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MLB Hall of Fame: 5 best moments of Ken Griffey Jr.’s career

By Brad Weiss

BALTIMORE, MD - SEPTEMBER 1: Ken Griffey Jr.
BALTIMORE, MD - SEPTEMBER 1: Ken Griffey Jr. /
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NEW YORK – CIRCA 1995: Outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. #24 of the Seattle Mariners tracks a fly ball against the New York Yankees circa 1995 during a Major League Baseball game at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. Griffey played for the Mariners from 1989-99 and 2009-2010. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
NEW YORK – CIRCA 1995: Outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. #24 of the Seattle Mariners tracks a fly ball against the New York Yankees circa 1995 during a Major League Baseball game at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. Griffey played for the Mariners from 1989-99 and 2009-2010. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /

4. ‘The Catch’

Ken Griffey Jr. began the 1990 season with expectations running very high. In 1989, as a 19-year-old, he finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year voting, after blasting 16 home runs in 127 games. Griffey would go to smash all expectations, and in the first month of the 1990 season, he made a catch that would define the next ten years of his career.

April 26, 1990, future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson is on the hill for the Mariners, facing New York Yankees slugger Jesse Barfield. Barfield crushed one to left-center field, and as the ball elevated, it looked as if Barfield would have his 200th career home run. Instead, Barfield and the baseball world met Ken Griffey Jr.

Junior sped up and leaped over the fence, making an unbelievable catch. The memory in most people’s minds is the huge grin on his face as he raced off of the field, as the catch was the third out of the inning. For Griffey to even track that ball down was incredible, but to make the catch, that was unworldly.

For Barfield, he would have to wait for his milestone home run. For Griffey, he had arrived.

Griffey would go to make plenty of highlight reel catches in his career, but that one in the Bronx, really put him on the map.

Next: 3. Griffey makes his Kingdome debut

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