season (again!)

[ISiddiqui]

They are just reporting it on ESPNNEWS (and speculating if he'll retire).

[NoMyths]

Why retire? Getting hurt every year (while on contract) is his claim to fame.

[ISiddiqui]

That's true... but I assume it kinda hurts to get injured so much ;).

[NoMyths]

That's true... but I assume it kinda hurts to get injured so much ;).Nah, he's used to it. ;)

[ISiddiqui]

He knows how to fall? ;)

[NoMyths]

It's like Lethal Weapon, man...he just pops his groin back into place at home and heads out to the golf course. :D

[RainRaven]

Are their any other baseball players that were hall of famers in the making then boom their body just fell apart on them like Griffey?

[ISiddiqui]

Koufax?

[The_herd]

Albert Belle's body didn't really fall apart, nor was he a sure thing to be in the HOF, but his name deserves mention.

Pedro may be a player worth keeping an eye on as well. Him pitching right now reminds me of Griffey jogging to flyballs in the outfield. Looks like he's hoping he doesn't get hurt.

[RainRaven]

Your right about Belle (though as a orioles fan I wasn't exactly heartbroken) and Pedro is an interesting case. Pedro will eithier fall apart completely at one point, or who knows, keep proving all the naysayers wrong.

[Leonidas]

Tony Conigliaro (although it was a beaning)
Bo Jackson
Tony Horton (although I think it was cancer)
Hal Trosky
Herb Score (line drive off the face)
Belle
Carlos Baerga (too much partying)
Kirk Gibson
Karl Spooner
Don Gullett

[SackAttack]

Koufax?

His body didn't fall apart on him. He had his arthritic issues for several years and dominated despite them.

It just came down to the doc telling him "if you do this too much longer, you'll very likely lose the use of your left arm."

Modern medical science could have saved his career. Can you imagine if Koufax had pitched at that level another ten years?

[Senator]

Chan Ho Park -


/giggling to myself

[clintl]

Are their any other baseball players that were hall of famers in the making then boom their body just fell apart on them like Griffey?

Mickey Mantle. I noticed this a year or two ago. There are some striking parallels between Mantle's career path and Griffey's. They both had significant injuries at age 31 that pretty much set them on a path of rapid decline after that. Mantle bounced back for one last great year at age 32, but was pretty much done as an elite player after that, and had lots of nagging injuries the rest of his career. Griffey has been having more serious injuries, but his stats are showing a similar decline even when he is playing.

Mickey Mantle (http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mantlmi01.shtml)
Ken Griffey Jr. (http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/griffke02.shtml)

[Leonidas]

Mickey Mantle. I noticed this a year or two ago. There are some striking parallels between Mantle's career path and Griffey's. They both had significant injuries at age 31 that pretty much set them on a path of rapid decline after that. Mantle bounced back for one last great year at age 32, but was pretty much done as an elite player after that, and had lots of nagging injuries the rest of his career. Griffey has been having more serious injuries, but his stats are showing a similar decline even when he is playing.

Mickey Mantle (http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mantlmi01.shtml)
Ken Griffey Jr. (http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/griffke02.shtml)

Great point. Really puts Mantle's career in perspective. One could make the same argument for DiMaggio, only throw in his years lost to WWII and you really get the idea we were severely cheated out of his greatness. You look at his numbers pre WWII compared to post WWII and it's not even the same player.

[pennywisesb]

Bo Jackson


:eek: Maybe if you only count football, no way he makes the HOF in baseball.

As far as Griffey is concerned, I've always loved the guy and it just sucks to see him get hurt all the time. I really thought he was coming around this year and now this....To be honest, at this point it might be better to just retire and spare himself all the adversity that is going to come from this injury.

[RendeR]

The Reds shoulda offloaded his sorry ass two years ago for some quality PITCHING TALENT.


which we so obviously lack in any form.

[Ksyrup]

Griffey's out of season? Damn, we missed it! When does Griffey Season start again? I'm sure several people wouldn't mind shooting him and putting him out of his (and their) misery.

[vtbub]

His body didn't fall apart on him. He had his arthritic issues for several years and dominated despite them.

It just came down to the doc telling him "if you do this too much longer, you'll very likely lose the use of your left arm."

Modern medical science could have saved his career. Can you imagine if Koufax had pitched at that level another ten years?

Can you imagine if Koufax was actually good between 55-60?

[Chief Rum]

I forget where I read it (maybe it was here lol), but I saw a story once about Koufax. It seems before a '77 or '78 Series game with the Yanks, Koufax threw batting practice for the Dodgers. Apparently he was really throwing it, too, to get the hitters ready for the Yanks' arms.

And he was absolutely dominating them, despite bing well into his 40s. Lasorda actually went out to the mound and asked Koufax to stop pitching batting practice because he felt Koufax was unintentionally demoralizing the Dodger hitters.

CR

[vtbub]

I forget where I read it (maybe it was here lol), but I saw a story once about Koufax. It seems before a '77 or '78 Series game with the Yanks, Koufax threw batting practice for the Dodgers. Apparently he was really throwing it, too, to get the hitters ready for the Yanks' arms.

And he was absolutely dominating them, despite bing well into his 40s. Lasorda actually went out to the mound and asked Koufax to stop pitching batting practice because he felt Koufax was unintentionally demoralizing the Dodger hitters.

CR

Low 90's in the radar gun. It's on his SportsCentury biography.

[clintl]

I remember reading a Koufax biography when I was a kid, and one incident in particular that I think happened several years before he retired. His elbow was so bad that he couldn't use a screwdriver to fix his hi-fi system, but he could still go out dominate hitters. The guy was amazing.

[SackAttack]

Mantle had osteoporosis, though, didn't he?

[Suicane75]

Lets see, Richie Sexson....Vincente Padilla.....Joe Borrowski.....Zach Day....Ken Griffey....Lets see if I can get thru the last month in my fantasy league and hold on to first place. There has to be some sort of prize for surviving all those injuries.

[stkelly52]

Griffey doesn't need to retire, he just needs to go to an American League team and play DH where he won't be as likly to get injured.

I here the M's need a new DH

[sterlingice]

So, who had August 11th in the 2004 Edition of the Griffey Injury Pool?

SI

[Sharpieman]

Poor Griff, actually I don't really feel sorry for him. He's getting paid how much to play how many games? Someone needs to use math to find out how many games he's played in the last 3 years and calculate how much money he is making for each game played. He could be one of the highest paid players per game in the MLB.

[judicial clerk]

Kevin Brown?