Griffey and Arena Football
By
Amanda
Posted at 8:34 pm
I understand Ken Griffey, Jr. has a hand in bringing a new arena football team to Cincinnati. According to Mark Curnutte:
Bengals defensive tackle Sam Adams has purchased rights to bring arena league football team to U.S. Bank Arena. It would begin play in April, Adams said Friday.
The still-nameless team would play in the af2, arenafootball2.Adams’ investment group includes Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., Adams said. The two became friends when playing in Seattle in the mid- and later-1990s for the Seahawks and Mariners.
I don't know why this reminds me of Michael Jordan playing baseball; I guess my mind has only one synapse for trans-athletic activities. Thankfully, there are no implications that this cross-sporting event has anything to do with secret suspensions or large gambling debts.
Sam Adams played football here in Buffalo with the Bills until being released prior to this season in a move to save salary cap space. I wish him well with the Bengals, except when they play against the Bills of course, and I wish Adams and KGJ well in their endeavors in arena football.
As for Michael Jordan, he clearly got things bass ackwards, he should have played baseball first and then switched to basketball.
In my lifetime there have been two guys that I know of who played major league baseball first, then quit and went on to the NBA – Dave DeBusschere and Danny Ainge.
Ainge played in three seasons for the Blue Jays in 1979-1981, compiling a career BA of .220, and was the youngest player in the AL in ’79 when he played at the ripe old age of 20. That year, he hit the only two big-league home runs of his career. Then he switched to basketball and played with four different NBA teams, becoming an important part of the Boston Celtics team that won NBA championships in 1984 and 1986. He also went on to coach the Phoenix Suns, going 136-90 over parts of four seasons, and is currently the Executive Director of Basketball Operations for the Celtics.
I never saw DeBusschere play baseball. He pitched in 36 games for the White Sox in 1962 and 1963, going 3-4 with one shutout in 10 starts, and a career ERA of 2.90 – his career BA was .045 (maybe that’s why he was a pitcher). In 1964 he switched games and became the youngest coach in NBA history when he took over the Pistons, compiling a 79-143 record as a player/coach before being traded to the New York Knicks.
All he did with the Knicks was become one of the game’s all-time best defenders and an icon of blue-collar basketball players, win two NBA championships, and get himself elected to the Hall Of Fame.
He passed away in 2003. The Knicks and the MSG network now sponsor an award in his name that is given to the top male and female high-school student athlete in the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on an annual basis.
Well, guess we’d best be gettin’ back to baseball now, but thanks for prompting the trip down memory lane, RHM.
HMZ
Seems like it would be much easier to go from basketball to baseball. People retire from basketball younger than they do from baseball, plus there’s much more running involved in basketball.
But I guess the evidence is against it.