Ken Griffey Jr.
“Griffey Joins Kings of Clout with No. 600,” is how MLB.com writer Mark Sheldon headlined Ken Griffey Jr.’s 600th home run on June 10. The home run, hit at Miami’s Dolphin Stadium off Marlins’ lefthanded pitcher Mark Hendrickson, placed the 38-year-old Cincinnati Reds outfielder as sixth in baseball’s exclusive 600-home-run club. Griffey is close behind Sammy Sosa, whose fifth-position record presently stands at 609 home runs. Tim Kurkjian, ESPN Magazine’s senior writer, said the 600 home run club is the most exclusive and prestigious club in sports.
Cincinnatians, of course, were delighted at their hometown player’s success. The team’s management, obviously aware that Griffey’s 600th homer was imminent, had already contracted with Dualite Sales and Service Inc. (Williamsburg, OH) to install a pre-printed, 45-ft. 2-in.-high x 14-ft. 2-in.-wide commemorative banner.
Ralph Mitchell, the Red’s director of creative services, designed the banner, which, in part, was preapproved by Ken Griffey Jr. Ralph said the Reds began preparing for Griffey’s 600th home run last season. At that time, he designed the “600th” commemorative logo, which was also approved by Ken. The banner’s photo image shows Ken’s distinguished, home-run swing.
Ralph, who has worked for the Reds for 10 years, used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator software to design the poster; he designed the 600 logo in Illustrator. Once the design was completed and approved, he interpolated the pixels in Photoshop to correlate with the finished print size. He presented a 600-dpi image (at 25% scale) to Dualite’s prepress staff.
Ralph’s background is in marketing and publishing. He worked for GE as a tradeshow-exhibit designer and came into the Reds’ operations obliquely. He had worked for a firm that contracted with the Reds and, eventually, was asked to join its operation.
Ralph’s operation comprises seven people; it’s an internal “Reds” creative department that provides all the teams’ design work, including, for example, the design of giveaway items, gameday publications and season tickets. He also contracts with any game photographers and oversees the website.
“There’s no offseason,” he said, “We’re always busy.” At press time, his department was preparing for the Reds Hall of Fame Induction (July 18-20, 2008).
To install Griffey’s banner, Dualite used SignComp Extrusions and Systems’ (Grand Rapids, MI) extruded, wall-mount, retro-frame system with a retro-radius cover. Interestingly, SignComp’s tensioning system is designed to increase its grip on a signface as wind pushes against it. SignComp’s website includes an installation/tensioning video and PDF download.
Greg Schube, Dualite’s president and CEO, said the print was imaged on 13-oz. gloss banner material with HP solvent-based inks.
Michael Anderson, the Reds’ public relations manager, said the grand-format banner was a tribute to Ken. A broader analysis might say the impetus was three-fold – to compliment Ken, celebrate the record and, of course, as a marketing piece. The banner reminds visitors they’re visiting the home of a champion.
Griffey, sometimes known as “the Kid,” graduated from Cincinnati’s Moeller High School in 1987. In 2000, after 11 seasons with the Seattle Mariners, he returned to play for the Reds. Ken’s father, Ken Griffey Sr., played from 1973 to 1991, which included nine years (1973 to 1981) with the “Big Red Machine” (the moniker assigned during a Reds’ high point, a period that included two World Series titles), plus portions of 1988-1990. Both Griffeys once concurrently played for the Mariners; on one occasion they hit back-to-back home runs.
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