Ken Griffey, Jr.
Anybody can be a dad. I just want to be a good parent. I want to be a dad that my kids can talk to. I want to have a relationship with them.Collection: Relationship
Baseball and golf have a lot of things in common, including the fact that players in both games love hitting for power. However, in both sports, trying to do so strictly with muscle strength doesn't work very well. In fact, I see a lot of guys in both baseball and golf struggle when they try to swing with tight arms.Collection: Sports
Just because I made it look easy doesn't mean that it was and you don't work hard and become a Hall of Famer without working day in and day out.Collection: Work
It doesn't matter how much money you make; it's where you feel happy.Collection: Money
I was able to live out my dream of playing baseball, and I've got to do the same for my kids and let them live out their dreams of whatever they want to do in life.Collection: Dreams
A couple things I'm gonna be remembered for: the hat backwards and the swing. And the smile.Collection: Smile
I might go 0 for 4 in a game, but I still had a chance to help the team by making plays in the field.
It's not so much what one person does. It's what we do as a team.
I went out there and played as hard as I could because that's the only way I know how to play.
I'm damn proud to be a Seattle Mariner.
Out of my 22 years, I've learned that only one team will treat you the best, and that's your first team.
Hard work doesn't start during the game. Hard work starts the night before.
I enjoy photography. It's a lot of fun. It keeps me on my P's and Q's and, when you think about it, most people think photography is just going to a game. But you start to think, dang, that would be a good picture. Or you're driving along and see something and think, 'that would be nice.'
Father and son games - that was the best day. We'd be dressed at 6 o'clock in the morning. The game would be at 7 o'clock at night... And we'd play at, like, 5.
My dad had a 'fro, and I didn't. So I wore his hat and it always hit me in the face, so I just turned it around and it just stuck. It wasn't like I was trying to be a tough guy or change the way that baseball is played. It was just that my dad wore a size 7 1/2, and I had a 6 1/4. It was just too big.
My brother went to Ohio State. I think Cris Carter just graduated, but Cris was there a lot. I got a chance to go up there and watch the battle between Ohio State and Michigan.
In baseball, there's certain things you can call someone: a fossil, graybeard, grandpa, dad, pops. But I got a chance to say it and mean it.
A lot of my friends and guys who I have watched and grew up with and who have been at my house are Hall of Famers, and I just know them as Ozzie Smith, Eddie Murray, Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield... I know these guys like my older brothers and uncles, the guys who took care of me.
The two misconceptions of me are I didn't work hard, and that everything I made it look easy.
I didn't go into the Hall of Fame until I was a Hall of Famer. Three times I had been there, I never stepped foot inside.
I guess for me, I've always lived in the moment, so I don't allow my brain to focus too far head. I'm a fly-by-the-seat kind of person, but not really.
I'm in a Catch-22. If I don't go after a ball, I'm lazy, I'm not giving it 100 percent. If I do dive for the ball - which I did, and blew out my shoulder - it's, Why did I play it so hard?
I don't know what my numbers are as a DH, but the fact that you're sitting basically for three hours and 38 minutes of a baseball game, you're hoping you get four or five at-bats.
You're on an island when you're injured. Nobody understands what you're going through. And everybody's different. Some people heal quicker than others.
To win a World Series, the whole team has to be hot, everything has to go your way.
I don't think it's the intent of baseball not to have black ballplayers, but we have to find a way to get these kids back. We lost them to football. We lost them to basketball. We lost them to golf. People don't see how cool and exciting this game is.
The NFL and NBA has done a better job than we have in showing the fun side of the sport, having people talk about it whether it's on social media, commercials or the news.
Nobody wanted to run back kicks until you saw Billy 'White Shoes'' Johnson.
I know my Dad's a National League guy. I'm an American League guy. I tell him all the time we got better hitters. He's like well we got better pitchers. I'm like cause you all got those easy outs at the end.
I like how in little league they have nine kids who play the field but we have 17 kids on the roster and all 17 kids should hit. I like that we do that down here in Florida.
I think that it takes one person in the household to be a baseball fan for people to love baseball. And if you don't love baseball as a parent, your kids are not going to love it because you're not watching it.
I was just putting way too much pressure on myself. I was just trying to get that validation from my dad. It got so bad I remember my high school coach telling him not to show up to games.
I didn't start playing golf until '94, when the strike cut the season short. Never having played as a kid definitely makes it a challenge.
The Hall of Fame is pretty good at preparation and getting you ready for what to expect.
I don't like to be talked about, especially by somebody that doesn't know me.
I've been taking pictures at Trey's games since he was seven.
Injuries are a part of the game.
There are more second-, third-, fourth-, fifth- and so on in the big leagues than first-round picks.
You're only a first-round pick for one year.
I'd have probably gone to Michigan. Only because one of my friends, Vada Murray, who passed away, went to Michigan and as a freshman and sophomore he was my big brother at Moeller.
I had more offers in football than baseball.
I explained to my kids at an early age: I'm a normal dad with an abnormal job.
Sometimes I'm like, Wow, 'Criminal Minds' is deep.
I just try to keep normal days, day in and day out.
If you ask my wife, she says I play too much golf. I usually play about four times a week.
It's not what one person does. One person is going to get to be the star of the game. But it might have been the guy who got the guy over that's the real star of the game.
I mean, you're just not going to like somebody and he's not going to like you. But you're going to go out there and play. And you're going to give the other seven or eight guys on that field a chance to win. And that's just the way it's going to be.
We're here for one reason, and that's to win ballgames. You're going to have your feuding in there. But that is not going to carry over to the field. That's just the way it is.
When I came home, my kids wouldn't know if I went 0-for-4 or 4-for-4. I do not like to lose at anything, but I wouldn't be angry all day... Once I left the stadium, it was over with.
Most of the people that I still talk to and hang out with, to them, I'm just Ken.