All About Griffey

The sports world is starting to get back to business with its story’s legitimately revolving around sports now instead of rumor city U.S.A. I’m sure your grass is yellow, your underwear is sticky, and your fridge is broken, but have no fear, your Early Bird Sports Blog is hear. So sit back, relax, drink some water to wash away your weekend hangover, and put some literacy in sports cabinet for the next 5+ minutes.

Monday started off with a bang, by suspending 10+ baseball players for using Bio-Genesis and that’s including the loony tune A-Fraud. Let me get this straight, he got suspended (which was supposed to start Thursday) and still hit his first homerun of the 2013 season on Sunday, putting his career homerun total at 648. It makes sense that this guy has to fight for himself considering his suspension is beyond the normal limit (50 games) for a “first time” offender of the system, but at the same time, a 211 game suspension seems pretty legitimate considering his previous usage and a formal apology for his use the first time. This guy is the biggest phony and perfect poster child for the era he has been a part of. This guy has the biggest contract in MLB history and lied about his usage while grabbing the system by the throat, lying, cheating, and weaseling his way by avoiding every possible opportunity to talk about his performance enhancing usage. We all knew he was already a joke when it came to his tipping of pitches back when he was on the Rangers, but  now that he has had 2 stints of P.E.D usage, what more does he need to do other than fight for his right to party it up in infamy. The guy is a complete joke and now he will be another member of the laughing stalk steroid era currently in progress as we speak.

Some big time headlines occurred this week when it came to the baseball world. The Atlanta Braves made the term “Hot-Lanta” a thing once again. Their 14 game winning streak was snapped this week which was the longest streak in their franchise history since the early 2000’s when the term Hot-Lanta was a legit statement. Max Scherzer also made a huge statement this week putting his Cy Young candidacy in serious consideration. 17-1 is the now his record which is the first time since 2001 when Roger Clemons (a steroid user) started the season with the same record. With the type of 1-2 punch they have lined up in Detroit, Max has a legitimate chance of finishing the season with 25 wins which would be the first time since 1990 when Bob Welch did it. That was back when teams had 4-man rotations where 25 wins could happen more often because of the more chances to pitch throughout the season. With 5-man rotations these days, the likelihood of a 25 game winner is slim to none considering most elite pitchers only get about 36 to 37 starts for an entire season. If Max Scherzer can get this feat, it would be a feat that may never be repeated again in MLB History.

Let’s get to Football quickly before we hit this Griffey story. Johnny Football was in the news again for some rumor mill stuff with him potentially getting compensated for signing autographs this past season. For him being a superstar in such a secluded place such as College station, is it really his fault for needing beer money for his homies at the fraternity parties? I won’t comment on this much more until more evidence comes out, but this is starting to look like a loss of a Heisman trophy and some possible sanctions for the newly wedded SEC Texas A&M Aggies.

Dallas Clark got signed by the Ravens today. Just thought I would throw that out there, I think that will boost them a bit considering Dallas at one point was one of the most productive Tight Ends in the NFL.

Jason Dufner shot a 63 at the PGA Championship in the 2^nd round tying him for the highest Major Round score in PGA Tour History. He eventually won the tournament for his first Major Championship by passing up Jim Furyk by 2 strokes with a -10. The news all weekend was how bad Phil Mickleson and Tiger Woods performed, especially for Tiger Woods after his performance at the Bridgestone last weekend. Since now the Major championships are all done in the PGA Tour this season, it’s another season where Tiger passed up the opportunity to take one of the four coveted trophies in the sport. Oh well, the 2014 Masters will be here soon enough, hopefully he can show up in that tournament.

Ken Griffey Jr.

The greatest player in the 90’s without debate and possibly the greatest clean player of his era. The scariest thing about Griffey as we all know by now is that he could have hit another 100+ homeruns if he could have stayed healthy. The best thing about it though, he didn’t need to. His play in the field, his passion, his humbleness, and his power he had in the 90’s especially when it came to marketing. What better guy to have represented the game of baseball and sadly, the cameras shied away from him and focused on players who revolved around the ugly P.E.D. scandal that now haunts the MLB today. Ken Griffey Jr. was the definition of Baseball in the 1990’s and considering his commitment to the Seattle Mariners, he was put in the Mariners Hall of Fame on Saturday. He presented a heartfelt speech, from the heart, from the soul, and from the giddiness the kid in him still presenting itself today. What else is there to say about Ken Griffey Jr. other than he made the game look easy, and played so hard that he cut his career potential short beyond what we all could have witnessed. He was the greatest Mariner to ever live and will go into Cooperstown representing the Seattle Mariners. When it comes to Centerfielders in the game of baseball, the debate can be made who is the greatest. In one hand it’s Willie Mays, in the other it’s Ken Griffey Jr.

That’s it for this week, I’ll see you next week everybody.