MLB

The baseball world should be focusing on the retirement of Ken Griffey Jr., one of the best players of his generation.

The only way to explain the slump of this entire team is complacency. They have become so used to winning without truly trying that it's now catching up to them.

We see every day that not only in sports, but winning in life as well all comes down to who wants it more and not about who's the most talented. There's no doubt the Phillies are one of, if not the most talented teams in the league.

In case you have been living under a rock the past week, you've missed perhaps one of the most iconic events in all of Major League Baseball.

The eve that saw Ken Griffey Jr. say goodbye to baseball for good, also brought about a new wave of controversy as veteran World Series umpire Jim Joyce made a horrendous call that cost near-perfect game pitcher Armando Galaragga immortality.

As a fan who has witnessed just about everything in the world of sports, this one stands out as the most odd, and by far the most disappointing.

Since the Jeet man is chasing Gehrig's sacred numbers I thought I would compare the two...something Jeter himself would never admit doing.

They both had the basic same legnth careers, G-man 16 years and Jeet-man 15. Gehrig had three seasons of 15 or fewer games, two in the beginning and one at the end. Jeter had one season where he played 15 games...his first. Jeter will play for at least two more years.

Lou Gehrig: 2,164 games/8,001 AB/ 1888 runs/2,721 hits/ 534 doubles/163 triples/493 HR/1,995 RBI/1,508 walks/790 strikeouts/.340 AVG./.447 OBP

Two outs. Ninth inning. Armando Galarraga pitching. Eight and two-thirds innings, no hits, no walks, no errors, no HBP. Jason Donald at the plate.

Grounder to first. Flip to Galarraga covering. Donald beat to base. Out. Perfect game. History.

Well, no. It actually went: Donald beat to base. Safe. Blown call. Epic fail costs Galarraga perfection.

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.

While I don't have much time (I am being extremely irresponsible in writing this as it's 3:15 AM and I work at 8:00 AM, I just thought it would be nice to post something positive for a change. According to Bob Dutton and Terez A. Paylor at the Star, Danny Duffy is set to return to camp. In electing to resume what had been a very promising career, the pitcher who was widely regarded as being the most advanced top-tier pitching prospect in the system heading in the season is reportedly about three weeks away from pitching competitively.

Do you know how many times Johan Santana has posted a zero for the Mets? There have been 14 times when he has not allowed a run. Not an earned run, but any run.

Four times he has earned a no decision in those 14 splendid games, including a ridiculous three times this season. There have been three further times where he has allowed two or fewer unearned runs in his two-and-a-half years in New York. He is 0-2 with a no decision in those contests.

While the MLB Amateur Draft doesn't get as much attention as those of the NFL and NBA, that doesn't mean that it's any less important. Cheap, young talent is the most valuable commodity in baseball and can help close the revenue gap between some teams.

The Sox own the 13th pick in the draft, which starts on Monday. While they won't get a sure-fire impact player at their pick, there are a number of players that could make a difference in a few years.

I made a couple of assumptions in cutting down to this short list.

1) The Sox will take a college player.

SAN DIEGO-- The Mets were looking for their first road series victory since July 2009. They had their ace Johan Santana on the mound, and everything was heading in the right direction seemingly.

Trying to follow up a brilliant outing from co-ace Mike Pelfrey, Santana went to the mound and didn't have his "Type A" stuff. He battled through seven innings of work, throwing over 120 pitches, and gutting out a scoreless effort for the second straight start.