Five things to know about the Reds
SARASOTA, Fla. -- Jason Giambi's reputation is trashed. Barry Bonds' legacy has become more and more questionable. Jose Canseco's name is mud and guilt by association is threatening to swallow, among others, Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro.
Each of those but Palmeiro has won at least one MVP award during the past decade, and there is no telling where the puffed up steroid scandal will lead next. Already, it has burned a clear path right through baseball's award lists and home-run charts, and it has many of the game's biggest names on the run.
There is one slam-dunk future Hall of Famer, however, who is not on the run. One recent inductee into the 500-home run club whose statistics have never been in question and whose name is in the clear.
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| Ken Griffey Jr. has his famous smile back as he hangs with teammate Jason LaRue. (AP) |
"Not embarrassing your family, not embarrassing your teammates, not embarrassing the organization, I think that's very important," Griffey Jr. said quietly during a long, early-morning conversation on the subject here the other day. "Other than being at my house, I'm Ken Griffey Jr. the baseball player. That's all people really know me as, other than my friends and family.
"Not giving any more fuel to the fire, that's what I try to do. Having my family never being in the papers. Not having my teammates or the organization answer questions. Because it gets tiring.
"I feel bad for the guys going through it (the steroid scandal), but more so for their teammates, because they're the ones having to answer all of the extra questions.
"Hopefully, it will all die down in the next couple of weeks after everybody gets tested."
As we strain the juice and begin attempts at placing the Hans-and-Franz generation into perspective, Griffey's career, brilliant by any stretch even considering his injury-plagued past four years, shines even more brightly now.
It was quite impressive when he socked 56 home runs in 1997 and then bashed 56 more in 1998. But now, looking back, it is even more staggering when measured against what we've learned since.
His power was dwarfed in '98 by Mark McGwire's then-record 70 home runs -- and even by Sammy Sosa's 66. McGwire admitted at the time that he was taking a substance called Androstenedione -- not a steroid, but a testosterone supplement. It was not illegal at the time, but it is now.
Sosa's power since has been tarnished when he was caught corking his bat in 2003 -- casting at least a few shadows over those 66 homers -- and many in the industry suspect his game of being aided by anabolic steroids as well (he denies it).
