As a West Chester, OH resident, Ken Griffey Sr. returned to the Reds for the first time since the 1990 regular season when he appeared in 46 games for the Reds, before joining his son, Ken Griffey Jr., in Seattle with the Mariners. He is a veteran of 19 major league seasons and was a mainstay in right field for the Big Red Machine, as he helped guide the Reds to consecutive World Series Championships in 1975 and 1976 while batting .305 and .336 (2nd in the NL) respectively in those seasons. He began my career with the Reds after being selected in the 29th round of the 1969 June free agent draft. His big league debut was in late 1973, impressing the club by batting .384 in 25 games. He became a full-time Red during the 1975 season, and in parts of nine seasons, appeared in three National League Championship Series (10x32, .313, 9 G), and two World Series (8x43, 11 G). In 1980, he was voted as the Reds' team MVP after batting .294 in 146 games, and also earned MVP honors in that season's All-Star game at San Diego, after going 2x3 with a homer. He batted over .300 six times for the Reds, while stealing 20-plus bases three times. A three-time All-Star, he was traded to the New York Yankees following the 1981 season in exchange for pitchers Brian Ryder and Fred Toliver, and spent parts of the next five seasons in Yankee pinstripes. On June 29, 1986, he was traded to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for OF Claudell Washington and INF Paul Zuvella, where he spent parts of three seasons, appearing in 271 games. He was the league's premier pinch-hitter in 1987, batting .611 (11x18) off the bench. On July 14, 1987, he belted the 2,000th hit of my career vs. the Mets. Following my release by the Braves on July 28, 1988, he returned home to the Reds where he appeared in 177 games over three seasons before being released August 19, 1990. With his son, Ken Jr., starring in Seattle, he signed with the Mariners as a free agent on August 29, 1990, and made ML history August 31 vs. the Royals, when Junior and I became the first father-and-son duo to start a major league game. They struck for another ML first on September 14, 1990, as father and son connected for back-to-back homers off California's Kirk McCaskill. Following an injury-plagued 1991 season, he retired as an active player on November 4, 1991. He finished my career with a .296 batting average, and at least one home run vs. every club in major league baseball except Cleveland.
