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Ken Griffey Jr. High School Scouting Report

By Ben Wietmarschen, @benwietmarschen

The Hall of Fame has been releasing scouting reports on all of our favorite players recently, but they dropped a doozy today. Everyone who is between 20 and 40 years old has one favorite player, no matter where you grew up or if you were even a baseball fan at all: Ken Griffey Jr. This scouting report has special significance to me because it was filled out at Moeller HS in Cincinnati in 1987, just about five miles away from where I was probably spilling juice on myself and sitting on the bench on a sunny Cincinnati Saturday morning at my brother’s t-ball game as a three year old.

Obviously, the scouting report is glowing and recognizes that Griffey had a great arm and a baller (my word, not the scout’s) swing even at 17. Also, it's a little tough to tell because of the low definition scan, but at first glance it looked like the scout said Griffey had “strong, muscular arms 4 legs” so initially I was like, "man, they really don’t make ballplayers like they used to." But then I realized maybe the four was actually an &. Either way, Griffey was a beast even as a high schooler.

Also noteable is the scout's observation: “Everything seems to come easy for him. Doesn’t exert himself but is a very likeable kid.” This is exactly how he seemed in the Majors. Never seemed like his swing was any more difficult for him than petting a docile cat and when he ran down a fly ball in center field it seemed like he was on one of those airport moving walkway things (horizontalator?). The dude was a natural from day one.