Junior Mania: All Day, All The Time

Junior was 6 years old when Senior’s team won that first World Series back in 1975, 7 years old when the old man’s team, the Big Red Machine, the Cincinnati Reds, won its second.

Junior was just a kid, doing what kids do, chasing after his dad, running around the clubhouse at Riverfront Stadium, swinging bats, tossing balls off walls, drinking red pop. Forget the million-dollar paychecks and the tape-measure home runs and the over-the-shoulder catches - those clubhouse days may have been the best years of Ken Griffey Jr.’s young life.

“Barry Larkin has a son, DeShane, who’s just a little older than Trey,” said Junior on Thursday night, sandwiched before the media inside a packed Crosley Room at Cinergy Field at the announcement of the blockbuster trade that brings him to the Reds.

DeShane Larkin is 7. Trey Griffey is 4. “I look forward to them running around the locker room like I did,” said Junior.

That’s what this was all about. Not so much the money, or the power, or the ego. This Ken Griffey Junior Trade Thursday, this historic big-time baseball talent willingly goes to small-market deal, finally was not so much about fame and fortune as it was about family, about the kids.

WLW-AM, the Reds’ flagship radio station, ran an all-Junior, all-the-time format.

The deal was imminent, said the station. The deal was done.

Griffey was on a plane from Orlando. Griffey had touched down in Cincinnati, said the station. It interviewed Larkin, who said, “I can’t wait to play with my homeboy.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: MONEY TALKS? Numbers game

While Ken Griffey Jr.’s $116.5 million, nine-year contract with the Cincinnati Reds is the richest ever in baseball, it actually is less lucrative than recent deals signed by top stars.

According to management calculations, the present-day value of the contract - what it’s worth in 2000 dollars - is under $10 million a year, well below the $15 million average salary agreed to by Los Angeles pitcher Kevin Brown in his $105 million, seven-year contract with the Dodgers.