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Ken Griffey Jr. played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball, including 13 with the Seattle Mariners and nine with the Cincinnati Reds. He was a 13-time All-Star and 10-time Golden Glove winner. He is one of the greatest players of all time. But there is one team that he hates: the New York Yankees. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the reasons why Ken Griffey Jr. hates the Yankees.
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Ken Griffey Jr.’s Early Life
Ken Griffey Jr. was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, on November 21, 1969. Griffey’s father, Ken Griffey Sr., was a star player for the Cincinnati Reds, and his mother, Birdie, was a high school All-American in basketball. Growing up, Griffey Jr. idolized his father and dreamed of following in his footsteps.
Ken Griffey Jr.’s family
Ken Griffey Jr. was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, on November 21, 1969. He was the fifth of six children of Ken Sr. and Alberta Griffey. His father was a semiprofessional baseball player and his mother a high school counselor and teacher. The family’s economic circumstances were modest, but Griffey Jr. later recalled them as happy. Griffey Jr.’s grandfather, George Edward “Buck” Griffey, played professional baseball for several Negro league baseball teams in the 1930s and 1940s; his cousin, Jay Buhner, played for the Seattle Mariners from 1987 to 2001; and his uncle, Maurice “Maury” Wills, a former Major League Baseball (MLB) player and coach who is best known for breaking Ty Cobb’s stolen base record in 1962, also lived in Donora growing up.
Ken Griffey Jr.’s childhood
Ken Griffey Jr. was born on November 21, 1969, in Donora, Pennsylvania. His father, Ken Griffey Sr., was a Major League Baseball player who played for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners. His mother, Beverly Harris, was a high school counselor.
As a child, Ken Griffey Jr. often played baseball with his father and other Major League Baseball players. He attended Archbishop Murphy High School in Everett, Washington, where he played baseball and football. In 1987, he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft.
Ken Griffey Jr.’s Baseball Career
Ken Griffey Jr. is a former baseball player who played for the Seattle Mariners, Cincinnati Reds, and Chicago White Sox. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016. Griffey Jr. had a storied career, but he’s always been vocal about his hatred for the Yankees.
Ken Griffey Jr.’s high school baseball career
Ken Griffey Jr. played high school baseball for Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was considered one of the best high school players in the country, and was drafted first overall by the Seattle Mariners in the 1987 MLB draft. Griffey Jr. made his Major League debut in 1989, and quickly became one of the best players in baseball. He was a ten-time All-Star, won nine Silver Slugger Awards, and was the American League MVP in 1997. Griffey Jr. is considered one of the greatest players of all time, and is a sure-fire Hall of Famer when he becomes eligible in 2016.
Ken Griffey Jr.’s college baseball career
In his three years of playing college baseball, Ken Griffey Jr. became one of the best players in the country. He was a first team All-American in 1987 and 1988, and he helped lead the University of Arizona to the College World Series in both those years.
However, Griffey’s college career was not without its controversy. In 1988, he was accused of cheating on a test, and he was suspended for one game as a result. Additionally, there were rumors that Griffey had used steroids during his college career, though he has always denied those claims.
Despite the controversy, Ken Griffey Jr. is widely considered to be one of the greatest college baseball players of all time.
Ken Griffey Jr.’s professional baseball career
Ken Griffey Jr. played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds. A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Griffey was one of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history; his 630 home runs rank as the sixth-most in MLB history. Griffey was also a 13-time All-Star, winning ten Silver Slugger Awards and six Gold Glove Awards. He is tied for the record for most All-Star Game appearances at 13 with Willie Mays and Stan Musial.
Griffey’s parents were highly athletic; his mother, Donna, played softball professionally in the 1970s, while his father, Ken Sr., was a two-sport star who played Major League Baseball (MLB) and football. Ken Jr. was born donnaJune 20, 1969 in donnyBrooklyn, New York, but the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio soon afterward. When Ken Sr.’s playing career ended, he became a successful baseball coach at Moeller High School in Cincinnati; he also coached football. Ken Jr., following in his father’s footsteps, played both sports as a youngster; he excelled in both baseball and football at Archbishop Moeller High School, from which he graduated in 1987.
Why Ken Griffey Jr. Hates the Yankees
Ken Griffey Jr. was one of the best players of his generation. He was a 10-time All-Star, a World Series champion, and a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But despite all his success, Griffey Jr. has always been outspoken about his hatred for the New York Yankees. In this article, we’ll explore some of the reasons why Ken Griffey Jr. hates the Yankees.
Ken Griffey Jr.’s personal experiences with the Yankees
As a child, Ken Griffey Jr. dreamed of playing for the New York Yankees. He grew up watching Yankees games on television with his father, and even though his dad was a die-hard Cincinnati Reds fan, Griffey Sr. didn’t try to dissuade his son from rooting for the Bronx Bombers. “I was a Yankee fan because my dad wanted me to be,” Griffey Jr. said in an interview with MLB.com in 2007. “He wanted me to like all the good teams.”
But when Griffey Jr. finally got his chance to play against the Yankees as a member of the Seattle Mariners in the late 1990s, he quickly developed a hatred for them. In fact, Griffey Jr.’s experiences with the Yankees helped shape his decision to retire from baseball in 2010, after 22 seasons in the majors.
“The more I played [the Yankees], the more I realized how much I didn’t like them,” Griffey Jr. told MLB.com. “They’re just so…arrogant.”
Griffey Jr.’s beef with the Yankees stems from what he perceives as their sense of entitlement and lack of respect for other teams and players. He’s also never forgiven them for passing him over in the 1987 draft, when they selected Chris Turner with the fifth overall pick instead of him (Griffey Jr. went sixth overall to Seattle).
“I’ll never forget that,” Griffey Jr. said of being drafted behind Turner. “I’ll never forget walking into that room and hearing them say they were going to take Chris Turner ahead of me.”
Despite his distaste for the Yankees, Griffey Jr. did have some good memories of playing against them over the years – including hitting a game-winning home run off Mariano Rivera at Yankee Stadium in 2001. But those moments were few and far between, and ultimately, Griffey Jr.’s bad experiences with the Yankees outweighed the good ones.
Ken Griffey Jr.’s observations of the Yankees
Ken Griffey Jr. played for the Yankees for a brief time in his career, and he did not have a good experience. In an interview, he described the team as “arrogant” and “the most non-caring group of guys I’ve ever been around.” He also said that the Yankees have a “sense of entitlement” and that they are “the most overrated team in baseball.”
Ken Griffey Jr.’s opinions of the Yankees
In an interview with Complex Magazine, Ken Griffey Jr. was asked about his thoughts and opinions of the Yankees. Griffey responded by saying, “I hate the Yankees. I couldn’t stand them when I played baseball, and I can’t stand them now.”
Griffey went on to say that the reason he hates the Yankees is because they are always the team that everyone talks about and expects to win. He also said that the fans are “entitled” and that they are always waiting for something bad to happen to the team so they can say “I told you so.”
When asked if he would ever consider coaching or working for the Yankees, Griffey said, “Hell no! I would never work for them, and I would never want to be around their fans.”
