Junior Returns… And Stuff I Care About
The big news today is that the M’s announced that Ken Griffey Jr will join the team as a special consultant – I believe this means that he’s going to charge $150 an hour, come into the office once a week, and make the same suggestions that salaried employees have been making for years. Okay, so maybe he’s not going to be that kind of consultant. What he is going to do revolves mostly around PR, and his role will likely be more about capitalizing on his name value to attract fans and keep the team in the news. Greg Johns has more details on Junior’s role, along with some quotes and the like.
To be honest, this piece of news doesn’t really interest me all that much. Perhaps its a sign of how different my perspective is from that of the average Mariner fan, but I just don’t have any kind of enthusiasm about this. I’m not against it, I’m just ambivalent towards it. Junior was a great player, but I’m just kind of tired of talking about him, and his new position with the organization doesn’t really have any meaningful impact on the team from my perspective. I’m sure we’ll hear about how great he is working with players and such, but in terms of tangible benefits, I just don’t see this changing anything.
It will probably help the team financially, as I’d imagine they’ll get a pretty great amount of media coverage for what is probably not a very large salary, but that’s not really something that I care about all that much. I want the team to win, and I like talking about ways that the team can improve their on field product. From that perspective, this is something of a non-story, but because it’s Griffey, it’s news. If it interests you, that’s awesome – I’m just not in the same boat.
In terms of other things that are going on, I enjoyed Johns’ article on Josh Lueke, not necessarily because I agree with Lueke’s point of view, but it is interesting to hear his thoughts on how he’s perceived. I also liked this quote:
“I really don’t worry about what people think,” he said. “I guess I never have. I just try to stay positive in my day-to-day. Like my dad says, you were born with thick skin, so just keep it.”
To which I reply – have you ever accidentally inflicted a minor amount of pain on a baby? Said something that a three-year-old didn’t like? I would suggest that, if children are our evidence, we were definitively not born with thick skin. Your father lied to you, sir.
Besides that, not a ton of news to talk about. Erik Bedard threw and didn’t immediately report to the trainers room, so that’s something. But, realistically, the Mariners know that they can’t count on Bedard. He’s a wild card, and anything he gives them is a bonus. Once he’s actually throwing live in Cactus League games, we’ll start to talk about whether he’s a legitimate option for the Opening Day roster.
Also, just to let you guys know, I’m resuming my weekly chats with Toby Howell and the gang over at 1510 KGA in Spokane on Tuesdays this year. We did a segment tonight, and will be doing them every Tuesday at 5:15 going forward. I’ll try to post frequent reminders for those interested.
Finally, I’m looking at doing a live chat here on the site on Thursday, probably around noon. We’ll try to make those a somewhat regular feature going forward.
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25 Responses to “Junior Returns… And Stuff I Care About”
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Dave, I agree with you about Griffey. I feel the same way about your chats on Spokane radio stations. 😉
Maybe his dad mistook baby fat for think skin. 8^)
I’m not going to parse the words of a kid in the minors about something for which he served punishment both in the criminal law system and in baseball. I don’t know what else Lueke can do other than what he’s doing. Stay away from trouble and pitch, that’s all he can do.
Proof once again that managers are hired to be fall guys and button-pushing figureheads. Milton Bradley’s still with the team, Chone Figgins still gets love and a starting job handed to him at 3B, Ken Griffey is back, and it’s all Dan Wakamatsu’s fault; we fixed the problems by swapping in someone who got fired from another organization.
I look forward to yet another year where we are constantly reminded about how AWESOME 1995 was.
Looking forward to the Griffey with a clipboard bobblehead. Don’t miss it.
Lueke: “it was just a freak accident kind of thing”. Way to take responsibility for your actions, to own your mistakes, Josh. “I’ve now seen what can happen to you when you don’t think anything can happen” – anyone would think *he* was the victim here…
I was ready to let him move on, but this article shows he hasn’t learned a thing, despite his new found “maturity”. Rooting for his success has just become harder for this fan.
Honestly, the fact that Junior’s back may be a good thing for the development of the team. Not in his ability mind you but the fact that the front office and Jack Z may be given more leeway by the fans. He’s no longer the guy that forced Griffey out, they already canned that guy. I mean it might make it so fans won’t pull out torches and pitchforks if we have a five game losing streak in April.
As for Lueke, I could understand why he COULD feel jaded about this. I know a guy that was on my campus a few years ago who was the president of a fraternity. He had a long term girlfriend that he ended up dumping. Soon afterward she goes to the police, says she got drunk one night and he raped her. The entire fraternity went belly up paying for legal bills and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. A little while later she told the cops that it was all made up that she just wanted to get back at him. I was in a frat and a girl got drunk and passed out in one the guy’s rooms. He took care of her and found her sorority mates. They left her there and she tried to cry wolf the next day about being assaulted but at least the guy had the sorority girls to back him up. Lueke may have done this stuff, maybe not but like many say, he HAS done his time and continuously having to answer questions like this would be a pretty jading thing. Ok I’m done. Sorry, been reading all the posts the last few months on Lueke and just wanted to put this in. Let’s get back to baseball lol.
This isn’t necessarily true. You seem to be arguing that personality traits have no genetic component, which is unlikely. Even babies show distinct personality differences.
So now that Griffey was hired as a “consultant”, is he going to pack up his stuff and go home the first time one of his ideas is not well recieved?
Agreed about Griffey. Don’t know why people are upset with bringing him back its not hurting the team at all and it can only help.
I think people are upset because Griffey has such an obvious problem with authority that working with him opens us up to more drama than it’s worth.
It’s also ridiculous that he caused Wak to lose his livelihood due to a stupid, erroneous accusation. If Griffey has any decency at all, he’d apologize directly to Wak. It’s all fun and games until someone gets fired due to your B.S.
Griffey’s involvement is pretty much a minor story to me as well. I never liked his return last year (and look what happened, thank you), but it’s now a new year and I’d rather read about Bedard’s bullpen sessions. Man, I want him to pitch so badly this year.
As for Lueke, there really isn’t much to say. The issue has passed and there’s nothing the law can do about it. I understand people having a problem with not rooting for him though, but I’m also glad that Lueke (from the looks of it) is going to get a real chance at playing for the M’s. Legit talent is legit talent, and I hope Lueke really is moving forward.
The return of Griffey was no surprise to me. Teams do this all the time. Truthfully I’m surprised Edgar hasn’t been brought on to do this exact same thing. Hopefully Griffey will be in Arizona while I’m down there and maybe he will take a few minutes to hang with the fans on the practice fields. Griffey interacting with fans can still create excitement for the team and that would make his pay worth it for the Mariners
I’m happy Griffey has an ongoing association with the Mariners. What I had problems with was his recent past association where he was given the chance to hold a bat. 😀
Other players have come in as “elder statesmen” – I know Buhner’s been to camp before, and I think Dan Wilson did that at least once. I expect the only difference with Griffey is he’s getting a title and some level of salary. That doesn’t bother me in the least.
But in the end, that’s just sort of a happy feely thing that, while I’m glad about it, doesn’t particularly matter to me. The main thing I care about is the actual team and current roster of players. I want to see the young guys develop, I want to see the team progress. The Griffey stuff is fluff.
Do you remember that one time, when they had a guy in a pickle, and Junior ran in from center and made the tag at 2nd?
That was awesome.
You could tear into any phrase quoted from a players’ parent in a similar fashion. His father taught him to not worry about what others think, in many ways this is useful teaching, in some instances it is not. So what.
Junior being on the staff is a PR move. It is nothing more, or less. It won’t affect positively or negatively.
By the way, without Griffey, there probably would not be baseball in Seattle. Those of you that don’t respect him for that at least, are not true Mariner fans. And that cannot be argued, but I’m sure some of you will try 🙂
I don’t think Griffey got Wak fired, I think Wak was to lax and let the players get away with to much stuff which ended up costing him his job. Im not excusing what Griffey did though walking out like that though it was bad of him to do that.
Wak is like a Terry Francona if you ask me. Just a ho hum guy that will thrive in a big media with a good team. He is not a rebuilding type of guy and neither is Terry.
Regardless, the manager is just that, a manager. Look at any business. A manager is only as good as his sales team. Yes he can come up with some good ideas and some make better decisions, but when it comes down to it, it is all about the skills in those workers…
You know what would be awesome?
If the first time somebody mentioned 1995 to Eric Wedge he answered: “I don’t have any comments on 1995. I wasn’t here, but I believe that was the year the Atlanta Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. From now on, me and my players will only answer questions that pertain to 2011. There will be no strolls down memory lane on my watch. In fact, any and all references to 1995 are automatic $1,000 fines.”
Dave,
I’m sorry but that post was unnecessarily depressing. IT’S SPRING TRAINING TIME! Baseball is back!
You had a negative reaction to all three of the Mariner’s stories. Put some spring in your step. This is an exciting time. Not a dreary one!
We know the 2011 Griffey will contribute the same amount of offense as the 2010 Griffey.
Via his absence from the April/May lineup, won’t replacing Griffey’s 100+PA of .200wOBA with JACK CUST greatly IMPROVE the 2011 M’s early-season offense?
Addition by subtraction has never been more obvious.
Thanks, Ken! Your 2011 contribution is duly noted.
Dave, your description of a consultant had me laughing so hard.