A Brief Interlude

This is going to be one of the off-topic posts I said would happen from time to time. Before moving on to other naval gaming stuff, I just wanted to post a quick note about the retirement of Ken Griffey Jr. from the Seattle Mariners. Most of you probably aren't interested in baseball, so please feel free to skip over this post.

I was sort of a late-comer to being a real baseball fan. Yes I played as a kid, watched games on TV, and had my favorite players and teams, but sort of lost interest during my late teens and early twenties. It wasn't really until I was in my mid-twenties that I got back into the game and really began to understand all of the nuances and strategies of the game. In some ways I suppose that my interest in war and strategy games matched up with my re-found interest in baseball.

My personal return to baseball was going on just as Ken Griffey Jr. was starting his Major League career with the Mariners and I was lucky enough to be near Seattle to see it. While Griffey wasn't my favorite Mariner, he certainly made it exciting to go to games. I always appreciated how much fun he seemed to be having and his enjoyment of the game. It was also a lot of fun to watch him play the game with his dad. Even when the team was bad (and there were a lot of bad years for the Mariners while Griffey was there), he made it fun to go to games because you would (almost) always see him do something spectacular.

It was a sad day when he left Seattle for Cincinnati, but was great to have him back for the last couple years (even though his baseball abilities were certainly on the decline).
Now that his career is done, I just wanted to tip my cap and say "Jr., thanks for all the memories."

Now back to your regularly scheduled naval wargaming blog.