When 19-year-old Ken Griffey, Jr. debuted for the Seattle Mariners in 1989, the team had been in existence for 12 seasons and had not yet had a winning record. They were barely noticed among Major League Baseball teams, with their geographic location in the far northwest corner of the U.S. and their perennial placement near the bottom of the AL West standings. Fans across the country would have been hard-pressed to name even one player on the Mariners in those years. The year before Griffey arrived, Alvin Davis was their top position player and lefty Mark Langston had led the starting rotation in wins and ERA.
Griffey played his first game on April 3, 1989, and it was love at first sight for Mariners’ fans. He hit a double off Dave Stewart in his first major league at-bat in Oakland, then later walked and scored a run. A week later, in his first Kingdome at-bat, he homered to deep left field off of the White Sox’ Eric King.
Griffey brought an energy to the team that they hadn’t seen before. Alvin Davis was a very good player for the Mariners in the mid-1980s, but he was a low-key, laid-back player. He was consistent. He was the consummate professional. He drew his fair share of walks and hit for average and power, but he wasn’t an exciting player to watch like Griffey was. In those early years with the M’s, Griffey could be seen having fun clowning around before the game with his trademark cap-on-backwards look and flashing a big smile on the field when he made a great play.
After finishing third in the A.L. Rookie of the Year voting in 1989 (behind pitchers Gregg Olson and Tom Gordon), Griffey began a stretch of 11 straight seasons with All-Star game appearances. His second year in the bigs produced some memorable moments, such as this catch against Jesse Barfield in deep left-center at Yankee Stadium:
And this game in September in which Griffey, Jr. and his dad hit back-to-back homers at Anaheim Stadium:
Meanwhile, the Mariners were getting better. They had their first season over .500 in 1991, Griffey’s third year in the big leagues. They made the playoffs for the first time in 1995. That was the year of the “Refuse to Lose” Mariners who came from 12.5 games behind on August 20 to tie the California Angels at the end of the regular season. They beat the Angels in a one-game playoff, then came back from a 2-games-to-0 deficit to beat the Yankees in the five-game Division Series. Game Five in that series was perhaps the greatest game in Mariners history. Griffey scored the winning run on a clutch Edgar Martinez double (Edgar hit .571/.667/1.000 in that series). Like “The Catch” in San Francisco or “The Drive” in Denver, this iconic moment has it’s own name in Seattle: “The Double.”
The Mariners lost the ALCS to the 100-win Cleveland team in 1995. They got back to the playoffs in 1997, but lost to Baltimore in four games. As good as Griffey was, the Mariners never had enough talent around him to produce a team that could sustain a long stretch of winning seasons. They finished over .500 six times in Griffey’s first 11 years with the team and made the playoffs twice. They had a record of 837-876 (.489) while Griffey was in his first stint with the Mariners.
Griffey, of course, was terrific as a Mariner. In his 11 seasons with the team, he was an All-Star 10 times. He won seven Silver Slugger Awards, nine Gold Gloves, and one A.L. MVP Award. Four times he led the league in home runs, including two seasons with 56 each. In his MVP season in 1997, he led the league in runs, home runs, RBI, slugging percentage, and total bases. As a Mariner over the first 11 seasons of his career, Griffey hit .299/.380/.569 with 398 home runs. He had a wRC+ of 144, meaning he was 44% better than the average hitter when league and ballpark effects were taken into account.
This stretch of play is why Ken Griffey, Jr. is in the Hall of Fame. These were the years he became one of the most popular players in baseball and made the Seattle Mariners relevant nationally. He was the MVP of the 1992 All-Star Game and won the Home Run Derby three times, including in back-to-back years in 1998 and 1999, his last two seasons with the Mariners. This is the Ken Griffey, Jr. that everyone remembers. He was Seattle’s Willie Mays.
Next: Traded to Cincinnati