Ken Griffey Jr is Showing Us The Importance of Having Hobbies

Growing up, you dropped the name “Ken Griffey Jr” at the lunch table, and all the 4th graders recognized you’re a ball-knower. You’d fall asleep to his highlights replaying on Sportscenter all night long on a loop. I always knew where my Ken Griffey Jr baseball card was—at all times.

They claimed no one had seen aura in thousands of years. It went extinct a millennia ago. Until Shai-Gilgeous Alexander birthed aura in a small Oklahoma city—risen from the flames of Paul George’s charred memory.

But there was one. Long before SGA, a god walked among us mortals.

Ken Griffey Jr was magic personified—one of the most electric athletes ever. Griffey retired with the 5th most home runs in MLB history—peaking in 1997 when he led baseball with 56 homers and 147 RBIs—winning the MVP trophy out in Seattle.

13-time All-Star. 10-time Gold Glove awards out in center field. 7-time Silver Slugger. In 1993, Griffey hit a homer in 8 straight games—tied for the most consecutive games with a home run in MLB history.

He was the face of Nike. I drank Pepsi because of his commercials. Also because I was a child and didn’t have dollars so I could only consume the products my parents purchased—but I’m sure they were inspired to choose Pepsi thanks to Griffey.

And I don’t really know anything about him.

In an era where retired athletes will not stop driving to each other’s garages to yap about how great they were in high school—an era where athletes who made millions upon millions of dollars, enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives without having to force themselves to go viral for $1,000 Prize Picks checks—Ken Griffey Jr remains silent.

And now I know why.

Behind the lens 📸@MLB Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. is working as a credentialed photographer for the first time @TheMasters pic.twitter.com/NjQqBDSCJF

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 10, 2025

Ken Griffey Jr spent this weekend as a credentialed photographer at the 2025 Masters.

Many of us desperately need hobbies. We have to unstitch ourselves from the timeline. We don’t need to absorb every single news story the moment it breaks—followed by random dork’s opinions of said news. Put down the podcast mics and put your AirPods back in those little cases.

Ken Griffey Jr isn’t sitting down to gossip with former players about how much cooler or more difficult it was playing in his generation. He isn’t calling Mike Trout soft or crying about players flipping their bats after home runs. I don’t know who Griffey voted for. I don’t know his opinions on Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar.

Every image I see of Griffey holding a camera is a photo of a happy, healthy adult man. We need more hobbies to replace all of the toxins we flood into our brains.

So I’ve compiled a list of hobbies to save the boys from the misery that has become the internet.

Here are some healthy male hobbies to save you from the Algorithm and improve your life like Ken Griffey Jr

Cooking: Fellas, you’re gonna go to a restaurant and let another man serve you meat??? Could not be me. I be in that kitchen boiling the HELL of the water I put my .99 cent pasta into. May throw a little salt in the water if I’m entertaining guests.
Gardening: How do you feel about bee stings? If you aren’t afraid of wasps then I suggest getting out there and working the Earth like our ancestors used to. Grow a tomato. No better feeling than seeing a tomato you created. It’s like being a god creating life. I don’t even like tomatoes but I heard god doesn’t like ugly but that didn’t stop him from creating Laura Loomer.
Woodworking: I don’t recommend this unless you have that good health insurance. If you can’t afford the ambulance you’ll need when you accidentally saw off the tip of your finger or clip your arm on an old rusty nail, maybe skip the wood shop shit.
Ketamine: if all else fails, and you really can’t stop yourself from opening up your social media app of choice, just do ketamine. All you need is one trip to the K-Hole and you won’t even know what a cell phone is.

Hit me up with some of your favorite hobbies. We should all try to be more like Ken Griffey Jr.

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