Ken Griffey Jr.: MLB Relying on ‘The Kid’ to Make Baseball Cool for Kids Again – Bleacher Report

They sit across the negotiating table as adversaries, but Rob Manfred and Tony Clark are also partners.

As the commissioner of Major League Baseball and the head of its players union, respectively, Manfred and Clark have significant differences, but also common goals. There’s little they agree on more than the need to bring the game to younger audiences, to increase baseball’s appeal to the next generation.

They need to get through to the kids, which is why eight months ago they got together on a conference call and appealed to The Kid for help.

Ken Griffey Jr. goes by many names. He’ll always be Junior to many, and he’ll always be Uncle Griffey to some.

But he’s also The Kid, a nickname that made sense when he was a 19-year-old rookie with the Seattle Mariners, and still makes sense now as he closes in on 50 and heads into the Hall of Fame.

“We’re trying to engage young people,” Clark said. “Having my face on it isn’t going to do it. No disrespect to the commissioner, but his face isn’t going to do it, either. Who can do that?”

Who else but The Kid? Who else but the guy who managed to stay young through a 22-year career in the major leagues, the guy kids were always drawn to, the guy whose many charitable ventures always involved reaching out to children?

“It was too natural a fit,” Clark said. “To me, it was the perfect marriage.”

From Griffey, there was a simple answer.

“I was like, let’s do it,” he said.

So even as he prepared for this weekend in Cooperstown, and the ceremony that will make him a Hall of Famer, Griffey made plans for the next stage of his baseball life, the one that will see him serve the game as Major League Baseball’s first “youth ambassador.”

The job seems open-ended, which suits Griffey well. He’ll make videos and appearances, and if all goes well, he’ll encourage a new generation of kids to choose baseball.

“He is the magnet,” Clark said. “He’s going to open doors—or kick some doors down.”

But more than that, he’ll be in charge of proving to another generation that baseball is for them, that baseball can be cool.

“Before it was cool to be cool, Junior was cool,” Clark said.

He still is.

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Griffey has been a magnet for years, without even trying to be one.

Andrew McCutchen grew up in Fort Meade, Florida, all the way across the country from Seattle. But it was Griffey who drew him to baseball, making such an impression that the young McCutchen wore a Mariners jersey he still has to this day.

“He was one of the main reasons I played baseball,” said McCutchen, the 2013 National League MVP with the Pittsburgh Pirates. “When the TV was on and he was playing, I was watching. I didn’t care what he did, I just wanted to watch him.”

McCutchen wasn’t alone. Players all over baseball speak of Griffey in glowing terms.

“That was my idol growing up,” Kansas City Royals outfielder Jarrod Dyson said. “Just a special player.”

Griffey played the game well, but he also played it with flair. He’d wear his cap backward at a time when no one else did, and he had a constant smile on his face at a time when so many thought it was more important to look serious.

He was fun to watch, but more than that, he would make baseball look like fun.

“I wouldn’t be a baseball player if I didn’t think it was fun,” McCutchen said.

The Kid made it look fun.

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Griffey’s connection to kids goes far beyond how he played the game. From his early years with the Mariners, his charity of choice was the Boys & Girls Clubs, and his contributions went far beyond handing out money.

He was Uncle Griffey to the kids there, and he made a real impact.

“There’s one athlete that really made a difference for the kids in our area, and that was Ken Griffey, Jr.,” said Bill Burton, who was executive director of the Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club, where Griffey was most involved.

Burton fondly remembers the Christmas dinners Griffey hosted and how Griffey got Nike involved, too. Griffey spent time at the club himself, and challenged the kids to improve their grades and get involved in community service work.

Those who succeeded were taken on trips Griffey sponsored and arranged himself. He brought some of the Seattle kids to Cincinnati after he was traded to the Reds, and he brought kids from both Seattle and Cincinnati to his home outside Orlando, Florida.

“It was incredible,” Burton said.

On the Orlando trip, the kids first went to Disney World. Then they got on the bus and went back to the hotel, where they were told to get their swimsuits for a trip to the pool.

What they weren’t told was the pool was at Griffey’s house.

“The kids got off the bus, and they went into this big house,” Burton said. “They went to change into the swimsuits, and then when they got to the pool, Ken came back there and jumped in the pool himself.”

“The kids were so excited,” Burton said.

Griffey’s involvement continues to this day. He still sits on the Boys & Girls Club’s national board of directors, the one former professional athlete on a board dominated by corporate executives.

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Griffey’s task is to get kids excited about baseball, because for all its continuing popularity, the sport does have a demographics problem. A 2014 study by Derek Thompson in the Atlantic showed 50 percent of baseball’s television audience consisted of people 55 and over, as opposed to just 25 percent of those who watch the NBA.

Even kids who show interest in playing the game don’t always watch.

“I did a camp wearing my full Mets uniform,” outfielder Curtis Granderson said. “A kid came up and asked, ‘What team do you play for?'”

Griffey, for all his possible appeal, hasn’t been in uniform since May 2010. The Kid will be 47 this November. 

But Nike still sells Air Griffey shoes, even in grade school sizes, as well as Griffey Swingman caps and T-shirts.

Griffey knows the challenge of getting kids to baseball. His older son, Trey, is a wide receiver at the University of Arizona, and his younger son, Tevin, gave up baseball for three years before recently coming back to it at age 14.

“In practice, he made one of the greatest catches I’ve ever seen,” Griffey said. “You know my catch at Yankee Stadium, and my dad’s catch at Yankee Stadium? It was better than that.”

Griffey goes to watch Tevin and goes to watch two nephews who play youth baseball.

“People see me and ask, ‘What are you doing here?'” he said.

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Griffey has always been at ease around kids, and they have always been drawn to him.

Rusty Kuntz was the Mariners first base coach in 1989, when Griffey debuted as a 19-year-old outfielder.

“When older players brought their sons into the clubhouse, everyone just gravitated towards Junior,” said Kuntz, now the first base coach with the Kansas City Royals. “Four years old or 14 years old, they were always so comfortable around Junior.”

In his recent profile of Griffey for Sports Illustrated, Ben Reiter tells the story of Griffey and his wife, Melissa, walking through a shopping mall in Bellevue, Washington, early in Griffey’s career. Upset about something, Melissa yelled “I’m with Ken Griffey Jr.!” only to have every kid in the mall come running after them.

Don Wakamatsu was the Mariners manager when Griffey returned to Seattle in 2009. The two got along great the first year and not so well the second, when Griffey retired midseason, but Wakamatsu still speaks highly of him.

“He played the game as a kid,” said Wakamatsu, now the bench coach with the Royals. “What I loved about Griffey is he was a kid. A wonderful guy with a big heart.”

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The question, and the challenge, is whether Griffey can have the same impact on kids who may have never seen him play. Griffey was last an All-Star in 2007; his MVP season of 1997 was 19 years ago.

Thomas Truncale doesn’t think it will be a problem.

Truncale is 18 years old and just started school at the University of South Florida. He became a Griffey fan from watching highlights on ESPN, but he became a Griffey believer one special day in September 2009.

Truncale suffers from severe hemophilia, a disease that made his young life difficult and kept him from playing baseball. The Make-A-Wish Foundation, another favored Griffey charity, arranged for Truncale, his parents and his three siblings to fly to Seattle, where Griffey was in his final full season with the Mariners.

Griffey did many of these Make-A-Wish visits, dating back to his early years with the Mariners. But as Truncale described it, this wasn’t a simple meet-and-greet.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Truncale said. “It’s one of those things where you felt like there was nothing else in the world that mattered to him at the time. I hadn’t ever had another experience like that, and I can’t imagine I ever will.”

The experience, Truncale said, ensures he will be a baseball fan for life.

“I’m always going to love baseball,” he said.

He’s certain Griffey can have that same impact on others.

“He’s a kid at heart,” Truncale said. “When I met him, I felt he could see what it means for kids to meet their heroes. With his ability to connect to kids, I think even if you took away all his accolades, he could still do it.

“He’s the exact type of person who can fulfill that job.”

Besides, while reaching kids is a big part of Griffey’s challenge, reaching their parents and those who can support youth baseball will be just as important.

“A lot of it is the equipment,” Griffey said. “The kids will come if they have equipment.”

Studies show that young kids are still playing baseball. Manfred cited figures showing baseball is the most played game in the country for kids 12 and under. The concern is that when those kids grow up and go to high school and college, many of the best athletes are still lost to basketball, football and even soccer.

The greater concern is that kids are being pushed to specialize at younger ages.

“If somebody had forced me to make a decision at 12 or 14, I don’t know if I would have chosen baseball,” said Clark, the players association head. “I tell kids, I understand you may have another sport you like, but don’t give up on baseball.”

Clark was a first-round draft choice of the Detroit Tigers in 1990, but he also played basketball at the University of Arizona and San Diego State. He ended up a 15-year major leaguer and a one-time All-Star with career earnings of $22 million, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

“I’m the poster boy for [not choosing too early],” he said.

But when it comes to reaching the next generation, Clark understood he would need help.

He understood he needed Griffey.

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The timing was good, too.

In the six years since he retired, Griffey has done work for the Mariners as a special consultant, has been honored by both the Mariners and Reds in their franchise Halls of Fame, and has spent lots of time with his family.

In January, he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, getting a record 99.3 percent of the vote in his first time on the ballot.

Sunday, Griffey and Mike Piazza will be the 311th and 312th members of baseball’s most elite club.

“My schedule dramatically frees up after July 24,” Griffey said.

Clark, Manfred and others in baseball will be ready to help fill that schedule, believing Griffey can be the key to attracting the next generation of kids. And why not? With a father who played in the major leagues and sons who have played the game, Griffey already spans generations.

“I was the bridge between old school and new school,” he said. “You can express yourself without being disrespectful.”

You can understand kids, even if you’re almost 50 years old yourself. You can flash that smile, turn that hat around and it’s almost as if you’re 19 years old again.

You can still be The Kid, and you can still talk to kids. Hopefully, those kids will listen.

Baseball is counting on it.

   

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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