MLB's Ken Griffey Jr Reveals Why He Never Signed With The NY Yankees

justjared.com:

Ken Griffey Jr is opening up about why he never joined the NY Yankees, despite the team wanting to trade for him.

The now 53-year-old outfielder opened up in a recent documentary, Junior, sharing his reasons why he’d never join the team and they stem from what happened when he was a young kid watching his own father on the field with the same team. Keep reading to find out more… Ken, who is the son of another MLB Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, revealed that he actually felt discriminated against by the team.

He recalled, via Insider, being in the dugout with his dad when a security guard told him that he would have to leave because owner “George [Steinbrenner] doesn’t want anyone in the dugout.” He was then advised by his dad to head back to the locker room, but not before Ken Sr told him to see not what, but who was on third base: “It’s Graig Nettles’ son taking ground balls at third base.” Nettles is white, while the Griffeys are black, and Ken Jr could tell that the security guard’s comments had been rooted in racism.

At one point in the documentary, Ken Jr was asked by a fan if he’d ever join the Yankees, to which he replied: “If the Yankees were the last team — if they were the only team that gave me a contract, I’d retire.” Ken Jr‘s comments have come back up as he and his dad just recently starred in a Budweiser campaign centered around Father’s Day.