SEATTLE -- Ken Griffey Jr. turned his cap around backward as
he walked into the batting cage. Second swing, home run eight rows
into the bleachers beyond right field. Third swing, a towering
drive off a cafe window in the second deck.
The loudest batting practice crowd at Safeco Field in years
roared.
For a moment, it was the 1990s again in Seattle.
"Griffey, you the man!" yelled a Mariners fan in the first
deck.
The man credited with saving baseball in Seattle through
majestic home runs, wall-scaling catches and magnetic charisma was
back for the first time since forcing the Mariners to trade him to
his hometown Cincinnati Reds in 2000. He is 37 now, owner of 582
career home runs entering Friday night's game.
"I've had some good times here. Learned to play baseball
here," said Griffey, whom the Mariners drafted No. 1 overall in
1987 and put on their opening-day lineup two days later. He stayed
there for the next 11 years.
"Being a 19-year-old kid, it was on-the-job training. And the
organization here allowed me to be me," he said.
Griffey smiled often while keeping his arms crossed in front of
him on a table during a press conference before batting practice,
and he addressed the crowd in a ceremony on the field just before
the start of the game.
After worrying about getting booed -- just as former Mariners
slugger Alex Rodriguez has been for seven years since he bolted to
the largest contract in baseball history with the Texas Rangers --
Griffey received a roaring, 3½-minute standing ovation from the
sellout crowd.
"Never did I imagine it would be like this coming back," he
said. "I didn't know how much I missed being in Seattle."
The fans roared again.
The Mariners presented Griffey with a framed photo of Safeco
Field during the pregame ceremony, with the words "The House that
Griffey Built" across the top.
Griffey's wife and their three children -- Trey, 13 and in a Reds
uniform after taking batting practice with dad, plus daughter
Taryn, 11, and son Tevin, 5 -- sat on chairs near the Reds' on-deck
circle. Melissa Griffey, a Seattle-area native, was wiping away
tears.
"I spent 11 wonderful years here," Griffey said, adding he
checks box scores "every day" to see how the Mariners are doing.
"Thank you, guys, for supporting us when we were terrible, for
not giving up on us. ... Thank you for letting me go out there and
do what I do."
Hours earlier, he was less forthcoming about his frustrating 7½
seasons with the Reds. It has included eight trips to the disabled
list, no postseason appearances and Cincinnati's perceptions of him
being moody and unapproachable.
Griffey was an All-Star 10 times in 11 years with Seattle. He's
been an All-Star just twice in seven seasons since.
"I still have fun," he said. "I think it took a while for the
people of Cincinnati to understand me. I still think sometimes they
don't understand me. I think the people in Seattle know that I
don't like to talk about myself ... I'd rather get up, go out and
play baseball and go home."
He spent Thursday driving his family past two of his former
homes, in suburban Renton and -- after his Mariners salary jumped
from $700,000 to $2 million in 1992 and eventually to $8.7 million
by 1999 -- in more upscale Issaquah. Then Griffey drove to the home
of Jay Buhner, his former Issaquah neighbor and Mariners teammate
who now lives in Fall City, Wash.
Buhner, Griffey, Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez and Randy Johnson all
were with Seattle in 1995 when it picked up its first postseason
series victory.
Griffey was injured early in the season but led the Mariners on
a wild rally to win the AL West in a one-game playoff. He then
scored from first base on Martinez's double to beat the Yankees in
the final game of the division series.
That fueled momentum for lawmakers to pass special legislation
that fall to build Safeco Field. That, in turn, kept the Mariners
from moving.
"Do I think about '95? Yeah," Griffey said. "We had things
that you always dream of. Playing in the playoffs. Winning a
playoff game ... the Edgar double. Everyone jumping on each other
at home plate. That will never leave my memory. And being a Seattle
Mariner will never leave my memory."
He said he just wants to enjoy his weekend back in Seattle as
much as he can.
"People have written a couple of things in the last couple of
weeks about me shrugging it off," Griffey said. "But you have to
understand, I've had a job to do, wherever I was playing. I
couldn't get ahead of myself until I actually got here. So once I
landed and got off the plane I was able to relax ... and reflected
on what it was like when I played here.
"I try to stay pretty much even keel. I try not to let it get
to me. But it's exciting."