Junior Calls it a (Hall of Fame) Career

Ken Griffey Jr. has decided to hang ‘em up.

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu made the announcement earlier tonight before Seattle faced off against the Minnesota Twins.

Griffey released this statement…

“While I feel I am still able to make a contribution on the field and nobody in the Mariners front office has asked me to retire, I told the Mariners when I met with them prior to the 2009 season and was invited back that I will never allow myself to become a distraction.  I feel that without enough occasional starts to be sharper coming off the bench, my continued presence as a player would be an unfair distraction to my teammates and their success as a team is what the ultimate goal should be,” he said.

The man known as “The Kid,” who managed to evade suspicion while playing the majority of his career during the “steroid era” of baseball, was hitting a meager .184 this year, with zero homers and just seven RBI’s.  His most notable accomplishment this season was finding himself at the center of a minor controversy when a Mariners beat reporter published a story claiming Griffey, during a game, wasn’t available to pinch-hit because he was napping in the clubhouse, an accusation Griffey denied.

A first ballot hall-of-famer if ever there was one, Junior ends his career with a .284 average, 630 homers, 1836 RBI’s, and more defensive highlights than all current centerfielders combined.

Farewell Junior…the game shines a little less brightly without you in it.

[Yahoo]