How, after all these years, did I not realize that “Trey” was a reference to “three”? #Duh

Dr. Saturday, a BCS blog on Yahoo.com, talked a little about “The Kid’s Kid” last week, specifically regarding his (so far, largely unsuccessful) efforts to land at a prestigious football college:

The football scouts have been somewhat less impressed: Griffey’s only Division I offer to date is from Florida International, though a few heavier hitters seem to have shown some serious interest, and he hopes a transfer to a more high-profile program.

There’s a video with Trey that you might like to click over and check out.

No word yet on David Weathers’ son who so impressed the world as a surprisingly skilled 6-year old. He must be almost to middle school by now, so you’ll want to keep your eyes open for that one.

Ken Griffey Jr has always been my favorite baseball player, and I found how his career ended in 2010 to be quite sad. But today’s news about his old club hiring him strikes me as good news.

Ken Griffey Jr. is returning to the Seattle Mariners as a special consultant less than a year after abruptly retiring from baseball.

Good. Griffey was always good for the game, and I’d hate for him to no longer be associated with it. Hopefully, he can stay awake for this job, though.

If you love Ken Griffey Jr. like certain members of the Red Hot Household, then you’ll want to check out this retrospective on The Hardball Times.

Well, less a retrospective than a list of players ranked by their Wins Above Replacement numbers. And he’s wearing the Mariners’ jersey (the second time; not the awesome time). But, hey, any excuse to read about The Kid, right?

The final All-Star vote tally before the one that decides the line-up is now available. Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Orlando Cabrera, and Jonny Gomes hang in there in their races, but Scott Rolen is actually within striking distance.

Ken Griffey, Jr. was on the All-Star line-up in 2007, and before that the last Red to appear was Barry Larkin in 2000. Two voted in the last 10 years? Don’t you think we ought to do something about that? Hell, Rolen himself has appeared in the line-up that many times in that many years. Let’s send him again.

Remember, you get 25 votes per email address. Yahoo!, Hotmail, and Gmail are your partners in making your voice heard.

It also appears you can vote 25 times per email address per day. At least I’ve been able to cast votes on different days with the same email address. Why not try it out for yourself?

Wasn’t Zeldink’s post on the influence of Ken Griffey, Jr. in his life sweet? In fact, The Kid touched both of our lives in ways that that post didn’t even mention.

As I’ve mentioned, I’m relatively new to baseball fandom. In my early childhood, my family was more hippy/artsy types and organized sports were part of the machine instituted by The Man to pacify the masses and control our thoughts. (I may be going a bit far there, but it will suffice to say that I didn’t know the difference between a double and a double play until I started playing softball in high school.)

When I met my future husband, he was in that mad-at-MLB-about-the-strike phase he described, and I had no idea he was a baseball fan at all. In fact, when I married him, I had no idea. So I was pretty surprised when he started following the Reds when Griffey joined the team. I was doubly surprised to find out that following the Reds was a multi-generational tradition in his family.

Not being made aware of the fact that I would be a baseball widow was probably a breach of the marriage contract and grounds for annulment, but instead I got into the sport too, and a couple years later RHM was born.

So, in fact, Ken Griffey, Jr. is directly responsible for the content you’re reading right now, and by extension, the life-changing impact this site has had on us, our family, and our friends.

Thanks, Griffey 🙂

On an unrelated note, I’m reposting below what has always been my favorite Griffey-related post, back from spring training 2006 when Barry Bonds was pulling media stunts to advertise his short-lived reality show. Boy, those were the days, eh?

March 2, 2006 — I’ve Got It All

I'm an international baseball superstar. I've hit 708 home runs, my own reality show coming out on ESPN, and a newfound sense of humor. I've really got it all.

Hey, I'm an international baseball superstar. Sure, I might have only a measly 536 home runs and coverage in 100 games on Fox Sports Ohio, but there's one thing I've got that you lost long ago.

Yeah? What's that?

Dignity.