"You just keep fighting, I was still sort of young. "What do you do?" McGriff said of his effot to get back. He knew the business and he worked hard to get back, going to Venezuela and elsewhere to hone his game and get noticed again. It was a three year gap, one that McGriff blamed himself for. "It was tough sitting at home watching them play the World Series," McGriff said, "but it is what it is."Ī Bridgeport Bluefish scores on a close play at the plate.Īfter those appearances with the Astros, though, McGriff didn't return to the majors until September 1993, for four games with the Marlins. He wasn't even with the organization by the playoff run, traded to the Astros for September, getting into four games with that club. In 1990, the year the Reds won the World Series, McGriff played just two games for the Reds. McGriff, though, got even fewer big league outings in 1989, six spread between April and September. "That's the nature of the game," McGriff said, "You just keep going at it." McGriff did work himself back for one last game that year, getting one at bat Sept. But his big league stint in 1988 largely ended by late June. McGriff tried play on a pulled groin for two weeks. It was in that outing that his third and final home run came.īut injuries and other events would intervene. McGriff started 1988 back in Cincinnati, going 4 for 4 in an April 20 outing against San Francisco. Rodriguez plays Bluefish bench coach Terry McGriff's old position. "You just want it to last, you want to stay in the big leagues for 15 years and you want it to be that way all the time."īridgeport catcher Luis Rodriguez waits for a pitch May 1, 2011. "I can just see through their eyes because I've been there." "Every time I see a young kid come up to the big leagues, I just know what he's feeling," McGriff recalled. But the feeling of being a rookie hitting in the majors was easier. The feeling of the grand slam, McGriff said, was hard to explain. He got his first home run July 30 against San Diego. While he had butterflies to start, those were gone after his second appearance, first big league start. 225 in 89 at bats for the Reds that year, including two of his three career big league home runs. McGriff made the majors in July 1987, in the midst of his seventh professional season. Terry McGriff, at the rail, watches a Bluefish take a swing at Bridgeport And his big league career wouldn't end until August 1994, five days before the start of the 1994 strike. His major league career lasted parts of six seasons, 126 total games played. "It was really a dream come true, I just wish it could have lasted a little longer." "It was an honor," McGriff said of making the majors. "You just soak it all in and you do what you can do when you get on the field," McGriff recalled of the meeting. With the suits, came a meeting, the Hall of Famer talking to the rookie about about the job, and the responsibilities of a major league catcher. Now, in 1987, McGriff was playing for the team that Bench once played for, with a locker full of suits sent by Bench, who had an interest in a local suit store. That was Johnny Bench.īench was a player McGriff had looked up to as a young ballplayer, even once brashly telling his father that he wanted to be better than Bench. The suits, he learned, were from another Reds catcher, a former catcher. Soon after being called up to the Reds for the first time, Terry McGriff arrived at his locker and discovered inside were six brand new suits. Part 1: Chose Baseball | Part 2: Soaked It In Terry McGriff, left, at the rail during a recent game at Bridgeport's Harbor Yard.
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