The Kid sure has grown up

The hat and the bat looked familiar.

Ken Griffey Jr.'s two trademarks were with him as he walked into a Comiskey Park auditorium Tuesday afternoon.

Griffey wore the hat the way he normally does before and after games - backward.

To be honest, it looked a little out of place. After all, Griffey is 38, twice as old as when he first arrived in Major League Baseball.

In 1989 he was "The Kid." A backward baseball hat looked natural on him, just as it did on all the youngsters who wore it like that at the time.

Griffey wasn't the first major leaguer to wear it that way during batting practice. That distinction reportedly belongs to Jeffrey Leonard, the fabled "Penitentiary Face."

But the popular Griffey made it fashionable. Not wi th baseball purists, who thought it disrespected the game. But with teenagers who were as close in age to Griffey as to any prominent athlete of the day.

Today Griffey's face is more worn, weathered and wrinkled. His eyes clearly have witnessed the worries of the game.

"Everybody gets older," he said prior to his first game in Comiskey Park as a member of the White Sox. "You hope to get older."

As opposed to the alternative, we assume he means.

The Sox hope Griffey isn't too old, or at least not as old as he looked on a couple plays during Tuesday night dramatic 10-8, 14-inning victory over the Tigers.

In his fourth game with the Sox, Griffey had 1 hit in 6 at-bats and played a single into a triple in center field.

Sox fans sounded like they will be patient. By the time Griffey turned his hat around to face the Tigers, the y were greeting him with cheers. He received a nice ovation during introductions and a standing ovation while walking to the plate for his first at-bat.

It was as if "The Kid" were in the house. But no, this was an adult man, an aging veteran, a 20-year major-leaguer who hit 608 career home runs for Seattle and Cincinnati before the Sox acquired him last week.

The Sox will understand if the backward-hat look doesn't fit as well nowadays as long as Griffey's black bat does.

"People are excited to see 'The Kid' play," Ozzie Guillen said.

The Sox manager caught himself right there and acknowledged that "The Kid" isn't a kid anymore but he is a certain Hall of Famer expected to contribute instead of dominate.

It is no secret Griffey's name is more potent than his game at this point of his career. The cheers are more for what he was than what he is.

Griffey's role will be as a center fielder one day, maybe a corner outfielder the next, maybe a designated hitter the next.

Despite starting out his Sox career with 4 hits in 13 at-bats, the club is hopeful he'll help down the stretch run.

"I told him I don't care if you go buck naked to the field," Guillen said. "Everybody has his own style."

More than the hat, the big thing for the Sox would be if Ken Griffey Jr.'s bat is still in style.

mimrem@dailyherald.com