(iPhone photoshoppery courtesy Tim Cook)
SI’s Ben Reiter invaded the palatial estate of soon-to-be-inducted Hall Of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. and quizzed the former Mariners/Reds outfielder about his subjects including but not limited to his post-baseball life and nearly convincing Alex Rodriguez (above, middle) to become a sperm donor. :
Griffey enlisted Seattle’s trainer, Rick Griffin, to convince the rookie Rodriguez that the club’s stars—including Jay Buhner and Randy Johnson—were involved in a scheme to sell their sperm to the highest bidder, as if they were thoroughbred stallions, and that Rodriguez might himself attract an appreciable stud fee. He brought in a fake doctor. “Dude, you got great genes,” Griffey told the rookie. The callow Rodriguez was skeptical at first. Then he started to come around. “How much money do you think we could make?” he asked. Griffey, mercifully, pulled the plug before donations were to be harvested. “Everybody has rookie hazing,” he says. “That was his.”
Griffey hasn’t spoken to Rodriguez, whose career went on to mirror Bonds’s more than his own, in several years. “Is he doing what he’s supposed to be doing for his kids, being a dad?” Griffey asks. “From what I hear, he’s doing that. That’s the only thing you care about. I also understand, from the guys, that he’s a much better teammate now than he was four or five years ago.”