Ken Griffey Jr.

When Ken Griffey, Jr. retired earlier this week I realized I was officially old. 

I remember a night in 1988 when we took my niece up to Everett, WA to see the then Everett Giants play the Bellingham Mariners featuring an 18-year-old phenom by the name of Ken Griffey, Jr. From that point on I referred to my niece as a Griffey baby. 

She turned 24 earlier this year and works as manager of a sports club. So yeah, I'm getting old.

There are a lot of ways to retire. Ken Griffey Jr. seems to have found a new one. A mobile retirement.

According to Seattle Mariner President Chuck Armstrong, talking on Seattle sports radio station KJR, Griffey's agent, Brian Goldberg, called Armstrong Wednesday afternoon with some news. Junior was retiring, effective immediately.

A few minutes later, according to Armstrong, Griffey himself called to confirm it.

You imagine it went something like this:

'So would you like to do a press conference Junior?'

'Well, I can't, exactly.'

Ken Griffey Jr. has called it quits after 22 years. One of the best players of all time, “The Kid” has endured one too many injuries, aged one too many years, and sat on the bench one too many games. After a stellar career, he has decided to hang up his cleats.

On Wednesday afternoon, Ken Griffey Jr. took the next step in his baseball career, and that was to end it.

The Mariners outfielder and designated hitter was not having his best season and decided it was time to call it quits. Next stop for Griffey…Cooperstown.

How can a player not make it when he is listed as No. 6 overall on the all-time home run list and made the All-Star team 13 times in 22 years? Griffey is beyond qualified for a spot in baseball eternity.

Like any kid who grew up in Pacific Northwest in the 1990's, I idolized Ken Griffey JR.

He was everything that was right about the game of baseball. He had more fun than anybody on the field, always smiling with his signature backwards ball cap. His non-chalant swing seemed to launch homeruns that, to this day, still have yet to come down.

We felt like we grew up with him, like he was one of us. Just a big kid who loved to play a game. Our game. Baseball.

Where would we be without him? Would I be the die-hard fan that I am today?

The day we thought would never come has arrived. Ken Griffey Jr. retired from Major League Baseball. We have watched Ken Griffey Jr. do things unlike any ballplayer in history. Twenty-one years and 630 home runs later, one of the greatest centerfielders of all-time is finally hanging them up.

Ken Griffey Jr. has given us a lifetime's worth of baseball memories. Some of the best highlights in all of baseball over the last 20 years feature Ken Griffey Jr. From all of his countless great moments, here is a look at the 10 best moments of Ken Griffey Jr.'s career.

When I was growing up in the '90s, there was one guy who every young baseball player wished he could be: Ken Griffey Jr.

He made baseball more exciting than anyone else in the game and kept my short attention span focused on a slow-paced sport.

I remember playing wiffle ball in my backyard, imitating Griffey's swing, even though I was right-handed—that smooth left-handed swing with the one-handed follow-through, the prettiest swing in the history of baseball.

Last night, as I was sitting at home, I saw the news come across that Ken Griffey Jr., one of the best players in the game, at least in this era, had retired.

I remembered watching his first years in Seattle and being so awestruck by not only his effortless left-handed swing but also by the speed he had in the outfield. He made highlight reel play after highlight reel play that will continue to be watched by the next generation of fans.

Not only that, but he survived the steroid era and proved that a player can be great without using illegal supplements to do it.

The face of Seattle Mariners has called it quits. Ken Griffey Jr., the once bright-eyed youngster with a million dollar smile and backward hat, ended his career Wednesday, June 2.

Junior was the biggest star of the 1990s and one of the few who did it all naturally, as far as we know. Not once has Griffey even been suspected of doing performance enhancing drugs.