Sports Then and Now

The sweetest swing.

Ken Griffey Jr. called it quits earlier this season. A sad end to a stellar career.

Rather than focus on the last decade of Junior’s tenure, lets rewind to the 90s when Griff was the cleanest star in the game.

Griffey burst onto the scene as a 19 year old in 1989 after being drafted #1 in the 1987 entry player draft out of high school. He immediately made an impact with the Mariners. The proclaimed “Kid” with his backwards hat and ear to ear smile would change baseball we knew it.

His “have fun” mentality worked for him. He enjoyed what he did. That made him better.

The numbers speak for themselves. In his first eleven Major League seasons (89-99) with the M’s Giff batted .297 with 398 HRs, 1152 RBIs, 1752 hits, and 167 stolen bases.

Junior also saw his trophy case fill up with ten Gold Gloves awards (1990-99), seven Silver Slugger awards (1991,1993-1994,1996-1999), a 1997 AL MVP award, a 1993 All Star Game MVP award (at 23 years old), and a three time HR Derby champion (1994, 1998, 1999).

His defense was spectacular. The Kid had a knack for making highlight reel catches whether it was diving in or jumping against the wall to rob a homer. He was the best fielder in the game.

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Willie Mays

We recognize as the July Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month a player who is always on the short-list of greatest players in Major League Baseball history. Willie Mays is one of three players (along with Hank Aaron and Stan Musial) to earn 24 All-Star appearances.

After earning Rookie of the Year honors in 1951, Mays missed most of the 1952 season and all of the 1953 season while serving in the military.

When he returned in 1954, Mays began a streak of 19 straight years earning an All-Star spot as he won the first of his two National League MVP Awards.

Mays was the rare player who could win games with his bat, glove and legs. Read the rest of this entry →

Great All-Stars Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron

After becoming an American tradition following its inception in 1933, the Major League All-Star Game evolved into the “Midsummer Classic” through some memorable moments in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.  

The exhibition eventually moved beyond being just a game to include a home run contest and many other activities that gave fans the opportunity to see their heroes in a completely different atmosphere than ever before.

From the very beginning, the All-Star Game was a highly competitive contest that even though technically an exhibition, lacked little in desire by the great players to win the game and claim bragging rights over the other league.

The game began to lose a little of the competitive edge following the inception of free agency in the 1970s. More players were switching from league to league and by the 1980s it started to be more important to give as many players as possible a chance to play, rather than keep your best players out there for the entire contest.

Of course, that strategy culminated with the 2002 game, which had to be called with the game tied in the 12th inning because both teams had run out of players. We will look more in-depth at that game in part three of this series.

In this second installment of the three part series, we will relive some of the legendary moments and games in All-Star history between 1960 and 1989.

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Base Ruth hit the first home run in All-Star Game history.

Since its inception in 1933, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game has provided fans an annual opportunity to see most of the great stars of the game on the same field. While the game is an exhibition and has withstood periods of indifference by some players, management and fans, it remains a special mid-season moment.

There have been many memorable games and moments in the first 80 incarnations of the annual meeting between the top players of the American and National Leagues.

This is the first of a three-part series where we will relive some of the great moments and games in the history of this special series.

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Dick Radatz shares pitching tips with Boston's Cardinal Cushing

Both the calendar page and the greeting card companies dictate that the one day per year we are allowed to “honor thy father” (at least in this country) is the third Sunday of June. Since 1910, children around the globe have annually taken a mere 24 hours out of their busy lives to “celebrate fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society” by dousing Dads with a collection of humorous cards and never to be worn ties.

If nothing else, Father’s Day acts to provide a fitting and opposite book end to the prior months, Mother’s Day.

As a father of five, who, like most Dad’s, has regrets about not spending enough time with my quintet of off-spring, I like to take every opportunity, whether on Father’s Day or not, to bring to the forefront each loving relationship I stumble across that holds the Daddy-Daughter relationship in the brightest of lights.

I recently had the pleasure of catching up with Leigh Radatz, daughter of the Boston Red Sox late great pitcher, Dick “The Monster” Radatz. After losing her larger than life Dad to an in home accident in 2005, Ms. Radatz admits, “That there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wish he was here with us. He was loving, caring, understanding, funny and a role model in so many ways.” Read the rest of this entry →

Kauffman Stadium

Wednesday evening in a live event at Kansas City’s Kauffman Memorial Stadium, home of the Royal’s, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig announced that the 2012 All-Star game would be played there.

Standing at a podium located at home plate, Selig awarded Kansas City it’s third All-Star game since the Mid-Summer’s Classic was introduced in 1933. That inaugural game, played at Comiskey Park in Chicago, began one of the most beloved traditions in all of sports.

Back in 2006, Selig had told KC that, should a tax referendum for stadium renovations get passed, an All-Star Game would land at Kauffman Stadium between 2010 and 2014. Many expected KC to have to wait until a bit later, as 2012 marks the 100 year anniversary of Boston’s Fenway Park. Fenway would have been an obvious choice, but Selig is anything but predictable. Read the rest of this entry →