Ken Griffey Jr. is, and will always be, remembered as one of the greatest players of all time. He has 600+ career homeruns, has been on sportscenter making unbelievable plays my entire childhood and used to pimp the hell out of his homeruns. Something curious happens when you fully examine Jr.'s homerun numbers and compare to pictures...
Griffey starts his career averaging 22 homers in 145 games per season. Griffey then went from 27 to 45 homers and gained (what appears to be at least) 20 lbs between the 92 and 93 seasons.
Then he hit 40 hrs in 111 games in the strike shortened 94 season (on pace for 58 hrs). Has a nasty injury on maybe the best catch I've ever seen in 95, and in 96-00 averages 50 homers in 153 games a season.
Remember, this unbelieveable 50 homers a season average between 96-00 just happens to be when hitting 50 was all trendy. Albert Belle (steroids) got it started in 1995 with 50. Brady Anderson (Steroids) and Mark Mcgwire (Steroids) hit 50+ in 1996. Mcgwire (steroids) hits 58 to Griffey's (steroids?) 56 in 1997. We all remember what happened in 1998 with Sosa (steroids) and Mcgwire (steroids) but Greg Vaughn (steroids) also hit 50 and Griffey hit 56.
Believe it or not, Griffey was pretty injury free up to this point with the exception of his huge injury in 95. Then out of nowhere he starts to get consistantly injured (mostly ligimate injuries which are associated to steroid use) and averages 23 homers a season in 110 games per season.
Compare the 23 average homers in 110 games to his 40 in 111 games during steroid era. If you adjust the totals to equal his 96-00 games played average... He averaged 32 homers per 153 games during his injury prone years.
recap: Griffey in my mind is a definite HOF, and should get 100% of the vote. Call me skeptical though, that a guy gains 20 lbs in the steroid era, and jumps his average homerun per season by 210% for four seasons, then starts to get ligament injuries(common steroid injury) all while everyone elses' bodies get bigger and hit 50 homers a season. I'm not sure why he got a free pass. I think part of it was that we all liked his smile and his attitude. He was friendly to the press and fans. Let us not kid ourselves though...Griffey had his best four years during the the height of the steroid era. Here are a list of people who hit 50 homers with him during those years...Albert Belle, Brady Anderson, Mark Mcgwire, Greg Vaughn, Sammy Sosa. What do all of those players have in common? If you said "they play baseball?" you are correct :)
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