MLB LEANS ON ‘THE KID’ ONCE AGAIN
Mariners legend wants to help bring youth back to baseball
Ken Griffey Jr. sits in front of his office computer at his Florida home, his fingers racing across the keyboard, searching to ensure his memory is as pristine as his baseball swing.
There it is: April 13, 1989. His majorleague debut in the Mariners’ season opener against the Athletics. He scans the box score.
Harold Reynolds batted leadoff. Griffey was the No. 2 hitter. First baseman Alvin Davis batted third. Darnell Coles was the cleanup hitter. Jeffrey Leonard was at DH. And Greg Briley was their left fielder.
The first six players in the Mariners’ starting lineup were Black, with five other Black players on the team. The Athletics had four Black players on the field: Tony Phillips, Dave Henderson, Dave Parker and starting pitcher Dave Stewart.
The next year, the Mariners had seven Black position players, including Griffey’s dad.
Griffey keeps scrolling, and just a few years later, there it was: He was the Mariners’ lone Black player.
In 2020, Black players made up only 7.8% of Opening Day rosters in Major League Baseball. Three teams didn’t have a single Black player, and 16 teams had two or fewer.
Griffey knows he can’t single-handedly reverse the trend, but he’s going to do everything in his power to make a difference.
He has been hired by MLB as a senior adviser to commissioner Rob Manfred to help grow the game, with “an emphasis on baseball operations and youth development, particularly on improving diversity at amateur levels.’’
The irony of his new job? Griffey’s oldest son, Trey, played football at the University of Arizona before a short NFL career. His daughter, Taryn, played basketball for Arizona. And his youngest, Tevin, plays football at Florida A&M.
So here he is, trying to convince kids to play baseball, hoping it becomes their sport of choice, when his own kids picked other sports. Then again, he says, how do you explain fellow Hall of Famer Barry Larkin’s son playing in the NBA and NFL Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas’ son playing baseball at Western Illinois?
“We all laugh and say our kids don’t even want to play the same sports we played,’’ Griffey told USA Today in an expansive 90-minute interview. “I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s because they didn’t want to be compared to their dads or what. You look around, and people may have a first love in one thing and may end up doing another thing. Michael Jordan’s first love was baseball. So was Bo Jackson’s. The beauty in this is to try to get kids back to playing.”
Still, even with his own kids ultimately choosing sports other than baseball, Griffey plans to stress to kids and parents that they should not be confined to one sport. He remembers how playing basketball and football helped him in baseball. His kids not only played all sports, but also the piano. Why limit anyone’s potential?
“You’ve got to draw them in early and show them the cool things about the game,” he said.
“Not everyone has cable, or is able to watch ESPN or MLB Network, but 95% of them have a phone. We can show through social media how to play the different positions. We could have them send in videos of themselves to MLB and scouting
networks to help them and track their growth. Once interested and they think they have a chance, it makes all of the difference in the world.’’
Also important is teaching the parents how to act. Too often Griffey has listened to parents screaming and berating their kids. He has seen far too many coaches pulling kids out of a game for making a mistake. If the parents lighten up, so will the kids.
“People have to understand the difference between getting excited and that jackass in the stands,’’ Griffey said. “I see parents just wearing out their kids. Some parents want their kids to be X, Y and Z, and that puts so much pressure on the kid. Pressure is going to come from outside influences, you don’t want it to come from the house, especially in sports.”
Griffey, 51, has wanted to assist MLB’s efforts to reach kids for years, particularly Black kids and other kids of color. He told Manfred and Tony Clark, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, he wants to stay strictly in his lane. He won’t get involved in any labor disputes. He’s not about to take sides. He’s here to help grow the game, badly wanting to make an impact.
Griffey once was the kid who made the big leagues at the age of 19, wore his cap backwards and brought the next generation of swagger to the game. Now, he wants to spread the word that even if you don’t have anything remotely close to his talent, anything is possible in the game.
Even for those who never make it to the big leagues, or even play past college or high school, Griffey plans to accentuate other job opportunities off the field in baseball.
There’s only one active general manager, Jerry Dipoto of the Mariners, who played in the majors. Ken Williams of the White Sox is the only head of baseball operations who has major-league experience. Most GMs in the game never played past college or even past high school. And Kim Ng just became the first woman GM in baseball history this winter with the Marlins. It’s no different than with managers, coaches, scouts, farm directors, public and community relations, videographers, research developers or those in analytics.
“People don’t understand there are people who weren’t ever going to make it in baseball and they got jobs in baseball," Griffey said. “They got to be around the game they love. They can say, ‘I may not be able to play it, but I can be around it.’ ”
“If I can get them to start playing early and get that love of the game, maybe the rest will take care of itself and we can get this game back to where it belongs.’’
“YOU’VE GOT TO DRAW THEM IN EARLY AND SHOW THEM THE COOL THINGS ABOUT THE GAME.”
KEN GRIFFEY JR., on how to draw kids to baseball