Coming Home
Seattle,Wa – Ken Griffey Jr. is returning to his baseball roots.
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Junior, fifth on the home run list with 611, decided to return to the Seattle Mariners, where his illustrious career began.
“I can’t begin to tell you how ecstatic we are. He is, too,” said Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik in confirming the deal Wednesday night.
Zduriencik called Griffey “arguably one of the greatest athletes to ever play in the Seattle area.”
The contract is for one year and is believed to be worth $2 million in base salary, plus incentives.
Atlanta appeared to be Griffey’s choice on Tuesday for the same reason the former Mariners star left Seattle in 2000: geography. The Braves’ spring training camp is about a 20-minute drive from the Griffey family home in Orlando, Fla., and Atlanta is about an hour away by plane.
le while playing with the Reds – that he wanted to finish his career as a Mariner.
“We were informed tonight that Ken Griffey Jr. has decided to return to Seattle,” Braves general manager Frank Wren said. “We will continue to be open to other possibilities to improve our outfield offense and, at the same time, give our young players an opportunity to show us they can win that job.”
Griffey made his first opening day start with the Mariners as a 19-year-old in 1989. He stayed 10 more years before asking for a trade and being sent to Cincinnati. He has been hampered by injuries since and had arthroscopic knee surgery following the 2008 season, the last half of which he spent with the White Sox.
Yankees captain Derek Jeter, meanwhile, finally spoke up on teammate Alex Rodriguez’s admission to using performance-enhancing drugs.
Jeter offered A-Rod his support, and said it’s time to move on.
“We’re here to support him through it,” Jeter said in Tampa, Fla. “I don’t condone what he did. We don’t condone what he did. And Alex doesn’t condone what he did. And I think at this point now it’s our jobs to try to help him be as comfortable as he can on the field and try to move past this.”
shortstop position.
A day before the Rangers’ first full-squad workout in Surprise, Ariz., Young stood near third base during batting practice to get an idea of how the ball came off the bat. He also took grounders from manager Ron Washington.
“I pretty much want to get out there live so I can see the ball off the bat,” Young said. “I know it’s a transition but I don’t see myself having massive difficulty with it. Once I get some reps under my belt I’ll be ready to go.”
Texas switched Young, who won the AL Gold Glove at shortstop last season, to third base to make room for 20-year-old shortstop Elvis Andrus, a touted prospect who has never played above Double-A.
Chicago White Sox slugger Jim Thome said he plans to see age 40 from a big league dugout.
The 38-year-old designated hitter said that he’d like to play at least two more seasons in the majors to get homer No. 600 and the World Series ring that’s eluded him for 18 seasons so far.
Thome hit 34 homers last season with a .245 average and 90 RBIs. His long homer in the seventh inning of the one-game playoff against Minnesota on Sept. 30 gave the Sox a 1-0 win.
It was homer No. 541 for the slugger who broke into the majors as a third baseman in September 1991 with Cleveland.
Greg Maddux isn’t ready to give up baseball altogether.
r-time Cy Young Award winner rejoined the San Diego Padres as a spring training instructor in Peoria, Ariz. Though his position is only temporary, Maddux hopes it will lead to a permanent coaching job. Maddux retired in December after 23 big league seasons.
“I love baseball,” said Maddux, who was 355-227 with a 3.16 ERA in a career with the Padres, Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs. “It’s what I’ve always done. It’s really all I know.
Oakland’s Brad Ziegler is reaping the rewards of setting a record for consecutive scoreless innings to start a career: He earned a spot on Team USA at the World Baseball Classic.
Ziegler learned late Tuesday that he made the American roster, realizing a lifelong dream to play for his country.
“I’ve wanted this opportunity for a long time,” Ziegler said Wednesday. “I campaigned to get on the Olympic team last year but then I was called up. To have the opportunity to wear the stars and stripes, and play with some of the elite names in baseball, is just incredible.”
Ziegler started his big league career with a 39-inning scoreless streak, which set three records and tied another.
Joe Maddon’s tricky math worked so well for the Tampa Bay Rays that the AL champions couldn’t wait for the manager to lay out his latest motivational equation for success.
’08” even though Maddon actually prefers the words “better than” to “greater than.”
“I wanted to re-emphasize that nine will always equal eight in our math,” the manager said, referring to last year’s slogan that translated to nine players, playing hard for nine innings equals one of eight playoff spots.
The Mets were still reacting to Phillies ace Cole Hammels, who called them “choke artists” in the offseason.
Mets shortstop Jose Reyes followed up teammate Carlos Beltran’s comment from Tuesday – “He will be watched every time he faces us and hopefully we kill him” – saying, “I don’t know why they always focus on us. They are the ones to win the World Series. We don’t say nothing about them. We just say, ‘Congratulations to the Phillies.’
“They always say something about us and we don’t even focus on them. We focus on them when we play against them,” Reyes added from Port St. Lucie, Fla.
In Viera, Fla., the Nationals were dealing with the revelation that a top baseball prospect from the Dominican Republic who received a $1.4 million signing bonus from Washington lied about his age and name in what team president Stan Kasten called “an elaborate scheme.”
fare, the Nationals signed a 16-year-old shortstop named Esmailyn “Smiley” Gonzalez. He wound up leading the rookie-level Gulf Coast League with a .343 batting average in 2008.
But while the Nationals have been listing his date of birth as Sept. 21, 1989 – which would make him 19 now – Kasten said that a Major League Baseball investigation determined Gonzalez is actually Carlos David Alvarez Lugo, born in November 1985 – meaning he is really 23.
“This is going to have serious repercussions,” said Kasten, who spoke to reporters after SI.com first reported on Gonzalez/Lugo.
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Posted: 2/19/09 12:25AM ET
