Revisiting Milestone Ken Griffey Jr. Home Runs Through the Years
I also share my favorite statistical discovery ever about The Kid.
If you grew up in the 1990s and loved baseball (like me), you were required to spend time in your bedroom imitating Ken Griffey Jr.’s swing and home run strut (like I did).
Although injuries derailed him from challenging Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds for the all-time home run record, finishing with the seventh-most home runs in MLB history and being a near-unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer is not a bad alternative.
We’re still at the beginning of the offseason, so I’m finding myself looking up random things to keep my heart warm as it gets colder. One thing that will always give me the warm and tinglies without ever getting old is watching Griffey pummel baseballs.
This list goes through some of his milestone home runs. It starts with his first career dinger and is followed by his 100th, 200th, 300th, 400th, 500th, and 600th before finishing up at no. 630.
April 10, 1989: Home Run #1 vs. White Sox
Talk about perfect timing – as a 19-year-old already in the big leagues, Griffey Jr.’s first career home run came on his father’s birthday, who was playing for the Cincinnati Reds at the time. He finished third in Rookie of the Year voting and enjoyed a solid year at the dish.
Through his first 506 MLB plate appearances, Griffey posted 2.5 fWAR with a 106 wRC+ with 16 home runs, 61 RBI, 61 runs scored, and 16 stolen bases for the Mariners. It was the last “normal” year he’d have for a while since his wRC+ didn’t dip below 120 and his fWAR didn’t finish below 4.0 again until 2001 when he was limited to just 111 games for the Reds.
June 15, 1993: Home Run #100 vs. Royals
Between 1990 and 1992, Griffey showed he was an elite player. He grabbed three straight Gold Glove Awards, posted three straight seasons of at least 5.0 fWAR, hit a combined .311/.376/.513, and averaged 24 homers with 94 RBI.
However, 1993 was the true Hall of Fame-level breakout. In addition to appearing in the All-Star Game, winning another Gold Glove, and taking home a Silver Slugger, he finished fifth in AL MVP voting thanks to a .309/.408/.617 line with 45 home runs, 109 RBI, 113 runs scored, and 17 stolen bases. That offensive performance led to a 164 wRC+ (a single-season career-high mark) and 8.4 fWAR.
And let’s not forget, he did this in his age-23 season.
May 21, 1996: Home Run #200 vs. Red Sox
From the standpoint of fWAR, 1996 was Griffey’s finest work, accumulating 9.7 fWAR in 140 games played. He enjoyed his third season of 40-plus homers and set new career-high marks with 49 dingers and 140 RBI.
This dinger helped him become the seventh-youngest player to reach 200 homers. There’s also something special about slugging a milestone home run at a historic stadium like Fenway Park. It just hits differently.
This was his first full season since that 1993 breakout. He played just 111 games in 1994 because of the strike and 72 in 1995 because of a broken wrist. This ended up starting the unequivocal peak of his Hall of Fame career, which included five straight seasons of at least 40 homers and 115 RBI.
April 13, 1998: Home Run #300 vs. Guardians
Can you imagine what it feels like to hit 300 homers in the big leagues before you turn 30 years old? How about before you turn 29? Only a select few know what that feels like, and Griffey is one. At the time of this homer, he was the second-youngest hitter to reach the milestone.
He was fresh off a 1997 season where he led baseball with 56 home runs and 147 RBI en route to finally winning his first (and only) MVP award. Little did he know at the time of this homer, but he was on his way to having a very similar season. More on that later, though.
After coming up short a couple of times previously, Griffey also etched his name among MLB's Home Run Derby winners during the All-Star break.
April 10, 2000: Home Run #400 vs. Rockies
Yes, you read that date correctly – this was the second time in Griffey’s career that he hit a milestone home run on his father’s birthday. This one was a little extra special because he became the youngest to reach 400 homers at the young age of 30.
Thanks to an incredibly powerful few years in the late ‘90s, The Kid put himself in what seemed to be a favorable position to challenge Aaron’s career homer record of 755. I mean, when you rifle through 100 homers every couple of years, it’s hard not to think about that.
He may have been exiting his prime, but it didn’t look that way, as he was selected to his 11th consecutive All-Star Game while slashing .271/.387/.556 with 40 homers, 118 RBI, and 100 runs scored. It was the fifth straight year he slugged at least 40 dingers with 100-plus RBI and 100-plus runs scored. Those 40 dingers are also a franchise record for homers in a single season by Reds center fielders.
Unfortunately, that’s when the injury bug started to bite, as he played in just 158 games between 2002 and 2004.
June 20, 2004: Home Run #500 vs. Cardinals
The every-two-years-for-a-milestone-homer streak ended, but by the time Griffey entered the 500-homer club in 2004, he did it on what was already a memorable day. After hitting his 400th dinger on his father’s 50th birthday, he hit number 500 on Father’s Day, with his dad in attendance.
He had an excellent first half for the Reds, hitting .251/.350/.512 with 20 homers, 17 doubles, 60 RBI, and 48 runs scored through 343 plate appearances. It was so excellent that he was selected to another All-Star team – the second-to-last time he received that honor. Unfortunately for him and Cincinnati, that was as good as it’d get because of a torn hamstring. He appeared in just three games (five plate appearances) after the All-Star break and had season-ending surgery on August 16.
June 9, 2008: Home Run #600 vs. Marlins
As Griffey continued progressing through his 30s, it took him nearly four years to the day to get from 500 to 600 homers. He made it there with the Reds before they traded him to the Chicago White Sox. He ended up hitting 15 dingers for Cincinnati in 425 plate appearances before being dealt at the non-waiver trade deadline.
He’d hit three more that season for Chicago. The first one was number 609, which tied him with Sammy Sosa for fifth on the all-time list.
October 3, 2009: Home Run #630 vs. Rangers
After spending a historic 11 seasons with the Mariners to begin his career, Griffey signed a one-year deal to return to Seattle for his age-39 season. He hit his 19th and final homer of the year in the season’s second-to-last game. He would come back for 2010 but appeared in just 33 games and decided to retire after slashing .184/.250/.204 with no homers through his first 108 plate appearances.
Who knows where Griffey could’ve landed on the all-time home run list if he didn’t miss the equivalent of two full seasons between 2002 and 2004. But still, finishing with 630 homers over 22 years is incredible. And we can’t forget about the style/swag he brought to the game when nobody else was doing it.
He was generational in every aspect of the word.
My favorite Ken Griffey Jr. Stat of All Time
One of the things I love the most when scoping out a player’s Baseball-Reference page is any kind of trend/symmetry between multiple seasons. Just look at what I discovered while checking out Griffey’s page for about the 1,000th time…
Griffey in 1997: 34 doubles, 3 triples, 56 HRs, 147 RBI, 76 walks, 121 strikeouts
Griffey in 1998: 33 doubles, 3 triples, 56 HRs, 146 RBI, 76 walks, 121 strikeouts
He was quite literally an RBI double short of having the most perfect symmetry I’ve ever seen. But that’s not even all of it!
The left-handed slugger also hit his 50th homer of the year *on the same day* exactly one year apart — Sept. 7, 1997 and Sept. 8 1998. It’s stuff like that just makes me love baseball even more.
P.S. Take care of the baseball fan in your life during the holidays. Get them a copy of my latest book to keep them busy until Spring Training starts in February.
Excellent! I don't know how you come across those symmetry stats all the time, that's pretty cool!