As Ken Griffey Jr. closes in on another major milestone, it's clear 500 home runs means a lot more to his family than it does to the slugger.
While his wife, kids and father made the long journey to Oakland to see if Griffey can hit the two homers he needs to become the 20th player in that exclusive club, Griffey tried to deflect any questions about the meaning of the milestone.
PHOTO: AFP
"I haven't hit it yet, so I can't tell you how it will feel," Griffey said before Monday's 13-2 loss to the Athletics. "We'll see when the time comes. Right now, I can't worry about how I'll feel three weeks from now, a month from now or whenever. I'm just worried about today."
Griffey's entourage will have to wait at least one more night. He went 1-for-3 with a single before leaving the game in the sixth inning trailing 11-2.
"I just threw him a lot of sinkers," A's starter Mark Mulder said. "If he was going to hit a home run. I wanted it to be off my best pitch."
Even though the 34-year-old Griffey is poised to reach 500 faster than all but five players, getting there has taken longer than people thought.
Griffey finished the 2000 season -- his first with Cincinnati -- with 438 homers, trailing Barry Bonds by only 56, and seemed ready to reach 500 in early 2002.
But three injury-plagued seasons have delayed the milestone by two years. Now, instead of Griffey being the player mentioned as most likely to break Hank Aaron's career record of 755 home runs, it's Bonds who has that label with 674 homers.
"If he had stayed healthy, he would have done some awesome things," said Expos manager Frank Robinson, one of the members of the 500 club. "It just wasn't to be. But he's still a young man as far as this game is concerned."
After a slow start this season it seemed as if Griffey would never regain the form that made him an All-Century player ahead of Bonds. Pitchers challenged him with impunity and even intentionally walked Sean Casey to face him -- quite an insult for a player of Griffey's caliber.
But over the past couple weeks, Griffey once again is hitting the way he did when he was younger. He had nine homers is his previous 14 games, including two Sunday against Montreal, coming into the series with the A's.
"They started missing the label and hitting the barrel," he said. "For a while the balls were hitting the label. A few minor adjustments had to be made, and that's it."
While Griffey's father, who hit 172 homers in his big league career, came to watch his son this week, the two haven't talked about what the milestone would mean.
"We don't talk about things like that," Griffey said. "As a father and son we don't talk about accomplishments. He comes in and asks where the kids are. Even when I played Little League or basketball, he always asked how the team did first, and then at the end he'd ask how I did."
Griffey's heralded return home to Cincinnati has not been the fairy tale people thought it would be. Acquired in a trade with Seattle before the 2000 season, Griffey signed a below-market US$116.5 million, nine-year contract just to be able to stay at home.
But the assortment of injuries and losses turned the once happy-go-lucky, backwards-cap wearing kid into a frustrated veteran. The Reds even tried to trade him only to have Phil Nevin block a deal to San Diego after the 2002 season and an injury halt talk of a trade to the New York Yankees last summer.
Now the Reds are in first place and Griffey is happy to be coming to the ballpark. Most importantly, he is healthy.
"There are good days and bad days. I just deal with it like every other player in the league," he said. "If I run into a wall, I run into a wall. If I have to dive I'll dive. If I get hurt doing that then I'll go home. It's as simple as that."
Griffey's resurgence has caught the attention of his opponents.While the A's would prefer to watch Griffey reach the milestone on TV instead of in person, they respect what he's gone through recently.
"You don't ever want to see anybody of that caliber get hurt so many times," A's first baseman Scott Hatteberg said. "I've always considered him to be one of the greatest players I've seen. To see him get back where he was is great."
Pedro Feliz homered twice and Yorvit Torrealba hit a three-run homer that staked San Francisco to a five-run lead in the first inning of the Giants' 10-5 win over the Colorado Rockies on Monday.
Pinch-hitter Damon Minor singled home the tiebreaking run in the seventh nning. The Giants won three of four and sent Colorado to its fifth series loss at Coors Field this season.
Feliz hit a solo homer in the eighth and a two-run homer in the ninth for his 10th and 11th homers of the year. He had his third career multihomer game and second of the year.
It was Denver's hottest June 7 ever -- breaking a 130-year-old record. The temperature at first pitch was 34? C, but it quickly climbed to 36? C.
Barry Bonds didn't start for the Giants, though he drew an intentional walk as a pinch-hitter in the seventh.
Jim Brower (3-3) pitched the sixth as four Giants relievers combined for four hitless innings. Minor, batting for Cody Ransom, singled with two outs off Steve Reed (0-1).
Cardinals 4, Cubs 3
In Chicago, Scott Rolen made up for the absence of injured Albert Pujols with a three-run homer, and Chris Carpenter (7-1) tied his career-best with his sixth straight win, giving up three runs and nine hits in 8 1-3 innings.
Reggie Sanders also homered for the Cardinals, who have won 10 of 12. Jason Isringhausen got the final out for his 13th save.
Corey Patterson and Glendon Rusch (2-1) homered for the Cubs. Rusch gave up four runs and six hits in seven innings as Chicago lost for the ninth time in 13 games.
INTERLEAGUE
Hank Blalock hit an RBI single with two outs in the 10th inning, and the Texas Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 Monday night in the first interleague game of the season.
Blalock's looper to center, on a full-count pitch from Mike Johnston (0-3), dropped in front of charging outfielder Tike Redman to score Laynce Nix.
Francisco Cordero (2-0) pitched two scoreless innings.
Athletics 13, Reds 2
In Oakland, California, Mark Mulder (7-2) stalled Ken Griffey Jr.'s run for 500 homers on a night when Oakland delivered most of the longballs, getting a grand slam from Scott Hatteberg. Griffey went 1-for-3 and remained stuck at 498 home runs.
Mulder allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings. Mark Kotsay, Erubiel Durazo and Damian Miller also homered for the A's, who improved to 13-0 against the NL Central. The A's have won six of seven overall.
Cory Lidle (4-5) gave up nine runs and nine hits in 3 2-3 innings.
Mariners 5, Astros 0
In Seattle, Clint Nageotte (1-1) pitched six shutout innings in his first major league start, allowing six hits with eight strikeouts and three walks. Julio Mateo finished for his first save.
Scott Spiezio had a solo homer, two singles and two RBIs as the Mariners scored three runs off Brandon Duckworth (1-1) in only one-third of an inning, the shortest outing of his career. Seattle had 11 hits and won its third straight.
Houston's Jeff Kent singled in the fifth, extending his career-high hitting streak to 22 games.
Edgar Renteria of the St. Louis Cardinals overtook Houston's Adam Everett for the lead among NL shortstops in voting for next month's All-Star game.
Renteria had 367,301 votes to 365,056 for Everett in totals released Monday, the tightest margin at any position.
Leaders remained unchanged at other positions. On track to be elected to the starting lineup are New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza (621,524), St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols (564.687), Houston second baseman Jeff Kent (627,182) and St. Louis third baseman Scott Rolen (596.823).
San Francisco's Barry Bonds (797.102), Chicago's Sammy Sosa (681,400) and Cincinnati's Ken Griffey Jr. (502,077) lead outfielders.
The All-Star game is scheduled for July 13 in Houston.
Pujols SLOWLY RECOVERS
Albert Pujols might be available to pinch hit after getting treatment on his sore left hamstring Monday, but St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said he would try to avoid using his first baseman.
"He is still getting treated, so we'll have to wait and sit," La Russa said before the Cardinals played the Chicago Cubs. "Is there a situation where he could pinch hit, depending on how he feels? The answer is probably yes. Are we going to try and avoid using him? Absolutely.
"It's possible that by gametime [the trainer] will say, `Look, under no circumstances put him out there,'" La Russa added.
John Mabry started at first in Pujols' place. Mabry was batting .333 with five RBIs in 36 at-bats in his third stint with the Cardinals.
Pujols hurt his hamstring Sunday while running the bases in the sixth inning. Though initial reports were that the NL batting champion would have an MRI on Monday, he didn't have the test.
"He did not feel like it was a tear -- so that's a good sign," La Russa said. "He may be out two weeks, but a tear is six weeks, two months. We don't think it's that bad, hopefully."
Pujols has had at least four hits in three of his last nine games, batting .559 during that stretch (19-for-34) with five homers and 11 RBIs. Overall he was tied for the major league lead with 17 homers and was batting .325 with 40 RBIs after a slow start.
Pujols has started all of the Cardinals' 56 games and has never been on the disabled list in his four-year career. He averaged 158 games his first three seasons.
Garciaparra tests ankle
Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra will test his ailing right Achilles' tendon today before the team decides if he can make his 2004 debut against the San Diego Padres.
Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said Monday that he was not ready to activate the All-Star shortstop from the disabled list.
"He worked out today and everything went fine. We have nothing to announce at this time," Epstein said in a conference call to discuss the team's draft choices. "We're very, very close. But we're not there yet."
Garciaparra had just eight spring training at-bats -- and no hits -- when he fouled a ball off his right heel on March 17. Although the team initially expected him back for opening day, he did not return to the field until last week, when he began a rehab assignment in Triple-A.
He was 5-for-12 for Pawtucket in five games against Louisville and Toledo, homering in his last at-bat on Saturday. Epstein noted that 20 at-bats is not a lot to get a player ready after the winter.
Garciaparra was scheduled to meet with the team's doctors on Monday, an off day for the Red Sox.
"We're just going to see how he feels tomorrow," Epstein said. "It's not necessarily going to happen tomorrow. It's going to be when he's 100 percent ready."
The two-time AL batting champ and five-time All-Star is making US$11.5 million in the final year of his contract. Last offseason, the Red Sox tried to obtain shortstop Alex Rodriguez from Texas for Manny Ramirez, a deal that probably would have led them to trade Garciaparra to open a spot for Rodriguez.
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