Griffey talks about ups, downs, surprises

PHILADELPHIA – It is a remarkable list: Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sammy Sosa.

That’s it. Just five players in baseball history have hit 600 or more home runs.

Ken Griffey Jr. is about to become the sixth. Griffey, who took Monday off but said he was hopeful of playing tonight in the Reds’ game at Philadelphia, knows that being part of that club will be special.

“Some of those guys I’ve played against,” Griffey said in the visitors’ clubhouse yesterday afternoon. “It’s just weird. Overwhelming sometimes. Embarrassing sometimes. Because I never would have dreamed that I’d be in this position. My dad was the guy I wanted to be like. If I looked at his career and everybody looked at his career, that’s the guy who looked like me, acted like me, took care of me, that’s who I wanted to be like.

“I didn’t think that I’d be better than him. He said I would be, and I was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ I was 14 at the time. Sometimes dad does know best, but you don’t want to listen to him when you’re 14. I’m going through that now with my 14-year-old.”

Griffey typically does not talk much about his run at history. He really had not said much about it since last June in Philadelphia.

Griffey isn’t complaining, though.

“I enjoy baseball and whatever comes, good, bad,” he said. “I really enjoy the sport. I’ve done a lot of good things, a few bad things. But I don’t really think about the numbers. My dad wasn’t a numbers guy. That’s just how I grew up. A lot of people don’t understand that in a day where the hype is everything.”