Griffey Sr.: Reds only team Junior wanted to play for growing up

Hall of Famer was subject of MLB Network documentary that aired Sunday
10 Feb 2000: Ken Griffey Jr. of the Cincinnati Reds talks during a press conference at Cinergy Field in Cincinnati, Ohio.. Ezra O. Shaw /Allsport

10 Feb 2000: Ken Griffey Jr. of the Cincinnati Reds talks during a press conference at Cinergy Field in Cincinnati, Ohio.. Ezra O. Shaw /Allsport

Ken Griffey Jr’s career was the subject of a 90-minute documentary on the MLB Network on Sunday night. “Junior” showcased a Hall of Fame career that included nine seasons in Cincinnati.

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One of the people interviewed was LeBron James, who commented on Griffey’s homecoming in 2000.

“I didn’t really understand the full magnitude of when he left Seattle to go back home until I became a professional and understood what it meant to play in front of your home fans,” said James, an Ohio native like Griffey. “There’s nothing like it.”

Griffey hit 210 of his 630 career home runs with the Cincinnati Reds. He played for the Reds until 2008 when he was traded to the White Sox.

Griffey was a Moeller High School graduate whose dad Ken Griffey Sr. played for the Big Red Machine in the 1970s.

“This was home for him,” Griffey Sr. said on the documentary. “He was raised here in Cincinnati. That’s the only team he wanted to play for.”

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