Welcome Home, Junior! Ken Griffey Jr. Returns to Seattle

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Welcome Home, Junior! Ken Griffey Jr. Returns to Seattle; Upper Deck Produces New ‘Junior’ Mariners Baseball Cards!


Two short-printed Seattle cards of Griffey await eager collectors!



Las Vegas, NV (February 24, 2009) – Some thought it was just matter of time. Others figured it would never happen. And still many thought it would make for a great storybook ending to a stellar major league career. In the end, Ken Griffey Jr. sided with the latter group and decided to come home again, to the city of Seattle.



On Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Seattle Mariners spring training complex in Peoria, Arizona, Ken Griffey Jr announced he was, indeed, returning to the M’s, the team where his major league career started 21 years ago. After nine seasons of playing big league baseball outside of Seattle – eight with the Reds and last year with the White Sox – Junior’s career has come full circle. And with the startling turn of events, Upper Deck officials went right to work, securing up-to-date photos of Junior practicing in Peoria and even developing a special illustrated card welcoming back Seattle’s favorite son.



Griffey’s coveted rookie card (# 1) is from Upper Deck’s inaugural baseball release in 1989. So it only makes sense for the trading card manufacturer, which also started its legacy in 1989, to be the first to market with updated baseball cards showing Junior returning to the team where it all began. Two cards are being produced by Upper Deck to celebrate Griffey’s homecoming. The first will show Junior at the recent press conference and will pack out as a short-printed insert card in 2009 Upper Deck’s MLB Piece of History release, which hits store shelves in early April. The second is a caricature card showing Griffey standing at Seattle’s Pike’s Place Market, awaiting a fish thrown to him by the team’s longtime mascot, the Mariner Moose. This card will be available at select hobby shops across the country as a gift with purchase shortly before Opening Day (April 6).



“Ken Griffey Jr. has meant so much to the Upper Deck Company over the last two decades,” said Jason Masherah, Upper Deck’s senior sports brand manager. “His rookie card basically put us on the map 20 years ago, so it’s our pleasure to be the first company to release updated cards showing Junior returning to his original team: the Seattle Mariners.”



Griffey played his first 11 MLB season in Seattle, launching 398 home runs and collecting 10 Gold Gloves along the way. He has since entered into one of MLB’s most prestigious group’s – the “600 Home Run Club” – and has maintained his stellar reputation for giving it his all every day out on the baseball diamond.

"I may not hit 50 (home runs),'' the 39-year-old Griffey said at the press conference. “I may not hit 40, I may not hit 30. But I can do the little things to help a team win.''


The Mariners are banking on it.