Ken Griffey Jr. finally got his 600th home run tonight but unfortunate for him, it was an away game down in Florida at the empty orange seat ghost town known as Dolphins Stadium. A mere 16K fans turned out in Miami to see the legendary slugger accomplish the feat of a lifetime, that only five other players have accomplished before him.

Here’s a blurb from the AP Article by Charlie McCarthy…

MIAMI (AP)—Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run on Monday night, completing his long ascent and becoming the sixth player in history to reach that milestone. The Cincinnati outfielder homered off Florida lefty Mark Hendrickson in the first inning of the Reds’ 9-4 victory against the Marlins. Griffey joined Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sammy Sosa. The 38-year-old homered with Jerry Hairston on third and one out. The left-handed swinger launched a 3-1 pitch 413 feet into the right-field seats. Griffey received a standing ovation from the crowd of 16,003 and responded by coming out of the Reds dugout and waving his helmet to the fans. The game was the last one of an eight-game road trip for the Reds, who will return home Tuesday night to play the St. Louis Cardinals.

What’s up with the city of Miami and their disdain for their sports teams? At least when Ken Griffey Jr and the Reds were up here in Philly last week, Citizen’s Bank Park was packed with diehard fans hoping to catch a piece of baseball history. However, true to his humble yet dedicated nature, Griffey didn’t wait until he was back on home turf tomorrow and he got the job done, leading the Reds to a victory over the Florida Marlins who have been playing tag with the Phillies for the lead in the NL East.

…and only 16K fans present ??? I think this is a sign that it’s about time the Marlins relocated to Central Florida, preferrably Orlando, where at least they and the sport of baseball are appreciated.

Fashion Designer Marc Ecko who shelled out $750K for the Barry Bonds baseball that broke Hank Aaron’s home run record has decided to let the public decide on the fate of this piece of baseball memorabilia. Marc has put up a website and is allowing visitors to vote on the fate of the baseball. The choices are :

A) Bestow It - Give it to the Cooperstown Hall of Fame with the full rights to the ball belonging to the Hall of Fame.

B) Brand It - Burn an asterisk onto the ball with a branding iron, adding a permanent footnote to the record and then send it to Cooperstown.

C) Banish It - Put the ball on a rocket ship and launch it into orbit, a moon shot for the ages, Out of sight, outof mind.

As of my vote today, there were 3,521,020 votes on the website. You have to submit and email address to get the results of the poll. All in all, for over 3 million visitors and all the publicity Marc Ecko has has on national television, I’d say the $750K price tag was on helluva a great viral marketing concept on hispart.

If you want to vote, visit http://www.vote756.com

or click on the banner below

Even more interesting is this piece of Bonds memorabilia for sale at MLB.com. Seems they need to update their sales pitch because it’s been a while since Barry was #2 on the list.

San Francisco Giants Barry Bonds Autographed Grey Jersey Barry Bonds, who is #2 on the career home runs lists, has autographed this grey jersey. Each jersey is certified by Bonds.

Who cares about Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s home run record, Alex Rodriguez hitting his 500th home run, or Tom Glavine getting his 300th career victory. A record of more significant importance was set this season that eclipses all of those milestones by far.

Bobby Cox, the venerable, crotchety and cantankerous skipper of the NL East’s Atlanta Braves has finally passed John McGraw for the most all time mamagerial ejections in baseball history Tuesday night. Home plate umpire Ted Barrett ejected Bobby Cox for arguing a called third strike on Chipper Jones to end the fifth inning in the Braves 5-4 victory at home against The San Francisco Giants. Bobby has been a good boy for almost 7 1/2 weeks without throwing a single ejectable tantrum, although Sunday night when the Braves were at Philly he came awful close to setting the record when he came marching out of the dugout to contest a call. I was at the game Sunday night and the Phillies, who are noted for their “boo birds” were chanting “Toss him out” among other things. This was the 132nd ejection of Mr. Cox’s career, surpassing the mark that McGraw set during his Hall of Fame career. Bobby Cox has long been known for his fiery demeanor on and off the field but his record speaks for itself, leading the Braves to 14 division titles (no wonder the Phillies fans hate him so much).

During a recent Braves telecast one of the announcers commented that Bobby’s wife cringes every time she sees him get up from the dugout because with thirteen grandchildren, one never knows how advanced their lip reading skills are and anybody who has ever watched Booby at work on the umpires knows there’s some expletives deleted in his presentation.

I personally think Bobby was waiting for Barry Bonds to be in the stadium in front of the home crowd to break the record. Actually the runour has it Bobby has a “bachelor pad” in the Braves clubhouse with a couple of huge flat panel TV’s and the MLB cable package that he retires to whenever he’s ejected at Turner Field. Even though he was forced to retire to his “bachelor pad”, I’m sure Bobby was happy that Chipper Jones doubled to deep left center in the bottom of the ninth to bring Willie Harris home to score the winning run.