"He's too old!" "He's lazy!" "Trade him now!"
Every time I go home to Cincinnati I hear the same things. It comes from the newspaper writers, talk-radio hosts, even my younger brother.
The subject of these outcries?
Ken Griffey Jr.
If you listen to Reds fans, Griffey would be the perfect neighborhood softball player - old, slow and good for the occasional long home run that makes everyone temporarily put down their beers and stare.
I can throw a bunch of numbers at you right here to try and convince you otherwise. I can tell you how he won ten gold gloves or how he will be only the sixth player to reach 600 home runs in the long history of the game.
You would remind me how he is hitting nearly .220 this year and we would be right back where we started.
But baseball is about so much more than batting averages and on-base percentages.
It's about that first game you go to with just your glove and your dad. Or maybe it's about trying to explain what a balk is to your new girlfriend who you dragged to the game even though she is far more interested in her frosty malt.
It's about the green monster in Fenway or the ivy in Wrigley, the shot heard round the world, Babe Ruth calling his home run and Jackie Robinson breaking barriers.
Baseball combines the individual's personal memories with the aura and mystique of history better than any other sport. Legends rise above the game and the people who were there to witness them make sure their legacies live on through stories to future generations.
Even hardcore baseball fans will have to pause and think if they are asked who won the world series two years ago. Yet anyone who was over the age of ten remembers how Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa swept the nation in the summer of 1998 with their historic home run chase.
This is what Reds fans need to realize. Sure, Griffey may be a shell of the sweet swinging kid with the backward hat that he once was in Seattle. He will never again hit 50 home runs or scale fences to take one away. But he is still Ken Griffey Jr.
He is one of our generation's legends. In fact, he may be one of the few who did not cheat to reach the level that he has.
Sammy Sosa? Roger Clemens? Barry Bonds? Will you really be proud to tell your grandchildren that they were your baseball idols growing up?
No. We need a player who combines his immense on-field talents with admirable qualities off-field. We need a superstar who willingly changes the number on the back of his jersey to three in honor of the number of children he has.
Players like Griffey are crucial for baseball's effort to move on from the black cloud of steroids. Talented? Yes, but more importantly, he's someone kids can look up to.
The Reds are not going anywhere this season. So if you are a Reds fan, what is going to make you want to go to a game in August when the Cubs and Brewers are ten games ahead of your team?
Perhaps the chance to see Griffey for one of the last times. You may not realize it when you are at Great American Ball Park this summer, but the chance to regularly watch one of the best players in baseball history is not something that many are blessed with.
So enjoy his race to 600 home runs and his last few years in the game.
He is one role model you will not regret later.
Scott Polacek can be reached at polacek.3@osu.edu.
2008 Woodie Awards
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