(SEATTLE) — Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 613th career home run and 400th as a Mariner on Wednesday night in his second home game of his return season in Seattle.
SEATTLE — Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 613th career home run and 400th as a Mariner on Wednesday night in his second home game of his return season in Seattle. He became the first player to hit 400 home runs with one team and 200 with another. Griffey hit 210 with Cincinnati from 2000 through the middle of last season, when he was traded to the Chicago White Sox. Griffey said No. 400 with Seattle was meaningful. "It means a lot. It’s just, I don’t worry about numbers," Griffey said. "You play long enough, you are going to rack up some numbers — some are good, some are bad. "I’ve been fortunate, that’s the best way I can describe it." In February, he signed a one-year, $2 million contract with up to $3 million in bonuses to return to the team that spawned his superstardom as a teen in 1989. That return has been triumphant so far. One day after a hero’s welcome from a sold-out crowd in Seattle’s home opener, the 39-year-old active home run leader turned sharply on a 2-1 fastball from Los Angeles Angels starter Jered Weaver in the fifth inning for his second home run of the year. Griffey gave his vintage, no-doubt reaction to the solo shot: a dropped bat at his feet and long stare. He watched the ball land three rows into the bleachers beyond right-center field to give Seattle a 3-2 lead, three pitches after Endy Chavez had tied the game with a solo home run. Giddy fans scrambled for the souvenir ball from Griffey’s home run. The crowd of about 18,516 at Safeco Field — the house that Junior built — roared as he rounded the bases. The fans continued cheering, prompting Griffey’s first curtain call since returning. He emerged from the dugout to tip his helmet to the fans, many of whom were wearing his No. 24 jersey. Back inside the dugout, his teammates mobbed him. Griffey then planted a lunging kiss on his recoiling teenage son, Trey. "Oh, I got him," Griffey said, laughing and relishing that he is having as much fun as he did from 1990-91 when he and his dad were Mariners teammates. "He didn’t really like the kiss, though," Junior said of Trey. "I told him he’d have an easier time getting girlfriends if they saw him getting a kiss from dad, seeing his softer side." Griffey’s previous home run as a Mariner in Seattle came on Sept. 22, 1999, off Kansas City’s Jay Witasick in what was his 48th and final home run of that season. A few months later, the Mariners granted his wish and traded him to Cincinnati. The Mariners’ all-time leader in home runs is 91 ahead of former 1990s teammate Edgar Martinez. Martinez was in the stadium Wednesday night. He received the Mariners’ first Jackie Robinson Award as the "most valuable diverse business partner." The 46-year-old former designated hitter — the role Griffey had again on Wednesday — has a Seattle-area apparel company that was being recognized for their sound business practices and excellent service. Griffey was one of 12 major leaguers to wear specially designed, Dodger-blue-and-silver cleats Wednesday that featured an engraving of Robinson’s iconic image of sliding into home plate. Robinson’s uniform No. 42 was stitched on each heel. Torii Hunter of the Angels, who hit a two-run home run minutes before Griffey went deep, was also wearing the shoes. Griffey was believed to be the first major leaguer to wear 42 to honor Robinson in a game, 12 years ago with the Mariners. He just went up to the Mariners’ equipment man weeks before the game and said he wanted to do it — he didn’t think to ask for the league’s permission because no one had done it. The league granted permission for others to honor Robinson after that. "I knew the family. It was just my way of saying thank you. I had no idea it would become something like this," Griffey said before the game of all players wearing 42 on Jackie Robinson Day in the majors. "There’s a lot of people who wouldn’t be here (in the majors) if it wasn’t for him." ______ Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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