George Kids With A Traveler

On a late-night flight from Seattle on Sunday, one woman in her mid-20s looked at the man seated beside her in first class and thought he looked familiar.

He should have.

“I sort of had my eyes closed, but I saw her sneaking peeks at me,” Ken Griffey Jr. said.

Griffey missed the Mariners’ team flight because of a family memorial service. When he decided to catch an Alaska flight, he grabbed a first-class seat and tried to snooze.

Eventually, the woman beside him couldn’t stand it.

“She leaned over and said, ‘Aren’t you? …’ and I held out my hand and said, ‘I’m George,”’ he said, laughing. “She said, ‘Oh, I thought you might be Ken.”’ Griffey’s first name, of course, is George. After the two talked for a while, he went so far as to admit his middle name was Kenneth.

“She was real nice,” Griffey said. “She didn’t even ask me to autograph anything.”

Notes

Edwin Hurtado, who has pitched so well of late in Tacoma, will get the chance soon to show he can do the same for Seattle. Most likely, his role will be middle relief - not starting - but that could change.