When Ken Griffey Jr. retired last year, he did so pretty quietly. Yes, there was a bit of rancor around the time it happened, but there wasn’t much to the actual announcement. An announcement which almost got lost in the shuffle because it happened on the same night as the Armando Galarraga Jim Joyce game. He spoke with the media about it yesterday, however, and said it would be the last time he does:
Most folks believe that Griffey and manager Don Wakamatsu were at odds, which was probably a safe assumption. It’s also clear, though, that Griffey had nothing left as a player, so the rancor and the distraction were likely only part of the equation.
And, actually, Griffey’s diminished-to-the-point-of-disappearing skills are probably what made the relationship between Wakamatsu and Griffey so tough to begin with. Piecing together the various things we’ve heard in the past year, the manager understandably felt that he had to win games, and he couldn’t do it with Griffey. He needed to limit Griffey’s contribution, but didn’t have any support from the front office in how to do that. This, in turn, led to the rest of the team turning on Wakamatsu when he limited Griffey’s role and it turned ugly from there. And while in my view it was the front office that should have driven that train and smoothed things out with respect to Griffey being benched, it’s also quite possible that Wakamatsu didn’t distinguish himself in the interpersonal relations department himself.
Ultimately this is a minor footnote to a Hall of Fame career, but it’s interesting all the same.
