Ken Griffey Jr., the youngest player in the majors, hits his first career homer on the first pitch he ever sees at his home ballpark, the Kingdome. The 19 year-old, son of the Reds outfielder with the same name, takes White Sox’s Eric King’s pitch deep on his father’s 39th birthday.
In his first major league at bat, Mariners’ center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. doubles off of Oakland’s Dave Stewart. The 19 year-old ‘Junior’, the son of an active major leaguer outfielder playing with the Reds, will establish himself as one of the game’s superstars before retiring in 2010.
June 1, 1987 The Seattle Mariners selected Ken Griffey Jr., the son of the Atlanta Braves outfielder, Ken Griffey, with the first pick in major-league baseball’s amateur free-agent draft. Griffey, a 17-year old outfielder, batted .478 with seven home runs, six doubles, and 18 RBI this season for Moeller High School in Cincinnati. He was…
1969 – Future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, Jr. is born in Donora, PA, the son of Ken Griffey, Sr., himself an All-Star outfielder who will not make his major league debut until 1973. The two will be the first father/son duo to play together in the major leagues, in 1990, but the younger Griffey will greatly surpass his father’s accomplishments, receiving a record-high percentage of the vote when elected to Cooperstown in 2016.
On November 21, 1920, future Hall of Famer Stan Musial is born in Donora, Pennsylvania. Musial will make his major league debut 21 years later. Ironically, another standout player – Ken Griffey, Jr.– will be born in Donora exactly 49 years to the day after Musial’s birth.
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