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Watching Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run last night was certainly a little bittersweet for me. I’m not a Mariners fan or a Reds fan, but I have always been one of Junior’s biggest fans. You knew when you were watching him that you were watching greatness. There has probably never been a swing as sweet and as smooth as Junior’s and he was hardly matched as an overall talent. But watching that home run, even though the swing is still there, there is something missing, something empty about it.

Junior’s career has not quite followed the arc we were all hoping for when he was still a superduperstar with the Mariners. His injury history has been well-chronicled and he’s been questioned for many years about his offseason regimen (or lack thereof). He’s made the obligatory move away from centerfield, the same centerfield that he patrolled as well or better than any in the game. Said plainly, the magic is gone from Junior’s game and as a baseball fan that hurts a little.

There was perhaps no one more magnificent to watch in their prime than Ken Griffey, Jr. Even after his prime, he has represented the anti-steroids era, despite the failing hamstrings and falling numbers (which, by the way, are still pretty good: 30 HRs last year). Ken Griffey, Jr. will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest all-around players ever and certainly one of the top 2 or 3 players of his era. But watching him break that 600 barrier, a number that once meant so much before Barry and Sammy ruined it for us, I couldn’t help but feel sad. Certainly, part of that comes from the fact that he hit the homer in Florida in front of about 200 people. Seriously, there were more people at my high school graduation and my graduating class was only 180 people strong. But it is more than that. Junior, for the first time I can remember, looks out of place on the baseball field. And after watching him be a central piece of any field he was playing on for so long, that really came as a shock.

There is no doubt I will miss Junior when he is gone. In fact, he’s not even gone yet and I already miss him.

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