Ken Griffey Jr. Factoids
Ken Griffey Jr. has retired from major-league baseball, and we’ll have a column in Thursday’s paper. In the meantime, here are some Griffey factoids for you:
— Griffey is the second-greatest left-handed hitter born on a Nov. 21 in Donora, Pa. — behind this guy. According to Wikipedia, in 2000, Donora had a population of 5,653.
— Griffey is the second-greatest baseball player named George — behind this guy. OK, he might also rank behind George Brett, but how many people knew Griffey’s name was George?
— Baseball-reference has a detailed list of all 630 of Griffey’s home runs. So you can win that bar bet by knowing that eight homers off David Wells were the most he hit against any pitcher.
— Here is the greatest moment in Mariners history.
— Here is the home/road breakdown for the 500 Homer Club:
| Player | Hm | Rd | Tot |
| Barry Bonds | 379 | 383 | 762 |
| Hank Aaron | 385 | 370 | 755 |
| Babe Ruth | 347 | 367 | 714 |
| Willie Mays | 335 | 325 | 660 |
| Ken Griffey Jr. | 332 | 298 | 630 |
| Sammy Sosa | 321 | 288 | 609 |
| Alex Rodriguez | 305 | 285 | 590 |
| Frank Robinson | 321 | 265 | 586 |
| Mark McGwire | 285 | 298 | 583 |
| Harmon Killebrew | 291 | 282 | 573 |
| Rafael Palmeiro | 311 | 258 | 569 |
| Jim Thome | 315 | 254 | 569 |
| Reggie Jackson | 280 | 283 | 563 |
| Manny Ramirez | 280 | 270 | 550 |
| Mike Schmidt | 265 | 283 | 548 |
| Mickey Mantle | 266 | 270 | 536 |
| Jimmie Foxx | 299 | 235 | 534 |
| Willie McCovey | 264 | 257 | 521 |
| Frank Thomas | 312 | 209 | 521 |
| Ted Williams | 248 | 273 | 521 |
| Ernie Banks | 290 | 222 | 512 |
| Eddie Mathews | 238 | 274 | 512 |
| Mel Ott | 323 | 188 | 511 |
| Gary Sheffield | 262 | 247 | 509 |
| Eddie Murray | 242 | 262 | 504 |
