BaseballFeelings.com: Official Sponsor of Alfredo Griffin's Baseball Reference Player Page

Ken Griffey slid in hard. Alfredo Griffin remained unshook.

Behold!  


Why Alfredo Griffin?  There are several reasons, really:


(i) Bill James, in The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract: "One thing I have always wanted to do was to document Alfredo's baserunning exploits.  He really was phenomenal.  I personally saw him score from second on a ground ball to second, scoring the lead run in the top of the ninth.  I have heard about Alfredo doing things like first-to-third on infield outs, moving second-to-third on a pop up to short, scoring on a pop out to the catcher, and taking second after grounding into a forceout.  Alfredo figured that if you left the base unguarded, it was his.  Somebody ought to make a documented list of those basepath heroics, with dates and specific times, before it gets away from us."  Elsewhere in the same weighty, weighty tome, in an entry on George Scott, James writes, "I don't know that I've ever seen any other player score from second on a fly ball, except maybe Alfredo Griffin."   


(ii) John Feinstein, Washington Post, July 10, 1984: "Making the All-Star team the hard way: Major league baseball pays the expenses for each player here and for one guest. In most cases, players bring wives or girlfriends. Damaso Garcia, the Toronto Blue Jays' second baseman, brought his shortstop, Alfredo Griffin. When the Tigers' Alan Trammell hurt his arm and could not play tonight, Manager Joe Altobelli named Griffin to the team, partly because he's a fine player, but mostly because he was here."


(iii) From the New York Times, November 18, 1987: "Alfredo Griffin, the Oakland Athletics' shortstop who is being pursued by a number of teams, including the Yankees, has rescinded his demand for a trade. So now there is a greater chance than ever he will be traded. The explanation? Last week, Griffin exercised a clause in his contract demanding a trade, presumably in an attempt to gain a lengthy contract extension but also making difficult any attempts by the Athletics to trade him by saying he would veto deals with the Yankees, Los Angeles, Montreal, Philadelphia, Houston and Boston." 


(iv) Do you know what would have happened if Joe Carter hadn't taken Mitch Williams' 2-2 pitch over the left field fence in Game Six of the 1993 World Series?  What if he'd, I don't know, taken a called third strike, or lined one right at Mickey Morandini? Well, I'll tell you: Alfredo Griffin would have reached on a swinging third strike and in the ensuing confusion both Ricky Henderson and Paul Molitor would have come in to score, thus ending that amazing game in an even sicker fashion.  Because, strangely, Alfredo Griffin was on deck. He came into the game as a pinch runner for John Olerud an inning earlier.  Consider, if you even can, the difference in baserunning ability between John Olerud and Alfredo Griffin.  It's one of those things that, as it starts to come into focus for you, you begin to worry that you're losing your grasp on everything else -- like, in the universe -- and so you pull back almost instinctively.  Is that the sublime?  Also, for this whole scenario to have played out, Henderson and Molitor would have had to have moved up on a passed ball, wild pitch, a double steal, or, preferably, a delayed double steal.  As it stands, waiting in the on-deck circle watching Joe Carter's drive sail over the wall was the final moment in Alfredo Griffin's career as a player.  


(v) Despite winning Rookie of the Year for a solid 1979 (my own rookie season, incidentally), Alfredo Griffin actually managed to contribute negative Wins Above Replacement over the course of eighteen professional seasons for which he was paid a total of $6,582,742. That, in and of itself, is a monumental achievement.     


(vi) By having been rad for both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Oakland Athletics (in addition to, though less importantly, the Cleveland Indians and the Los Angeles Dodgers), Alfredo Griffin brings us together here at Baseball Feelings.  At least two of us, anyway. And possibly more.  But at least two of us are united in our admiration for this deeply odd, beautifully useless, entirely awesome player.  We may never see his like again.       

Uh oh, I don't think that one's got the legs!

GO HOME IT'S A DRIBBLER TO SECOND

KS