Remember when your parents use to tell you to say something nice or don’t say anything at all? Well maybe Cincinnati Reds’ general manager Jim Bowden might want to go searching through his childhood to find one of those moments.
Bowden was doing nothing more than speaking his mind and stating the obvious last week when he called the trade which brought Ken Griffey, Jr. a flop. Injuries to the center fielder have interrupted the majority of Griffey’s three seasons in the return to his hometown. It was probably nothing more than just frustrations spewing out of the executive’s mouth.
The Reds enter their new facility — Great American Ballpark — in just a little over a month, and if you’re a fan of the team at all, this is supposed to be the year they were going to return to glory — at least that’s what Bowden has been telling us for the last five years.
This could be the year, if Griffey is healthy, especially with the bulk of young talent Bowden promised is now up with the big team.
The big question is: can the pitching hold together?
The bigger question is: how discontent Bowden is getting with Griffey?
I would have to admit it’s getting up there, especially since Griffey was all but shipped out to San Diego for Phil Nevin. If the lesser-known-player hadn’t invoked a no-trade clause, it would have been Phil whatever-his-name breaking in the Reds’ new digs instead of Griffey.
Perhaps watching Griffey and Barry Larkin wrestling around in the dugout while they were both on the disabled list irked Bowden.
Cincinnati has become a little New York in its regard to the amount of scrutiny on Griffey. He could get away with acting like he was bigger than the game in Seattle. In chili town, this is a team game; always has been, always will be.
The relationship had a rough start, when Griffey tried to get the Reds to put off retiring Tony Perez’s No. 24, the same number worn by Griffey in Seattle. He got hurt and when the World Series tickets printed up the day the trade was made became useless, it started to go downhill.
Bowden had a team, which was one game away from making the playoffs in 1999. In the three years since the trade was made, the Reds have not been close to the postseason come the end of the season.
Now in defense of Griffey, the Reds were in first place for a couple of months last season.
Just prior to the 2000 season, I talked with the late Lloyd Gearhart of the old New York Giants about the trade, and he could see problems coming. The old-timer, best known as the player who Willie Mays replaced in center field, felt Griffey would disrupt the momentum the Reds had going at the time.
There has been a defiant detour in the road to 2003. Griffey’s getting older, and maybe the last three years have been a humbling experience. For the first time in his career, he trained over the offseason and, thankfully, strengthened his often-injured legs.
Here’s the solution if another sub-par campaign comes out this season. Give Griffey another season to capture his former all-star ways. If he can bounce back, play a whole season, and hit at least 40 homers, the Reds will compete. If this season is another bust, then start looking at other options, but not necessarily a trade. Move Griffey to first base — have him play a small portion of the dirt rather than a pasture in center. This will save his legs for rounding the bases after an influx in homers and keep him in the lineup where the Reds need him. If that happens, then trade Sean Casey for a quality starting pitcher.
More than anything, Bowden needs to keep the comments away from the media’s microphones. He is one of the better general managers in the game and personally, I figured he had enough sense to know not to blackball his best player.
Some things should be better left to George Steinbrenner.
Nick Houser is a senior in journalism. He can be reached at [email protected]. Even though nobody has noticed the start of spring training, he encourages everyone to do so.
