Griffey’s Reds days may be numbered

Ken Griffey Jr., playfully yelling moments earlier from his corner of the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse, suddenly is talking in almost a whisper before a game last weekend in Atlanta.

It is flat and unemotional, reflecting no remorse or bitterness about a nine-year-old decision that dramatically altered his career.

“I wouldn’t change anything,” says Griffey, who was traded to the Reds on Feb. 10, 2000. “I had to leave Seattle when I did. I just had to. They know the real reason why I left.”

More than eight years after departing from the Seattle Mariners, it may be time to leave again, perhaps returning to the Northwest.

“It’s everybody’s dream to go back where they started,” says the 38-year-old right fielder. “Everybody who plays the game would love to go out the way they see fit.”

Griffey, raised in Cincinnati and a direct descendant of the Big Red Machine, has 597 home runs, three shy of becoming the sixth player in history to hit 600. Three players – Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays – are in the Hall of Fame. The other two, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, have been linked to illegal performance-enhancing drug use and will await their fate when eligible.

If Griffey reaches the milestone during the Reds’ three-game homestand that started Monday against the Chicago Cubs, instead of a citywide celebration, Griffey’s 600th home run may result in little more than a farewell present.

“We’re in a tough situation here,” says Griffey, whose team was 12-20, tied with San Diego for the worst record in baseball entering Monday. “We either turn things around or they start getting rid of everybody around here.

“My situation is different only because I can tell them where I want to go. I want to be in position to win a championship. I’m not strong-arming anybody, but that’s the way it is.”