Major League Baseball

Agent: Griffey will work for Mariners

Published Jun. 3, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Ken Griffey Jr. has done what he almost did 20 months ago. He has headed home to Orlando, Fla., to be with his wife and kids.

So why so suddenly, before the city that considers the 40-year-old future Hall of Famer an icon even had a chance to say goodbye?

Once he realized they weren't, he did not want to become any more of a distraction than he already had been while not playing and taking up a roster spot.

``The suddenness of it - there's never a perfect time to announcing it,'' agent Brian Goldberg told The Associated Press on Thursday by telephone from Cincinnati. ``He just felt like (the) fanfare, having a goodbye party, he felt that would be taking away from what the team is trying to accomplish right now, which is winning games.

``There are no complaints from his end. He just felt it was time to step aside now.''

The proper way to end a career that began as a teenage phenom for Seattle in 1989 and produced a unanimous league MVP award, 13 All-Star selections, 10 Gold Gloves and 630 home runs - only Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays have more - seemed to come last Oct. 4. His teammates carried him off the field following Seattle's 2009 finale.

The crowd roared a thank you for returning for one last season in Seattle, after nine years away playing for his hometown Cincinnati Reds. For bringing back his thrills and jokes, that cap on backward and that megawatt smile.

What a way to go out.

Except he didn't.

``I wish he could have ridden out on the white horse like I thought he deserved to,'' said Mariners catcher Rob Johnson.

Griffey talked that October day about going home to discuss what his family wanted. That would be wife Melissa, younger son Tevin, teenage son Trey and daughter Taryn.

Soon, Griffey had his second surgery in 12 months on a troublesome left knee. Then he signed a one-year contract to come back for a 22nd season. In January, Mariners trainer Rick Griffin said Griffey was ``better now than he was at any time last year.''

Griffey figured if he hit 19 homers and 57 RBIs in 117 games on a bad knee he could produce perhaps 25 and 80 in more games on a good one.

It didn't happen.

Griffey batted .184 and had a slugging percentage of just .204 in 33 games, first as a platoon DH and eventually a forgotten pinch-hitter who appeared in a game only once in his final nine days in baseball. The fifth-best slugger of all-time hit zero home runs.

Manager Don Wakamatsu said he was trying to rekindle some of Griffey's magic. Finally, he sat down with Junior last month and told him he was benching him.

Still, the Mariners weren't going to release the man who is going to be their first player inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame.

Then last month, two teammates told The (Tacoma, Wash.) News Tribune that they saw Griffey sleeping inside the clubhouse during a game.

``Certainly, that stung him,'' Goldberg said.

Griffey never denied napping. Instead, he lashed out at the anonymous teammates for not coming to him first.

That was the beginning of the end. He became withdrawn inside the same clubhouse he transformed the year before. No more T-shirt poking fun at Ichiro Suzuki, who idolized Griffey when he played in Japan. No more white neckties bearing Wakamatsu's likeness, or ones with Griffey's face smiling under the words ``World's Greatest Teammate.'' Griffey had the team wear those on road trips last season.

Even after his pinch-hit single on May 20 beat Toronto - his last of 2,781 career hits - Griffey was one of the first Mariners to shower and dress after the game.

That's not to say he will never be heard from again in Seattle. Goldberg said Griffey will be back in the near future working with the team in a long-term job to be determined.

``I promise you, he will be around plenty,'' Goldberg said. ``Actually, this is something that started getting discussed while he was still playing,'' he said of the job with the team.

He said Griffey's new role is going to be long term. Goldberg said it's unlikely to be one that has Griffey in uniform daily as a coach, at least not initially.

The agent also said Griffey will return this season for a formal goodbye and retirement ceremony in Seattle.

``Seattle's fans will have the chance to see him and honor him,'' Goldberg said.

Mariners spokesman Tim Hevly says the team welcomes opportunities for Griffey to return but that plans are far from finalized.

Those who knew Junior best and played with him are already honoring him.

``Literally, he could be playing Nintendo at 6:45, 6:50 and then at 7:06 he could make a Spider-Man catch, and then in the top of the first hit one in the upper deck in the Kingdome 475 feet - and do it all with a smile. I wish you guys had an opportunity to see what I saw,'' said Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, whom Griffey helped ease into the majors in 1994 with Seattle.

``Our Michael Jordan, for a long time. Our Tiger Woods. The best of the best. And for me, always a first-class guy.''

Mike Sweeney, a five-time All-Star, now assumes Griffey's role as veteran clubhouse leader. Last month, he called a players-only meeting after the report on Griffey sleeping - and challenged the two teammates who told on Griffey to a fight.

``I love Ken Griffey Jr. He is one of the best human beings I've ever met in this game,'' Sweeney said. ``My thoughts to Ken are, go home and be with Melissa and the kids. That's where he belongs. I know that's where he feels his heart is leading him.''

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