Legislators Hear Griffey Replacement Players Targets Of Two Bills

Ken Griffey Jr. and fellow Seattle Mariners Jay Buhner and Jeff Nelson traveled to the state capital Monday to back two bills aimed at keeping replacement baseball players out of Seattle’s Kingdome.

“Who do the fans want to see? Do they want to see Ken Griffey Jr., or old former softball players?” Nelson told a news conference attended by his two teammates and former Mariners Dave Henderson of the Kansas City Royals and Erik Hanson of the Cincinnati Reds.

The event was staged by the Service Employees Union.

House Bill 1838, sponsored by Rep. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, would ban replacement players outright at the Kingdome.

“The American people own the game of baseball and replacement players are a complete travesty,” Jacobsen told reporters.

The second bill, SB5786, would require what sponsoring Sen. Mike Heavey, D-Seattle, calls “truth in advertising.”

Under his measure, a team could not advertise it is playing major-league baseball unless 75 percent of the players were members of a major-league team on Aug. 12, 1994, the day players went on strike.

“The Seattle Mariners should not be allowed to pass replacement games as majorleague baseball,” Heavey said.

Griffey told the gathering baseball owners are “trying to break the players’ union.”

He said the players before him have fought for current players’ rights, and he and others should fight for the rights of future player.