Ken Griffey Jr. saw himself in Greg Halman
Nov 22, 2011, 10:19 PM | Updated: Nov 23, 2011, 8:09 am
I realize that not everyone who reads this blog participates in Twitter so I am going to pass along something that I tweeted earlier.
I mentioned in my post about Greg Halman that he was thrilled to meet Ken Griffey Jr. in spring training two years ago. What I didn’t write is that the two developed a relationship.
I spoke with Junior earlier tonight. He is struggling to make sense of Greg’s death like so many others are. He has been talking with players on the phone and was concerned about how people here were taking the horrible news.
I told him what I had seen and heard and then we talked about Greg. When I mentioned that I had seen a little bit of him in Greg he agreed emphatically.
“I told them that he was the closest thing to me they had seen since me,” he said. “I just can’t make sense of this.”
Junior mentioned not only seeing the similarity in raw skills but also his smile and the joy he displayed playing the game. He also saw the bat coming around.
“He was going to break out next year,” he said.
In Griffey, Halman had not only a mentor and friend, but a fan.
