Newszine

On the Block

The Kid comes home to Seattle

After days of weighing a return to Seattle against a strong bid from Atlanta, the Kid opted to return where his baseball career began.

His one-year deal for $2 million can reach $4.5 million with incentives. The Mariners have layered performance bonuses based upon plate appearances and attendance.

The choice was tough—one in which he enlisted advice from two Hall of Famers, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, and his 13-year-old daughter.

He’s returning to the franchise where he made the American League All-Star team and won a Gold Glove every year in the 1990s, and was such a local treasure that Safeco Field is known as “The House That Griffey Built.”

Mariners’ fans hope Griffey can improve a team that lost 101 games last seasons and drew only 2.3 million fans. That was the teams’ worst-attended home schedule since the Mariners moved into Safeco Field in 1999, which was Griffey’s final season in Seattle.

Of course, Seattle is ecstatic to have a veteran in the clubhouse—a guy that can nurture younger players and become the leader that was missing from last year’s lineup. Plus the team gets a lefty in the lineup that matches perfectly with the shorter right field wall—giving Griffey another advantage to go with his elegant swing.

But at 39 and coming off knee surgery, can the Kid be productive enough to make that happen? Can he turn a team around that was over paid and lacked enthusiasm?

Mariners’ fans hope that bringing Griffey back will answer their prayers, but as a realist I don’t see that prayer being answered.

The best thing Mariners’ fans have to look forward to is Ken Griffey Jr. being inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Mariner.

Oh and by the way, he will wear No. 24.