Ken Griffey Jr. to appear as guest analyst for ESPN broadcast of Mariners vs. Yankees

By Ryan Divish

The Seattle Times

Ken Griffey Jr. will be back at T-Mobile Park in an official working capacity outside of his responsibilities as an ambassador for the Mariners.

The Mariners’ first member in the baseball Hall of Fame will be a part of ESPN’s “Monday Night Baseball” telecast as a guest analyst in the opener of a three-game series with the Yankees.

Griffey will join his close friend Eduardo Perez, who will serve as an analyst, and play-by-play commentator Dave Flemming. Griffey and Perez became friends when their fathers, Ken Sr. and Tony Perez, played for the Cincinnati Reds during the Big Red Machine era of the 1970s.

The ESPN telecast will be available in the Mariners’ television market but is subject to blackout restrictions in the New York market. Fans can also stream the game on the ESPN app.

Griffey’s exploits with the Mariners are well known. He helped keep baseball in Seattle and changed the perception of the sport for a generation of kids.

In 2,617 career games — the majority in a Seattle uniform — Griffey had 2,781 hits, 630 homers (sixth-most in MLB history), 1,662 runs, 1,836 RBI and a .907 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage).

From an honors standpoint, he appeared in 13 All-Star Games (voted a starter in all 13), earned 10 Gold Gloves, seven Silver Slugger awards and was voted to Major League Baseball’s All-Century team at age 29. He was the unanimous American League MVP in 1997 and led the AL in homers four times (1994, 1997-99). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016.

Griffey was just in Seattle for Edgar Martinez’s weekend celebration for his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.