BIOGRAPHY
Name: George Kenneth (Ken) Griffey Jr.
Date of Birth: 11/21/69
Place of Birth: Donora, Pennsylvania
Residence: Cincinnati, Ohio
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 205 lb
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Years in Majors: 11
Positions: Center Field
Team: Cincinnati Reds
Drafted: Mariners' #1 pick in June of '87
ML Debut: April 3, 1989
Wife: Mellisa
Son: Trey (1/19/94)
Daughter: Taryn (10/21/95)
Boyhood Hero: Rickey Henderson
Ken Griffey Jr. is a 1987 graduate of Cincinnati’s Moeller High School, where he played three years of football and four years of baseball...named high school league’s Player of the Year in 1986 and 1987...voted Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Sports Star of the Year in 1989...also in 1989, Ken Jr. and Ken Sr. became the first father-son combination to play in the Major Leagues at the same time while Sr. was a member of the Reds...the two became the first father and son combination to appear in the same lineup on August 31, 1990...following the 1993 season, he made his acting debut in the movie “Little Big League”...received 1994 Celebrity Recognition Award from the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the A. Bartlett Giamatti Award from the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT) in recognition of his ‘caring for fellow citizens”...sponsored Christmas dinners for 350 youngsters from the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club every December from 1994...selected as Mariners’ Roberto Clemente Award winner for community service in 1996, 1997, and 1998.
TRANSACTIONS
Selected by Seattle in first round (first player selected) of June, 1987 draft.
On disabled list June 9-August 15, 1988 with strained lower back.
On disabled list July 24-August 20, 1989 with fractured little finger on right hand.
On disabled list June 9-25, 1992 with sprained right wrist.
On disabled list May 27-August 15, 1995 with fractured left wrist (included rehabilitation assignment to Tacoma August 13).
On disabled list June 20-July 13, 1996 with broken hamate bone in right wrist.
Acquired by the Reds in exchange for RHP Brett Tomko, OF Mike Cameron, RHP Jake Meyer, and INF Antonio Perez on February 10, 2000.