Final Card Friday: 2010 Ken Griffey, Jr.

Like most fathers who love baseball, I’ve tried to pass my love of the game to my children. I’m privileged to have one child, Viola, who we adopted from China in 2006. Though I can’t say she’s taken to the game like I did, she’s been a good sport when it comes to the National Pastime. She’s been to 25 MLB stadiums (we’re working on the other five for her) and countless minor league games.  Of course, she’s played APBA too. This year, she participated in the Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament. Last year, she attended the tournament with me. She might not get the same kind of excitement from the tournament, APBA, or baseball as I do, but she certainly finds it enjoyable.

In 2012, my wife’s stepfather was cleaning out his house after the death of my mother-in-law. In his basement, he came across several unopened boxes of baseball cards. Some of those boxes were 1989 Upper Deck, which held the possibility of containing a famous Ken Griffey, Jr. rookie card.  For my generation, the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr. is THE iconic card. For us, it is what the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle is to my father’s generation…though not quite as valuable. I explained this to Viola, and she was intrigued.  Excitedly, she helped me open packs and try to pull the famous Griffey card. In the end, we pulled two Griffeys and he became my daughter’s favorite player… even though she never saw him play.

As time past, I showed Viola videos of Griffey’s career highlights. She watched his long home runs. She thought his graceful catches were cool. She appreciated his classic dash from first on Edgar Martinez’s double in the 1995 Playoffs, when Junior popped out of the mob of teammates with his classic smile.  We collected his (over produced) baseball cards, and we came to appreciate Juniors sweet-swing and steroid-free accomplishments. Like Mantle, Griffey, Jr. is a player of what-ifs.  What if he had been healthier? Would I be writing about the all-time home run king?  Nonetheless, Junior had a tremendous career. It was a career worthy of being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot. Recognizing this as an important part of her childhood, we decided to go to Cooperstown in 2016 to see Ken Griffey, Jr. inducted into the Hall of Fame. It was an exciting experience that I hope stays in my daughter’s mind for many, many years.

Griffey’s final APBA card is a disappointment. It, like the player it represents, is a shadow of what Junior once was. After being away nine seasons, Griffey returned to the Seattle Mariners in 2009 to finish his career. In 2009, Griffey managed to hit 19 home runs, despite a .214 batting average.  However, it all fell apart in 2010. Used exclusively as a DH, Junior was only hitting .184 with no home runs when he called it a career in May. He’d given all he could give.

You know a card isn’t going to produce too much when it has a 25-40, 31-14, 51-14, and a 33-8. It’s hard to stomach a Griffey card with zero first column ones. It’s even harder to take one that will produce NO home runs. For all it’s shortcomings, this card is accurate. I project that it will produce a .181 average…if you can stand it for 108 rolls.

Though this card will produce disappointing results, it is fun to use cards of Hall of Famers in replays. In a magical kind of way, APBA allows the players of the past to step into the box or toe the rubber once again…if only in our minds.  I never had the honor of seeing Al Kaline play, but I’ve seen him play many games in my mind during my 1968 Detroit Tigers replay.  The same could be said for my daughter. Though she’ll never see Ken Griffey, Jr. play in person, he’s played for her in APBA Baseball.  That’s at the heart of APBA Games; it’s what has kept them alive for 67 years.