Thursday, July 05, 2007
Who was better: Griffey or Bonds?
Tim Kurkjian did a great piece on SportsCenter yesterday, chronicling the peak career achievements of Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey, Jr. He begged the question of who was better in their mid-1990's prime. There was no real winner declared and he offered no definitive conclusions, but my money's on Junior.
No disrespect to Bonds, who is the greatest player of my lifetime, but for seven straight years, Griffey was the Seattle Mariners. And this was a team with Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson, Jay Buhner, and a rookie named Alex Rodriguez. He hit for average, cracked a ton of homers and was the best patrolman in centerfield since Willie Mayes and Joe DiMaggio.
Bonds won 3 MVPs in the pre-steroid era and 8 Gold Gloves. But in the National League. For an unbelievable stretch, Griffey was the game's most feared player, in a time when baseball was still considered unpopular.
He's no longer the player he once was, and Bonds is now approaching immortality, but in their primes, there's no doubt that Griffey was the man.
No disrespect to Bonds, who is the greatest player of my lifetime, but for seven straight years, Griffey was the Seattle Mariners. And this was a team with Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson, Jay Buhner, and a rookie named Alex Rodriguez. He hit for average, cracked a ton of homers and was the best patrolman in centerfield since Willie Mayes and Joe DiMaggio.
Bonds won 3 MVPs in the pre-steroid era and 8 Gold Gloves. But in the National League. For an unbelievable stretch, Griffey was the game's most feared player, in a time when baseball was still considered unpopular.
He's no longer the player he once was, and Bonds is now approaching immortality, but in their primes, there's no doubt that Griffey was the man.
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