http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-mariners-griffeyretiring

SEATTLE (AP)—Ken Griffey Jr. retired Wednesday night, ending one of the great careers in baseball history.

The 40-year-old Griffey told Seattle team president Chuck Armstrong that he was done playing. Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu called his players together before the start of batting practice to inform them of Griffey’s decision.

Griffey was not in the clubhouse before Wednesday night’s game against Minnesota. The team said he would not be at Safeco Field.

“While I feel I am still able to make a contribution on the field and nobody in the Mariners front office has asked me to retire, I told the Mariners when I met with them prior to the 2009 season and was invited back that I will never allow myself to become a distraction,” Griffey said in a statement.

“I feel that without enough occasional starts to be sharper coming off the bench, my continued presence as a player would be an unfair distraction to my teammates and their success as a team is what the ultimate goal should be,” he said.

Griffey was hitting only .184 with no homers and seven RBIs this year and recently went a week without playing. There was a report earlier this season— which Griffey denied—that he’d fallen asleep in the clubhouse during a game.

Griffey was a 13-time All-Star outfielder and ranks fifth on the career home run list with 630. He won an MVP award and was an 11-time Gold Glover. The only thing missing on his resume was a trip to the World Series.

“It’s a sad day for the Mariners, our fans, for all the people in the community that have loved Ken, admired him as a tremendous baseball player and a great human being,” Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln said. “It’s always tough for great superstars like Ken or anyone else to make a decision to retire. This has been his life for so many years, but he has made his decision and will support it. We will honor him in every way possible.”

A star from the time he was the overall No. 1 pick in the 1987 draft, Griffey played 22 years in the majors with Seattle, his hometown Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox. He hit .284 lifetime with 1,836 RBIs.

A year after making his big league debut, Griffey enjoyed one of his greatest highlights. Playing with his All-Star dad, Ken Griffey Jr., they hit back-to-back home runs in a game for the Mariners.

For a time in the 1990s, he was considered the best player in baseball. And during the Steroids Era, his name was never linked to performance-enhancing drugs, a rarity among his contemporaries such as Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire.

Griffey also is regarded as the player who helped keep the Mariners in Seattle, a point Armstrong noted during an impromptu gathering just a few steps from the batter’s box at Safeco Field.

Griffey played in 1,685 games with Seattle and hit .292 with 417 of his homers, most coming in the homer-friendly Kingdome, and 1,216 RBIs.

Once he left Seattle, injuries began to take their toll and his production started to decline.

Colorado manager Jim Tracy and others were surprised as the news of Griffey’s decision began to make its way around baseball.

“Did he really? Wow,” Tracy said before facing the San Francisco Giants.

AP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley in San Francisco contributed to this report.

It was very classy of Ken Griffey Jr. to not want to be a distraction to his teamates. That kind of selflessness is both very rare and very refreshing in this day and age. I am sad for Mr. Griffey Jr. that his career ended with more of a whimper than a bang. There was a time when he was considered to be the most likely player to break Hank Aaron's home run record. Unfortunately injuries in the later part of his career prevented that from happening. Ken Griffey Jr. exits Major League Baseball the way he entered it. As a great player and a class act. Thanks for the memories Ken!

Yep, his career came full circle - he ended it with the same team he started out with. I wish him all the best as he starts the next chapter in his life. :cool:

The guy left everything he had out on the field. He'd gladly trade his body to get an out. He certainly played the game the way it's supposed to be played.

The only bad part was that he played most of his career in relative anonymity. Not that everyone didn't know who he was, but his teams weren't on national TV all that much, and when they were, the games would be on at 10:00 or 10:30 pm, when most folks in the east were already in zonk city.

The guy left everything he had out on the field. He'd gladly trade his body to get an out. He certainly played the game the way it's supposed to be played.

The only bad part was that he played most of his career in relative anonymity. Not that everyone didn't know who he was, but his teams weren't on national TV all that much, and when they were, the games would be on at 10:00 or 10:30 pm, when most folks in the east were already in zonk city.
Yup, most of us in the Eastern Time Zone would usually be in Dreamland - especially when the games went into extra innings!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Yup, most of us in the Eastern Time Zone would usually be in Dreamland - especially when the games went into extra innings!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

lol, true.... MLB can't even play a 9 inning game in less than 3 hours any more (unless it's a perfect game, of course)... if they go into extra innings, forget it!

And the thing is, I'm saying exactly the same thing about Ichiro now as I said about Griffey 15 years ago.. he's an amazing player to watch, but we can't ever watch him!! I'd love for Ichiro to move east so we can at least see him play every now and then before HIS career is over!