1996 – After Baltimore manager Davey Johnson has his bat removed in the 5th inning‚ Seattle SS Alex Rodriguez borrows a bat from Ken Griffey and belts a 3-run homer to lead the Mariners to a 5 – 1 win over the O’s. A-Rod’s 34th home run pins the loss on David Wells.
1996 – Ken Griffey, Jr. becomes the highest-paid major league player by signing a four-year, $34 million contract with Seattle.
On May 26, 1995, Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners breaks his wrist while making a spectacular catch against Kevin Bass of the Baltimore Orioles. Some observers call it the greatest catch they’ve ever seen. Griffey will undergo surgery on his injured wrist and will miss the next three months of action.
OF Ken Griffey Jr. leads the Mariners to a 12 – 3 win over the Angels by stroking his 31st home run of the season. In doing so, Griffey breaks Babe Ruth’s record for most home runs before the end of June. Although the Yankee slugger needed only 63 games to reach 30 homers in 1928 and 68 games in 1930, Junior accomplishes the feat in the Mariners’ 70th game of the season.
Mariner Ken Griffey Jr. homers in his eighth straight game to tie a major league record held by Dale Long (1956) and Don Mattingly (1987). In tomorrow’s game, Junior will barely miss breaking the record as he hits a long double off the right-center field wall at the Kingdome.
July 11, 1993 – Ken Griffey, Jr. becomes the first player ever to hit Baltimore’s B&O Warehouse on the fly with a 460-foot bomb during the Home Run Derby at Camden Yards.
Seattle Mariners outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. homers off Chicago Cubs hurler Greg Maddux, making it the first time in history a father and a son have hit All-Star home runs. His dad hit one off the New York Yankees’ Tommy John in the 1980 All-Star Game. The American League pounds out a record 19 hits in defeating the National League by a score of 13 – 6 in the 1992 All-Star Game. It’s the AL’s 5th straight win. Griffey Jr., who strokes a single, double, and home run, is named the game’s MVP, 12 years after his dad wons the same honor.
1992 – The episode of the animated series The Simpsons entitled “Homer at the Bat” gets its first broadcast on FOX. In the episode, Springfield Nuclear Plant owner C. Montgomery Burns hires a team of major league ringers in order to win a bet he placed on a softball game against a rival businessman. In the end, though, it’s the hapless Homer Simpson who saves the day with a walk-off hit-by-pitch. A number of contemporary major league stars, many of them future Hall of Famers lend their voices and likeness to the show, which is considered one of the classic episodes of the series.
On September 14, 1990, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ken Griffey, Sr. become the first father-and-son combination to hit back-to-back home runs. The Griffeys go deep against California Angels pitcher Kirk McCaskill in the first inning… @ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF90YWdzIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiTGVhcm4gTW9yZSBhYm91dCB0aGUgdGVhbXMsIHBsYXllcnMsIGJhbGwgcGFya3MgYW5kIGV2ZW50cyB0aGF0IGhhcHBlbmVkIG9uIHRoaXMgZGF0ZSBpbiBoaXN0b3J5IC0gLSAtIC0gLSAtIC0gIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIiLCJsaW5rX3RvX3Rlcm1fcGFnZSI6Im9uIiwic2VwYXJhdG9yIjoiIHwgIiwiY2F0ZWdvcnlfdHlwZSI6InBvc3RfdGFnIn19@
1989 – Gregg Olson of the Baltimore Orioles becomes the first relief pitcher to win the American League Rookie of the Year Award. Olson receives 26 of 28 first-place votes. Tom Gordon and Ken Griffey, Jr. are runner-ups.
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