My Favorite Cigar
Ken Griffey Jr. • Baseball Legend • Romeo y Julieta 1875 Bully
Ken Griffey Jr. finds it hard to name a favorite smoke, but he puffs quite a few Romeo y Julieta cigars from the Dominican Republic. “I like medium-bodied cigars,” he says. The native of Donora, Pennsylvania, was known as “The Kid,” an appropriate moniker for one who played baseball with extra juice in his step and a sort of perpetual joy. A manager reprimanded him for wearing his cap backward in practice, but that missed the point. The big uppercut swing, the running into outfield fences—and reaching over them to bring back home runs—all pointed to his boundless exuberance. “The Natural,” his other nickname, captured his all-around ability; the running, fielding and hitting for power.
There was pedigree, too. Ken Griffey Sr. was a three-time All-Star who played 19 seasons in the sun, including a few seasons with his son. In his penultimate season, at the age of 40, he hit a homer for the Mariners against the Angels on September 14, 1990. Junior, then 20, followed with another blast. They remain the only father-and-son duo to go deep back-to-back. Griffey Jr. finished his 22 years with 630 homers, seventh most of all time. With talk of an MLB Legends Home Run Derby, we haven’t seen the last of him.
