The 40 year old Ken Griffey Jr. retired earlier this week after playing professional baseball since he was 19. He will always be remembered for his time in Seattle, not in Cincinnati. In the late 90's he was the best player in the game and was in the discussion for possibly being the best all around player ever.

The announcement ends a 22-year run in the major leagues that included 13 all-star selections, 630 home runs, 10 Gold Gloves and a .284 career batting average.

Given that the Washington Nationals will likely take power-hitting junior college catcher Bryce Harper with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft on Monday, the Pittsburgh Pirates have a bit more of a dilemma when it comes to their selection.

Even though Harper will be gone, the Pirates still have the cream of the crop to work with—they can choose the best pitcher or the second best position player in the draft.

So who will the Pirates take?

Coming off a tough 4-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox that finished up a eight-game road trip, the Texas Rangers will come home this weekend to face the best team in all of baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays.

Can the Rangers steal a series at home against the Rays and prove to the rest of the AL West that they should be taken seriously?

The wait is over: Stephen Strasburg will make his MLB debut on Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Said to be made from the rib of Nolan Ryan, the 21-year-old Washington Nationals right-hander is already the stuff of legend (or at least 2010 hype), even though his 100 mph fastball has yet to cross a major league plate.

So what should we expect?

In a fairly unsurprising move, Bud Selig has announced that he will not in fact reverse the blown call by umpire Jim Joyce that cost Armando Galarraga the 21st perfect game in the history of Major League Baseball. 

Selig did say "that Major League Baseball will look at expanded replay and umpiring". This is an improvement over the current system in place, but it doesn't change the fact that a young pitcher has been robbed of baseball immortality. 

The 2007 season was truly magical for me as a baseball fan. For me, it rivaled 2001. Obviously it was very different, but still magical.

It is well known that the Diamondbacks were a statistical anomaly. They allowed more runs than they scored. They were an absurd 32-20 in one run games. They had the lowest team batting average (.250) in the National League. Outside of Brandon Webb, no starter on the staff had an ERA under 4.25.

On June 2, Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was robbed.

Not robbed of a home run, but of a perfect game.

Galarraga retired 26 straight hitters, placing him one out away from a perfect game.

Jason Donald of the Cleveland Indians stepped to the plate, the last chance to end perfection.

Donald slapped a ground ball between Miguel Cabrera at first and Carlos Guillen at second. Cabrera ran over to field the ball, backhanded it, and threw it to Galarraga at the bag. The throw beat the runner by half a step. A perfect game! Right?

Wrong.

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.

Did Armando Galarraga pitch a perfect game or didn't he?  

And if he did, so what else is new? Good for him.

And if he didn't, so what?  The umpire at the plate giveth;  the umpire at first base taketh away.

Yawn.

Next.

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.