Wake Up With Alex Rodriguez Hitting A Home Run With Ken Griffey Jr's Bat
Quite a scene we have here. Davey Johnson, manager of the Orioles at this time, called over the umpire and had a little conversation about Mariners’ slugger, Alex Rodriguez’s bat. IDK what was said, but the umpire took matters into his own hands and took the bat from A-Rod. Who knows what Johnson was asking about, but I know A-Rod, and he is no cheater, probably didn’t cork it, or have too much pine tar, that’s just not the guy Rodriguez is.
Who steps in to save the day? Of course it’s Ken Griffey Jr in the on deck circle, he does what any good friend does and offers Alex his wood. Alex accepts Ken’s wood while Davey has this little smirk on his face. I’m sure there was nothing wrong with Alex’s bat, probably just Davey Johnson trying to play mind games.
David Wells has A-Rod in a 2-2 count and then while using Ken’s bat, Rodriguez tees off on the pitch. Deep fly ball that Brady Anderson tried to rob, but it flies over the wall for a home run. That may have been the most 90s sentence I’ve ever typed, BTW. But thats a pretty neat scene. Griffey just handing his bat over and A-Rod knocking it out of the park. A pretty funny scene overall too. I could only imagine the celebration someone would do today if that happened. Imagine Gabe Kapler demanding Bryce Harper’s bat be confiscated, and then Harper homering with a teammates bat. Harper may throw that bat into the right field stands.
It’s also pretty wild that this Mariners had a lineup that had A-Rod and Griffey, plus Jay Buhner and Edgar Martinez. Pretty crazy they never won a WS. On this ’96 team alone, Rodriguez hit 36 homers, drove in 123 and hit .358, Griffey hit 49 bombs, drove in 140, and hit .303, Buhner hit 44 homers, had 138 RBIs, and hit .271, Martinez hit 26 home runs, had 103 RBIs, and batted .327. Insane.