Ken Griffey Jr. Reveals That George Steinbrenner Being Racist Towards Him As A Kid Is Why He Never Was A Yankee

Ken Griffey Jr. is one of baseball’s all-time greats with one of the sweetest strokes in history. His lefty swing also likely would have played very well at Yankee Stadium so it’s natural to wonder why the Yankees, in prime “acquire every player” mode during Griffey Jr.’s peak, never ended up emptying the Brinks truck for Junior.

In an MLB Network special over the weekend, the real reason came out: George Steinbrenner and Yankees security had been somewhat racist towards young Ken Griffey Jr. while his father was on the Yankees.

Wow, Ken Griffey Jr. had a really damn good reason to never play for the Yankees.

"Look at third base." pic.twitter.com/2v7DoBYyYC

— Roger Cormier (@yayroger) June 22, 2020

That little bit of racism that Griffey Jr. experienced seemingly defined his views on the Yankees for the rest of his life. It’s honestly crazy to think about but it’s such an important formative moment. The Yankees organization likely had no clue Griffey Jr. would go on to be the monster player he was. But if George Steinbrenner and Yankees security had just been the basic bit of kind to him as they were to GRAIG FREAKING NETTLES’ SON, he might have gone out of his way to play in the pinstripes instead of working to actively avoid and beat them.

It certainly makes some of these classic Ken Griffey Jr. moments even sweeter in hindsight:

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