\nKen Griffey Jr. reached the 400, 500 and 600-home run marks while playing for the Cincinnati Reds. (Kelly Gavin\/MLB Photos)<\/p>\n
Before Ken Griffey Jr. was traded to the Cincinnati Reds following the 1999 season, he totaled 398 home runs during his tenure with the Seattle Mariners. Eight years later, on June 9, 2008, Griffey achieved a milestone that only five other players had ever reached.<\/p>\n
Griffey Jr. became the sixth player in major league history \u2013 and the first in Cincinnati Reds annals \u2013 to accomplish this feat, joining the exclusive club of Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth and Sammy Sosa.<\/p>\n
In the days leading up to this game, Griffey told the Cincinnati Enquirer: \u201cWillie called me about 10 days ago; Hank called the next day. They told me to relax and keep having fun. I think that helped me a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nKen Griffey Jr. reached the 400, 500 and 600-home run marks while playing for the Cincinnati Reds. (Kelly Gavin\/MLB Photos)<\/p>\n
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A string of significant injuries \u2013 torn hamstring, torn patellar tendon and dislocated shoulder \u2013 had delayed Griffey\u2019s march toward the milestone. Pitchers were also avoiding history as Griffey entered the game against the Florida Marlins having walked nine times in his previous 27 plate appearances since hitting number 599 on May 31.<\/p>\n
Griffey said: \u201cI\u2019ve been swinging better the last 10 days. I\u2019ve been able to get the ball in the air, rather than beat it into the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
A crowd of 16,003 filled Dolphin Stadium that night, anticipating the chance to witness history.<\/p>\n
In the first inning, with a runner on third, Griffey delivered a towering fly ball to deep right field off Mark Hendrickson for a two\u2011run home run, giving Cincinnati an early lead and securing his place among the game\u2019s all-time greats.<\/p>\n
The crowd gave Griffey a warm, extended standing ovation. Griffey stepped out for a curtain call, removing his helmet and acknowledging the fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I touched the base,\u201d he later said. \u201cI floated around. It didn\u2019t hit me until I saw my family and (son) Trey.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Ken](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/B-173-2008_01.jpg\"\/)
\nKen Griffey Jr. wore this Reds helmet, part of the Museum\u2019s permanent collection, when he hit the 600th home run of his career on June 9, 2008.\u00a0(Milo Stewart Jr.\/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)<\/p>\n
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The Reds went on to win the game 9-4, but the lasting memory from that night was Griffey\u2019s historic milestone.<\/p>\n
Griffey reached 600 home runs in 2,439 games, fourth-fewest of all time.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his journey, Griffey told the Miami Herald: \u201cNever in my wildest dreams did I think that I would hit 200 home runs, 300 home runs \u2013 or even six.\u201d<\/p>\n
Griffey played 22 seasons and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016. A 13\u2011time All\u2011Star, he earned the 1997 American League Most Valuable Player Award, won seven Silver Slugger Awards and captured 10 Gold Glove Awards.<\/p>\n
Khadifi Madison was the spring 2026 Jim Murray Scholars intern at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Ken Griffey Jr. was traded to the Cincinnati Reds following the 1999 season, he totaled 398 home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-692094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}