Ken Griffey Jr.

George Kenneth Griffey Jr. (born November 21, 1969), nicknamed "Junior" and "the Kid", is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played 22 years in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent most of his career with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, along with a short stint with the Chicago White Sox. The first overall pick in the 1987 draft and a 13-time All-Star, Griffey is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. His 630 home runs rank as the seventh-most in MLB history. Griffey was also an exceptional defender and won 10 Gold Glove Awards in center field. He is tied for the record of most consecutive games with a home run (eight, with Don Mattingly and Dale Long).

Griffey signed lucrative deals with companies of international prominence like Nike and Nintendo; his popularity reflected well upon MLB and is credited by some with helping restore its image after the 1994 labor dispute. Griffey is one of only 31 players in baseball history to have appeared in major league games in four different calendar decades.

Following his playing career, Griffey joined the Mariners' front office as a special consultant. He was inducted into both the Mariners Hall of Fame and the Reds Hall of Fame. In 2016, Griffey was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, receiving 99.32% of the vote, breaking pitcher Tom Seaver's record of 98.84%, a record that had stood for 24 years.

Griffey is the son of former MLB player Ken Griffey Sr. and the father of former football player Trey Griffey.

Griffey was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, on November 21, 1969. His family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, as his father, Ken Griffey Sr., made his MLB debut on August 25, 1973 for the Cincinnati Reds. Griffey Jr. was only three years old at the time. He was in the clubhouse during his father's back-to-back championships in the 1975 and 1976 World Series. When Griffey was a young child, his father instilled in him the pride of a team accomplishment rather than the individual performance: "My dad would have bopped me on the head when I was a kid if I came home bragging about what I did on the field. He only wanted to know what the team did." An incident during his father's tenure with the New York Yankees, where Griffey Jr. was told to leave the dugout while sitting with his father, while a white player's (Graig Nettles) son was allowed to practice on the field, would lead to Griffey Jr. refusing to contemplate signing with the Yankees during his career.

Griffey attended Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, the same high school as his future teammate Barry Larkin, where he was the U.S. high school baseball player of the year in 1987. He hit .478 with 17 home runs in his two seasons of high school baseball. Griffey also played football as a wide receiver and received scholarship offers to play college football for such programs as Oklahoma and Michigan.

The Seattle Mariners selected Griffey with the first overall selection of the 1987 Major League Baseball draft, held on June 2, 1987. He received a signing bonus of $160,000. On June 11, 1987, Griffey joined the Bellingham Mariners of the Class A short season Northwest League. He made his professional debut on June 16 and hit his first professional home run the following day against the Everett Giants at Everett Memorial Stadium. A bronze plaque was installed at the approximate site of the ball's landing spot—387 feet (118 m) from home plate. In 54 games with Bellingham, he hit .313 with 14 home runs, 40 runs batted in (RBI), and 13 steals. Baseball America magazine named him the Northwest League's best prospect.

In 1988, Griffey joined the San Bernardino Spirit of the High-A California League. During his 58 games, Griffey batted .338, hit 11 home runs, drove in 42 runs, and stole 32 bases. Late in the season, Griffey was promoted to the Vermont Mariners of the Double-A Eastern League. He played the final 17 games with the club, hitting .279 with two home runs and 10 RBI. Griffey had a total of 129 games in his two seasons in the minor leagues, earning 103 total runs and 27 total home runs.