Tuesday, Jun. 02, 2009

Is it time to say farewell to Junior?

By Eric Degerman, sportstricities.com

How much longer will it be before Ken Griffey Jr., heads into retirement?

He seems to have added much-needed leadership and his charming smile to the Seattle Mariners dugout, but he's not adding much to the lineup other than a few bases on balls.

Is it worth the nostalgia to keep writing in the lineup the name of a designated hitter who is hitting just .208 as of June 2? That ranks 15th in the 14-team American League.

This morning, his batting average among teammates is ahead of only rookie catcher Rob Johnson (.186) and utility infielder Ronny Cedeno (.173).

The league batting average is .271. And Griffey has only provided five home runs, tying him for second on the club with the slap-hitting Ichiro. Adrian Beltre also is among the underachieving M's — batting only .227 — but at least he plays a Gold Glove third base.

I keep seeing what the left-handed hitting Mike Carp — among those who came over from the New York Mets in the J.J. Putz deal — is doing in Tacoma (9 HRs, 302 batting average, .419 on base percentage. I also wonder if the 22-year-old first baseman were still with the Mets organization if he'd be in New York's lineup as a result of Carlos Delgado's hip injury.

Griffey is not in this for the money, and he won't be receiving the attendance-based bonus in his contract if last night's announced crowd of 16,979 is the latest indication of the slowing turnstiles.

Indeed, he returned to the Mariners for the right reasons, but I'm wondering if time is drawing nigh to begin his countdown for induction in Cooperstown.

Don't think I wrote this lightly. The first baseball game I took my wife, Traci, to was the first Griffey father/son game at the Kingdome in 1990. And the only single-autograph ball I own features "Jr.", which Mom bought me for Christmas after his 1997 MVP campaign.

On the other hand, about the only times Traci will sit down with me and watch the games is when Griffey and Ichiro step in the batter's box, so I hope Junior turns it around quickly.