Dream Come True

This is really happening.

After nine long years, countless debates and many tears, Ken Griffey Jr. will be announced in this afternoon's starting lineup as a Seattle Mariner (I'm crying now).

Anyone who knows me, knows that my support for Griffey has never wavered. Not once in the last nine years did I ever turn my back on Junior. Not once did I ever say we were better off without him. Not once did I ever say he's too old, or all he does is get hurt.

So before I go on with my evangelical rant, I'd like to clear up a few misconceptions that certain people still have aboutJunior (I nearly went Hungry Like The Wolf ((0:40 in)) and did a table flip at a recent dinner over both these claims).

Claim:
Griffey "dissed" Seattle when he forced his way to Cincinnati.

Truth:
In November 1999, Griffey told Mariners brass that he would not re-sign with the team following the 2000 season. This was due in large part to his desire to be closer to his family home in Orlando, and because his wife, Melissa, (a native Washingtonian) was dealing with family issues stemming from her mother's death and her estrangement from her father.

After the Mariners announced their intent to trade Junior, the lack of demand for his services (mostly due to his 10-5 trade veto rights) prompted Griffey and his agent Brian Goldberg to approach the Mariners with a proposal to structure a two-year "bridge " contract that would overlap Alex Rodriguez's impending free agency in 2000.

Claiming that they didn't want to go back on their word after saying they were trading Junior, the Mariners shot down that idea.

According to Art Thiel's excellent 2004 book about the Mariners, "Out of Left Field", Jay Buhner recants a conversation with Junior shortly after the trade where Junior admitted to overreacting to the situation.

If Junior wanted to "diss" Seattle, he wouldn't have signed a contract for $21.5 million less than what the Mariners offered.

He could have just as easily lead the entire city on (like a certain transvestite loving ex-Mariner) and said he wanted to spend his entire career in Seattle. Junior could have played out his contract, only to bolt for the highest bidder (like a certain transvestite loving ex-Mariner).

But Junior has never been one to put up a front.

Leaving Seattle to be closer to his family is something he felt he needed to do. You have to respect that.

Claim:
Griffey will not end the season as Mariner because he'll either be traded, retire, or get hurt

Fact:
I liken the clowns who say such blatant falsehoods as to the idiots who say Barack is going to get shot.

Under no scenario would the Mariners trade Griffey. They wouldn't even trade Jarrod Washburn at the 2008 trade deadline.

Junior knows he can still play. If he thought otherwise, he would have retired in November.

Griffey has played over 140 games the past two seasons. The Mariners are taking extra precautions by resting Junior as much as possible.

In his first ten seasons in Seattle, Junior suffered one serious injury (the infamous broken wrist after making a spectacular leaping catch into the Kingdome's right-centerfield wall).

M's trainer Rick Griffin is one of baseball's best. He knows how to keep Junior healthy.

People say things like, "buying a Porsche Boxster with an automatic transmission is a dream come true." But they didn't actually dream that. I dreamt about this day. Multiple times.

So to be able to say this is a dream come true, provides me with such indescribable joy. I have never experienced anything quite like it.

And I know I'm probably coming off like a raging lunatic. After all, he's just a baseball player, right?

Wrong. Junior is much more than that. The reaction when he steps to the plate for his first at-bat will provide a brief glimpse at Griffey's importance to Seattle.

As for me, I'm either going to do my best Sanjaya fan girl impression, or my heart will explode from sheer bliss during the pregame introductions.

This is a great day for the team I love. This is a great day for the sport I love. And this is a great day for the city I love.

There's a big part of me that thinks I'm going to show up at the Safe, only to find that Garrett Anderson, not Griffey, is in the starting lineup.

This is really happening? Junior is really a Mariner? This isn't a cruel joke, right?

This is happening.