Every Thursday, SHOWTIME releases a new episode of All the Smoke, the podcast hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. On this week's episode, the duo interviewed Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., who weighed in on a number of topics, including what it was like to play with his father, Ken Griffey Sr., early on in his career.
You can watch the entire episode of All the Smoke by clicking here. For our purposes, we wanted to relay an amusing story Griffey Jr. told about the insight he gained from batting behind his father -- hey, it beats reading more about the owners maneuvering to avoid paying the players, right?
Griffey Jr. explained how he was never pitched the same way as his dad when they were in the lineup together.
"[When] they'd start him off with a fastball, they'd throw me a curveball. When they start him off with a curveball, they'd throw me a fastball," Griffey Jr. explained. "They never pitched us the same. But I learned a lot about hitting because I looked like him. I watch him set up pitches. I watched all the things that he did.
"And I said, for 17 years that I lived in your house, I learned more about hitting in the six weeks hitting behind you."
Clearly Griffey Jr. learned a lot during those six weeks: in 22 big-league seasons, he batted .284/.370/.538 (136 OPS+) with 630 home runs. His stellar center-field defense won him 10 Gold Glove Awards, and helped him accumulate nearly 84 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball-Reference's calculations.
Of course, the moment that everyone remembers from Griffey Jr. playing with his father occurred in September 1990. That's when they hit back-to-back home runs with the Seattle Mariners. Take a look:
Beautiful.
You can also watch the entire Griffey Jr. interview below.
