Ken Griffey Jr.’s Wife Once Asked Him to Hold Off Hitting His 500th Home Run
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Ken Griffey Jr. is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. The center fielder spent 22 seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, after being selected first overall in the 1987 draft. He finished his career with 630 home runs, seventh-most in MLB history, was named to 13 All-Star teams, and won 10 Gold Glove Awards in center field. He holds the record, shared with Don Mattingly and Dale Long, for most consecutive games with a home run at eight. He is one of 31 players in MLB history to have appeared in games across four different calendar decades.
Off the field, Griffey signed major endorsement deals with Nike and Nintendo. After retiring, Griffey joined the Mariners front office as a special consultant and was inducted into both the Mariners and Reds halls of fame. In 2016, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Supporting him for most of his career has been his wife of more than three decades, Melissa. Curious to learn more about Ken Griffey Jr.’s wife? Here are a few facts you need to know about Melissa:
They have been married for more than 30 years.
Melissa was born in 1969 in Florida. The two reportedly met at a dance club in the early 1990s and married in October 1992.
She wanted to be there for his record home run.
Back in 2004, Melissa had stayed home in Florida during the Reds’ weekend series against Montreal. It happened to be during this run that he hit 497th and 498th on consecutive pitches in a 6-5 win over the Expos.
“I told my wife to stay home this weekend, because it was only a three-game series,” Griffey said at the time. “She said, ‘Don’t hit four today.’ She would have been mad. When I got the walk, I said, ‘Whew.’” He hit No. 499 a few days later on June 13 back in Cleveland. Ken saved No. 500 for a special occasion. On June 20, 2004, Griffey hit his 500th home run into deep right field at Great American Ball Park in St. Louis. That Sunday also happened to be Father's Day.
Sports is a family tradition.
Ken is famously the son of former MLB player Ken Griffey Sr., but he’s not the only athletic one in the family: Melissa used to play soccer. The couple have three children: Trey, Taryn, and Tevin. Trey, however, opted for football over baseball because the former is the sport he really loves, despite his father and grandfather’s legacies. “I can’t even imagine what baseball would be like for him with that name," Melissa told ESPN in 2012, “because football is difficult.”
He went on to play as a wide receiver in the NFL from 2017 to 2019 after playing college football for the University of Arizona. Their daughter Taryn played for the women’s basketball team at Arizona.
She is a part owner in a professional soccer team.
Ken and Melissa joined as minority owners in the Seattle Sounders FC in November 2020. “This is a meaningful day for our entire family,” Ken said in a statement at the time. “My wife Melissa and I said that we wanted to be a part of something special, not only for ourselves, but for our kids to be proud of, and this is it. We know how much this club means to Sounders fans, and for us, this comes back to the city where it all started for our family. We are joining a first-class organization, and we are so proud to give back to the city we love. To the Seattle Sounders community: we are inspired to become part of what you have created. Like you, we are excited to get behind our incredible team as the players prepare for this year’s playoff run.”
It took her awhile to get used to Ken’s new photography gig.
When hearing Ken Griffey Jr. was at Augusta National for the Masters last year, one might it was because he was picking up a nine-iron, given his athletic background. But no, he wasn’t making a comeback in another sport; instead, he was picking up a camera, as part of his second career as a sports photographer.
However, he apparently forgot to share his schedule with Melissa before departing for the 2025 Masters. When she asked if he could handle some chores around the house this weekend, he told her no because he had “to work the Masters.” They went a few days without speaking, he later told reporters, with a laugh. Ken became more interested in photography after his children got into sports, and he wanted a way to watch without being approached by fans in the stands.
“People would think if I'm sitting in the stands smiling, they can come up and talk to me,” he said, per Associated Press. “So if I got a camera, they didn't really know what I was doing. It was a way for me to really focus in and watch the kids, and not critique what they were doing, but just be in the moment with them.”
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