WSJ: Barra: Ken Griffey Jr. and His Might-Have-Beens

Come back to us George Ignatin…come back.

Ken Griffey Jr. has often been seen as the antithesis of Barry Bonds, also the son of a major league star, who entered the major leagues three years earlier. Their careers have been remarkably similar—up to a point. At the end of the 1999 season, before his association with Balco and his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs, Mr. Bonds was 34 years old and had played in 2,000 major league games, hitting 445 home runs. Mr. Griffey, who has never been accused of using PEDs, was 34 in 2004, by which time he had played in 1,977 games and hit 501 home runs. After that, their fortunes diverged. When he was 35 to 39, Mr. Bonds had the greatest seasons of his career; Mr. Griffey, plagued by injuries over the past three seasons, has missed 105 games.

There is no question at all, however, of which player has been the more popular of the two. In addition to having guest-starring roles on such TV shows as “The Simpsons,” “Scrubs” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” and appearing in the films “Little Big League” and “Summer Catch,” Mr. Griffey has starred in four hugely popular Nintendo videogames. As early as his rookie season, 1989, he had a candy bar named for him—the Ken Griffey, Jr. Bar. Babe Ruth had to wait for his seventh season for such an honor; it took Reggie Jackson 12 years.

Perhaps the best measure of Mr. Griffey’s popularity was the 1996 Ken Griffey Jr. for President campaign sponsored by Nike. (“Griffey in ‘96” buttons are still hot items at baseball souvenir shows.) Fan response was so enthusiastic that the Washington Post suggested that “Ken Griffey, Jr. may need to resign from baseball to devote himself more fully to running for president.” But according to the U.S. Constitution, the then 26-year-old All-Star was nine years too young to be eligible for the Oval Office. In fact, this year’s election is the first one for which Mr. Griffey qualifies. Sens. McCain and Obama may want to take this into account when considering their running mates.