Ken Griffey Jr.'s Hall of Fame dream comes true: Both parents cancer-free
Ken Griffey Jr. and his dad are laughing together on the telephone, recalling the years he was too nervous to perform in front of his father, and Ken Griffey Sr. ready to ship his son back home after Junior kept pestering him with hitting tips.
At the age of 6.
In five months, Junior, Senior and the entire family will walk into the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum for the first time in their lives, admiring Griffey’s plaque as he joins Mike Piazza as the newest members of the Hall of Fame.
There will be euphoria, and plenty of tears of joy, but it will also resurrect painful memories, Junior says.
Ken Griffey Jr., forever The Kid, goes into Hall of Fame in record fashion
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It will be the 10-year anniversary, almost to the day, of a most trying 24 hours of his life.
It was in July 2006, when Ken Griffey Sr. walked into the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse, pacing nervously with his son still on the field, waiting to break the news.
“I just got pulled out of the game,’’ Griffey Jr. said. “I go into the lunch room, and my dad said, 'I got to talk to you.’
"'Your mom has colon cancer.'"
Griffey sat stunned, immediately fearing the worst.
“My mind went blank,’’ Griffey said. “You start thinking about everything, and your mind goes blank. I called her right away, got up the next morning, and called her again.’’
Now, it was Birdie’s turn to break the news.
“So, did your dad tell you what’s wrong with him?’’
Griffey: “No.’’
Birdie: “He has prostate cancer.’’
Griffey tried to call his dad, but he wasn’t answering the phone. He simply wasn’t ready to talk about it, fearing it would upset his son.
“So now I have both of my parents dealing with cancer,’’ Griffey Jr. said, “and at the same time. My mind wasn’t really on baseball. When I finally did get ahold of my dad, he said, 'Don’t worry about me. Worry about your mom.’
“It was the scariest time of my life.’’
Now, 10 years later, Ken Griffey Sr. and Birdie are each in good health, cancer survivors with no recurrence, and counting down the days until Griffey’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
But for now, the Hall of Fame can wait.
Griffey and his father plan to commemorate World Cancer Day on Thursday at Super Bowl headquarters in San Francisco, launching a public service campaign with Bayer on advanced prostate cancer awareness. They will be part of the Men Who Speak Up campaign to help draw attention to the warning signs of advanced prostate cancer, which killed four of Griffey Sr.’s uncles.
“It’s still so hard for men to talk about,’’ Griffey Sr. said. “No one wants to talk about the changes in your life, erectile dysfunction, chemotherapy, things you can no longer do. I have a couple of friends of mine that I golf with, and they just recently told me they had prostate cancer three or four years ago.
“People are still afraid to talk about it.’’
Griffey Jr., realizing the disease is hereditary, prompting him and his brother, Craig, to get annual checkups, will be a spokesman for prostate cancer along with his dad.
They are serious and spirited in their message.
You ask Junior about the fear 10 years ago his parents wouldn’t be alive to see his Hall of Fame induction, and he’ll tell you he was more worried for a different reason.
“Hey,’’ Griffey said, “I need them around to baby-sit. I need someone to watch the kids when I’m out of town.’’
Vintage Griffey.
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He’s the kid who gave his father hitting tips at the age of 6 while Senior was playing winter ball in Puerto Rico (“I was ready to ship him back to Cincinnati,’’) and then proceeded to go six consecutive years without getting a hit with his dad watching from the stands.
“I was with the Braves and we’re in Cincinnati at the time,’’ Griffey Sr. said, “and I got a chance to go over and see Kenny at his high school game just before he was drafted. Bobby Cox was there. There were about 30 to 40 scouts there. I said, “Who you looking at?’
“They said, 'Who do you think? Your kid.’
“I said, 'Why? He can’t hit.'"
Sure enough, with pop watching, Junior struck out the first at-bat. Then, again the second at-bat.
Ken Griffey Sr. headed to the ballpark, played against the Reds, came home, and learned that his son went 3-for-5 with two homers in the game.
“I didn’t see him get a hit from the age of 12 to 18,’’ Griffey Sr. said. “It wasn’t until instructional league until I got to finally see that first hit.
“It really wasn’t until we played together in Seattle when I found out how good he was.’’
Said Junior: “I was just putting way too much pressure on myself. I was just trying to get that validation from my dad. It got so bad I remember my high school coach telling him not to show up to games.
“Now, I know what it’s like watching my own kids play."
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The ultimate validation, of course, will be at Cooperstown on July 24. It’s a day that has Ken Sr. more excited than Junior, exhilarated that his son received the highest voting percentage in Hall of Fame history.
“I know I was more thrilled when he got that phone call than he was,’’ Griffey Sr. said. “I used to always tell him that I had more (World Series) rings than he did. But he’s got the big ring now. He’s got the one everyone dreams of.’’
Yet, that ultimate dream would be shallow, Junior says, if his parents weren’t alive to be there sharing baseball’s ultimate honor.
“I’m excited,’’ Junior said, “but I feel like I’m a rookie again. It’s like, 'OK, what do you do and what don’t you do?’ I don’t want to be that bad kid that climbs over things and the Hall of Famers tell me, “Hey, he can’t come back no more.’ I’m going to soak it all in.
“But having my mom and dad there with me, after everything they’ve done for me and what they had to go through, and being healthy today, well, that means everything.
“That’s my dream come true.’’
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