Griffey vs. Ripken

I know the comparison is obvious, but I think it would be a good idea to go over some details for those who don't support the Vote-for-Junior movement.

Here are Cal's pre-ASG stats in 2001, his final year with the O's:

Obviously, nothing overwhelming there. It's too bad that he wasn't putting up great (even good) stats in his final year, but in spite of those numbers, the fans rewarded him for such a terrific career by making him an ASG starter one last time.

Here are Griffey's pre-ASG stats from last year (it's probably fair to assume that he'll put up similar numbers this year):

I know that they played different positions, can't just compare numbers, etc.  But, the fact remains: the public was more than willing to send Ripken to the game AND Ripken wasn't having as good of a season as Griffey had last year/will likely have this year.

Then, there's this:

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=4429237

Leaving your Chan Ho Park conspiracy theories aside, I think it is hard to come across many who don't believe that this was one of the greatest moments in All-Star Game history. Don't we want to create another opportunity for a moment like this?

We aren't trying to set some kind of an every-former-star-in-his-last-season-should-be-elected-to-the-All-Star-Game precedent. In fact, we aren't even trying to set an every-former-SUPERstar-in-his-last-season precedent. We're more aiming for a one-of-The-Greatest-Players-Of-All-Time-in-his-last-season precedent. Watch that video again. Let's give Junior a shot at one more moment. We did it for Cal, let's do it for Junior.


VOTE FOR JUNIOR