Congratulations to Ken Griffey Jr. on his 600th career home run. Griffey joined the exclusive 600 club after hitting a 1st inning homer off of Marlins pitcher, Mark Hendrickson. It was Griffey’s first home run since May 31 against the Braves.
The first inning homer was a 3-1 curveball that once connected with the bat, it was gone. Meeting Griffey at home plate was his 14 year old son, Trey, who had been sitting in the dugout waiting for that moment.
Ken Griffey Jr. is currently sitting in sixth on the all-time home run list, but it is expected that he will pass Sammy Sosa for soul possessionof that fifth spot. Sosa currently has 609 career home runs.
Not everything ended well on Griffey’s milestone day, the man that allegedly caught the home run ball is considering keeping the piece of history. The man that caught the ball, who is being referred to by the Marlins media staff as ‘Joe’, has refusedto meet with the media or Griffey himself. The ball that ‘Joe’ has is in fact the home run ball since umpires have been switching out balls in preparation for the home run.
The drama continued when 25-year old Justin Kimball, of Miami, said he was the one who originally caught the ball, but it was snatched from his hands before he could secure it.
“It corroborates it on video evidence that I caught the ball, and I have a bunch of people here saying I caught the ball,” said Kimball, pointing to scratches on his leg and arm. “I reached, I caught it, I brought it back and the guy just ripped it out of my hands.”
Even an usher close to the incident occurred agrees with Kimball, stating he was the one to catch Griffey’s home run.
It seems that Justin will never get to make a decision on what should happen to the ball since ‘Joe’ already has plans for it. And those plans don’t include giving it to the man who caught it, or even the man that hit that ball for his 600th home run.
