Ken Griffey Jr is one of the biggest names in any era of baseball, but what do we really know about him? Other baseball players of both his era and earlier will be remembered for things other than baseball. Griffey, it seems, will only be remembered for baseball.

Babe Ruth drank and smoked cigars. Barry Bonds liked steroids. Pete Rose liked to gamble. Derek Jeter bangs models and actresses. Junior… likes pennies? It just doesn’t seem to do him justice.

John Fay of The Enquirer tried to explain the riddle that is Ken Griffey Jr. and why we, the fans, know so little about him. From Cincinnati.com:

Part one: Ken Griffey Jr. is great to deal with on a personal level. He’s easy to talk to, engaging, and interested in a lot of different things. He’ll talk your ear off.

Part two: He can be difficult to deal with professionally. He will occasionally take exception to something I write or, as is more often the case, take exception to something someone told him I wrote.

The gist of the piece is that Ken Griffey Jr. is a person. He’s private and personable. Because Griffey has remained so quiet in an age where so many won’t shut up, we’ll only remember Ken Griffey Jr. for the way he played his sport. The most negative thing we’ll remember about him is his injury problems and that’s not really an indictment of him. We should be glad we won’t remember him as a caricature, like so many of his peers today have become. We’ll simply remember him as a baseball player.