I just remember thinking to myself, Lifetime Mariner ain't no way Ken's going to leave.

I mean, I know he's talked about it with us privately, you know, a few times about going, man, if they don't, then I'm going to kind of thing.

And I remember some of the whispers of what the numbers could possibly be if he ended up staying in Seattle and, you know,

them numbers was was unheard of, you know, kind of at that time.

As the 1999 season ended, Junior was headed into the last year of his contract with Seattle.

And the Mariners weren't in the playoffs.

Griffey was coming off his 10th straight All-Star season and his 10th straight

golden glove. But the Mariners were coming off back to back below 500 seasons and they hadn't sniffed

the playoffs since 97. The 2-2 to Buter, he struck him out and the Red Sox win. At the time,

the Griffey's lived in Orlando Florida, in the offseason.

And Ken's oldest son, Trey, was five years old, and he was about to start school.

The small time that Ken got to spend with his kids during the season was about to get smaller.

That year, as October came around, the Yankees and Braves had made their way to the 1999 World Series.

Hit sharply to short, Jeter's up with it.

And that's the way game two ends in Atlanta.

On the Monday between game two and game three, the sports world paused, but not because of

baseball.

Good evening.

There has been a freakish fatal accident involving a Lear jet flying across the country.

The plane was this 23-year-old Lear 35, and on board, Payne Stewart, one of the country's top golfers.

This was him winning the U.S. Open this year for the second time.

Payne Stewart was a friend and neighbor of Ken's in Orlando, and a week after the crash happened, Ken

...