Dream come TRUE - Brief Article - Interview

Ken Griffey Jr.'s arrival at the Reds' spring-training camp allowed Deion Sanders--which one is really Prime Time?--to walk into camp virtually unnoticed. And, while more than 150 reporters from 80 different outlets were around to take notes on Griffey's first moves with the Reds, only four reporters and a handful of TV crews were left to greet Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire, who has grown both accustomed to and fed up with such attention. ("If he wants to call me, I'll give him a little advice," McGwire said.) After that first-day circus moved on, Griffey sat down for separate one-on-one interviews with reporters from the Seattle Times and the Cincinnati Post.

Q: You have had the desire for a long time to play baseball in Cincinnati, your hometown. When did you begin to think about that?

Griffey: You never stop thinking about it. You always want to play in front of your hometown fans. That's the ultimate.

Q: Didn't (the Mariners) come to you with various proposals?

A: Yeah, St. Louis, Pittsburgh. Both Florida teams. From what everyone says, they just wanted me to be put in such a bad mood with Seattle that I'd say, "OK, just trade me anywhere, I don't care." I wasn't going to do that. ... I just said, "I want to go to Cincinnati." I grew up there. I always wanted to wear the same uniform my dad wore.

Q: It seemed you held all the cards. Not only could you dictate which team you could go to, but if you didn't like the terms of the trade, you could veto it.

A: I didn't hold the Mariners over a barrel. They could have said, "Hey, we're not trading you." And that's it. And I would have come to spring training, got ready to play, like normal. That's it. I had a job, somewhere. It just happens to be in Cincinnati now.

Q: OK, now that you're gone, what did you really think of Safeco Field?

A: I didn't really have a problem with it. ... I never argued about the dimensions. When we took batting practice for the first time, how many pitchers smiled? Our whole staff. Because they knew you have to crush it to get it out. We weren't saying bring it in to make it homer-friendly. The guys were just saying, "Hey, when you hit a ball decent, it should go out." When you've got to crush it to get it out, that's intimidating for a hitter because you get guys trying to pull it down the line instead of just hitting it.

Q: Tell us about your newfound interest in scuba diving.

A: I just started it last offseason. Everybody thought I was just sitting around down here being mad at the Mariners, but what I was really doing was taking scuba classes.

Q: How long was it before you were actually doing it, and what did you see on your first dive?

A: There are several different stages. First, you have open water, then advanced open water, then nitrous. I'm certified now to do any kind of scuba diving there is. On my first dive, I saw a nurse shark, but it wasn't too scary. The only way a fish will attack is in a defensive mode because they're so territorial. Plus, by the time I realized it was a shark, it was already swimming away.

Q: What did you do over the offseason besides spend time with your wife and two children and learn how to scuba dive?

A: That was about it. I left for seven days, one to go to New York for a Boys & Girls Clubs event and six to go to a golf tournament at Pebble Beach. Those were the only days all winter I was away from my family. We didn't take a vacation. My wife and I didn't go anywhere.

Q: Family life is obviously very important to you.

A: We're a close family. Any time my kids want to come and see their daddy on the weekend, it doesn't matter how much it's going to cost me, they're going to be there. That's the way my dad was with me growing up. When I talked last offseason about wanting to be closer to my family, I think a lot of people in Seattle thought, "The Mariners will make him the highest-paid player, and he'll stay." But I've said from day one that it never mattered how much money I make.

Q: How challenging is it to have to go through life as Ken Griffey Jr. with the spotlight constantly on you?

A: When I'm at home (in Orlando), it's not difficult at all. I went home a couple of days ago to find two toilets clogged up, and I had to unclog them. My little girl (4-year-old Taryn) has a habit of rolling up too much toilet paper and throwing it in there. It took me about 20 minutes to get them unclogged. That's the thing people don't realize about me. They expect me to have limo drivers and people that help me out wherever I go. But I still have the same friends I had in high school.

Q: What are your goals for your first season in Cincinnati?

A: To go out there and play. We've got some guys here who can play, and I just want to go out there and help. I never set goals. This team won 96 games last year without me.

Correspondent Tony Jackson covers the Reds for the Cincinnati Post and THE SPORTING NEWS. Larry Stone of the Seattle Times also contributed to this story.

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