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Ken Griffey Jr's incredible Masters photos prove his second career is no gimmick

He's 'masterfully' transitioned from being in front of the camera to behind it.

Keith Allison, Flickr & Canva Photos

Ken Griffey Jr. retired from baseball at 40. At 55 he's a successful photographer.

You don't have to be a baseball fanatic to know who Ken Griffey Jr. is. His name is synonymous with the MLB as he was the centerpiece of the league for decades. ESPN has him as the 13th best pro baseball player of all time, but his fame at its peak went far beyond just the baseball world. He was one of the most famous athletes in the world in the 90s and early 2000s. In the end, Griffey Jr. played 22 seasons and breezed into the Hall of Fame easily.

Except, it wasn't the end! Ken Griffey Jr. retired from professional baseball in 2010 at the age of 40. And he wasn't content to just disappear and watch his fame and fortune slowly dwindle away. There was a lot of life yet to live, and Griffey Jr. was intent on living it.

Now 55, Ken Griffey Jr. is grabbing headlines for what he's doing off the field. Notably, and surprisingly, he's taken up photography.


ken griffey jr, ken griffey, mlb, baseball, pro baseball, athletes, sportsKen Griffey Jr. was one of the most famous athletes on the planet in the late 90s.By clare_and_ben - 00451_n_12ag9rg4vb0460, CC BY-SA 2.0

For so much of his life, Griffey Jr. was used to being in front of the camera. Now he's spending his time behind it. It's a fun little hobby — a 'hobby' that recently took him all the way to the Masters at Augusta National as a formally recognized photojournalist.

His photos from the event are terrific, his talent and hard work evident. People who haven't been paying attention to his journey and second career are shocked to find out that not only is Ken Griffey Jr. a good photographer, it is decidedly not a hobby. And it's not a gimmick.

X users reacted to the photos:

"I guess he's just good at everything," one user joked.

"Such joy on his face!" noticed another.

Ken Griffey Jr. first picked up a camera to document his own children's sporting events, according to an interview with Golf.com.

He found that shielding himself behind a big camera allowed him to hide from onlookers and fans and just enjoy the game and enjoy being there for his kids. With a big enough lens, he could even hang back from the crowd a bit to wait for the perfect shot. He found that he fell in love with photography and learning all the intricacies of the artform.

From there, and after his pro career ended, it was an easy segue into professional sports. He's shot games and events for Major League Soccer and the NFL, IndyCar events, and even done wildlife photography. Though his name recognition certainly helps him land assignments and access, Griffey Jr. prefers to be treated like a normal photographer.

James Colgan for Golf recounts how Griffey struggled to keep up with the seasoned pros in the photo pit at the 2025 Masters. These were some of the best sports photographers in the world.

“How would these guys feel if we all got into a batting cage, and I was sitting there critiquing them? It’s the same thing," he said.

But he hung in there and got a number of terrific shots for his effort.

Being a professional athlete can be an extremely glamorous job. That makes it hurt even more when it comes to an end.

There's fame, often a good chunk of money, and tons of excitement as an active player. But what we don't often see is that the career of a professional athlete is usually incredibly short. Most are lucky to play for just a few years. Even the best of the best are often retired by the time they reach their 30s. There's a lot of life left after that! And they're often dealing with injuries, money running out, dwindling notoriety, and more. Retired athletes can lose purpose and their sense of identity, fall into depression, make risky investments, and generally struggle to find their footing during their second act.

Ken Griffey Jr. is showing young athlete that there's a better way, and he's an inspiration for anyone who thinks it's too late to change the path their life is on. Learning something new, and potentially failing, is intimidating. But we only get one shot on this Earth, and there's absolutely no time to waste.

“I mean, I’ve been this way since I was a little kid,” he says. “I learned how to fly a plane. I got my pilot’s license at age 36. I learned to scuba at age 30. You owe it to yourself to go out and find something you love, and you have to be willing to start somewhere.”

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Family

Wife exposes the big double standard that exists between dad and mom hobbies

Is she the first person to realize this was happening?

via SheIsAPaigeTurner/TikTok, Rulo Davila/Pexels, Antoni Shkraba/Pexels

Paige points out the difference between male and female hobbies.

Paige, a work-from-home mom of 4, recently exposed a double standard between husbands and wives that exists in many heterosexual family structures. According to Paige, men can enjoy hobbies that take them out of the home for long periods of time whereas women are forced to choose hobbies that work around their family’s schedule.

The video has received over 730,000 views on TikTok and earned over 1700 comments.

“Male hobbies typically take them outside of the home during the daytime during caretaking hours. Female hobbies often revolve around the schedules of their partner and their children and account for the domestic labor that they are handling and any kind of mental load that they carry,” she begins.

The mom notes that men’s hobbies include hunting, golf and training for marathons that take them away from the home and family for long hours. However, women’s hobbies, such as gardening, book clubs, painting, or yoga, can all be done while working around the family’s schedule at home or nearby.

@sheisapaigeturner

Traditional male hobbies tend to take them away from the home and caretaking. This is made possible by the unpaid labor of women. women’s hobbies typically are scheduled around the needs of the family and take place outside of traditional caretaking hours. When women marry men, they lose time to unpaid labor, but when men marry women, they gain time. This plays into their ability to participate in hobbies. #domesticlabor #thementalload #unpaidlabor #millennialmoms #thementalloadofmotherhood #golfhusband

“We are able to and required to typically work our hobbies around the schedules of our families, whereas men's hobbies take them away from that,” Paige said. Men can take time away during caretaking hours because traditionally, women have been the default parents who are ultimately responsible for the brunt of the family’s domestic labor.

“So, men are able to leave the home for those extended periods of time during caretaking hours because they have a support at home. Most females do not feel like they have the same support when they would like to take on a hobby,” Paige said.

Paige proves the double standard by a hypothetical role reversal, such as joining a women’s golf league. “They may be met with a response that that is unfair, that takes them outside of the home, that is putting too much responsibility on the other partner, and that is not kind of equal division of labor, right?” she said.

This double standard has made Paige question whether moms enjoy the hobbies typically associated with married women. “Like often people joke like, oh, women love flowers and gardening. They don't all love that. One of the reasons they might get into it though is because they can do it from their home with their children. So it's something they can do together,” she said.

The post resonated with many women who want more balance in their relationships. "You could add to this video about mom's having guilt when it comes to their hobbies vs men who never think twice about taking part in their hobby," Michaela said.

"As a Dad, this is so aggravating. I cannot believe how many men do this to their partners," Steve Mollick added.

One mom chimed in with a clever way that her family deals with the gender hobby imbalance.

"My husband and I rotate weekend days off (I get Saturday, he gets Sunday usually) to be out of the house for 3 hours for whatever we want, and that has been the most amazing thing to happen to our relationship as a family. We both get time to decompress however we want every week," Lauren Reagan wrote.

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Most Shared

The awesome reason this 'golf' game is taking the world by storm.

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DICK'S Sporting Goods

It’s New Year’s Eve in Long Island, New York, about 15 degrees Fahrenheit, and there’s an inch of snow on the ground. Still, 45 men and women have hit the links for a golf tournament.

But this tournament features frisbees, not balls.

They’re playing disc golf, which is a sport that is exactly what it sounds like: golf with flying discs. Disc golfers tee off, aim for the greens, and “putt” from short distances, trying to toss their frisbee into a metal basket fixed to a pole planted in the ground.

Courses are similarly structured to those of its ball-based brethren, and can include water hazards and sandy bunkers. However, disc golf playing surfaces are frequently littered with more adventurous obstacles, such as in-play shrubs, trees, and extra-steep hills.

The group of players braving the bad weather are part of the Long Island Disc Golf club.

Meg Collins throwing a disc on New Years Day. Photo courtesy of Meg Collins.

This is a nonprofit dedicated to maintaining local courses and spreading the word about a sport they love — one that’s growing at a feverish pace.

“The club is just so awesome,” says Meg Collins, a 29-year-old administrative assistant who commuted three hours from her home in New Jersey to compete in the New Year’s Eve tournament, as its lowest-ranked player. “The people are great. You can play a round and not know anybody and leave with a hundred new friends.”

“It’s an inclusive sport; nobody takes themselves too seriously, even if you’re terrible at it, which I am,” she adds.

One of the primary reasons disc golf is catching on is that it is an inexpensive sport to play, drawing people from all walks of life.

You only needs a frisbee, and most courses are either free to play on or charge just a few dollars a round. People can even create their own makeshift course at a park if they like. Just put a target on the ground somewhere and challenge some frisbee-owning friends to hit it in as few tosses as possible.

Fernando Brown, Outdoor Recreation assistant director, “putts” in a disc at Edwards’ new disc golf course. Photo by Kenji Thuloweit/U.S. Air Force.

“There’s a new course going in the ground about every day in this country,” says Justin Menickelli, board of directors’ president at the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA), the sport’s governing body. “It is unbelievable.”

Nobody knows quite when disc golf was invented, but according to Menickelli, it first began enjoying noticeable growth in the mid 1970’s, primarily in Southern California and Western New York. Today, participation in disc golf doubles about every six years in the United States, Menickelli says, adding that disc golf sees tournaments hosted around the world. Recently, its popularity exploded in Scandinavia.

“Disc golf can be played by men and women, boys and girls, all at the same time, on the same course,” Menickelli says.

“With its very low startup cost, with it being virtually free, you don’t have those economic barriers that you do with golf.”

Rounds of disc golf also take about half the time of a round of golf.

Collins says that she’s built tons of new relationships thanks to disc golf. “You’ve got the hippie guys that like to play in the woods,” Collins observes, “and then you’ve got people who play ball golf and thought this was interesting and wanted to try it. Just a lot of different types of people and somehow everybody gets along.”

It’s those friendships that keep her going back to Long Island for games, even though she's over two hours away, and has been playing for a few years — admittedly without getting much better at the sport.

Many in the game feel a greater effort needs to be made to attract people across all cultures.  

The sport is pulling in greater funds thanks to its increased popularity, and Menickelli says the PDGA must utilize the money tactfully. “We need to be cognizant of how we redirect our revenue into promoting our mission, which is to promote the sport globally, improve the game, and make more people want to be a part of it,” he says.

Similar to many disc golf groups across the country, the Long Island Disc Golf club sponsors local charity events and has done outreach to children’s groups, like the Boy Scouts of America, to secure the sport’s finest players of the future, who can play the game right now. And they’re always looking to expand their reach to more players, no matter their ability.

This inclusivity is clearly one of the reasons Collins keeps coming back.

Meg Collins. Photo courtesy of Meg Collins.

“It’s not one of those things where you’re judged because your skill level is low or because you’re a girl,” Collins says. “Everybody’s there for the same reason, so if somebody’s a little bit slower, everyone else just plays a little bit slower. We’re all out there having a good time.”

This story was produced as part of a campaign called "17 Days" with DICK'S Sporting Goods. These stories aim to shine a light on real occurrences of sports bringing people together.

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Here’s what's going on with the drama surrounding the LPGA’s dress code.

An email sent out by the LPGA has created quite the storm online.

This is a woman playing golf.

Image via iStock.

This is a man playing golf.

Image via iStock.

It sure seems like they're playing the same sport, huh? You'd think the expectations surrounding their attire would reflect that, but a new controversial email sent out by the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) has thrown that into question.

And people definitely have some thoughts.

Earlier this month, the LPGA notified its players about updates in the organization's dress code.

The email, sent by LPGA player president Vicki Goetze-Ackerman, listed a number of policies regarding players' clothing and asked members to abide by the guidelines beginning July 17, 2017.

Here's how the email read, as Golf Digest pointed out:

  • Racerback with a mock or regular collar are allowed (no collar = no racerback)
  • Plunging necklines are NOT allowed.
  • Leggings, unless under a skort or shorts, are NOT allowed
  • Length of skirt, skort, and shorts MUST be long enough to not see your bottom area (even if covered by under shorts) at any time, standing or bent over.
  • Appropriate attire should be worn to pro-am parties. You should be dressing yourself to present a professional image. Unless otherwise told "no," golf clothes are acceptable. Dressy jeans are allowed, but cut-offs or jeans with holes are NOT allowed.
  • Workout gear and jeans (all colors) NOT allowed inside the ropes
  • Joggers are NOT allowed

As you might expect, the LPGA's email sparked a wave of criticism online.

As Teen Vogue put it, the list "leaves you wondering, what is allowed?"

Policing what women wear on the golf course is taking a step backward (maybe even into a previous century), some argued.

"Plain and simple this is a mistake by the LPGA," one Twitter user wrote. "The athletic wear is fine and crosses no line. #LetThemPlay"

But many people — most notably, several LPGA players themselves — don't see why people are making a fuss.

"There’s very minimal change to what our previous dress code is," golfer Christina Kim — who's currently competing in the LPGA tournament near Toledo, Ohio, this week — told The Detroit News. "I don’t know what people are making the hoopla about."

Fellow pro golfer Paige Spiranac tweeted that she doesn't think the dress code goes far enough.

Amid the backlash, it's worth comparing these rules to the dress code for men competing in the PGA.*

(*Why the women's association has an "L" in its name while the men's association apparently doesn't need to clarify gender is an article for a different day.)

According to the PGA's official website, its male "players shall present a neat appearance in both clothing and personal grooming. Clothing worn by players shall be consistent with currently accepted golf fashion."

And that's ... that.

The LPGA's (very) detailed email to its players reflects a bigger societal problem.

Double standards between men and women's athletic wear is nothing new.

In certain sports, standard attire requires girls and women wear much less than their male counterparts while competing. But in other sports, women are expected to cover up. We seem to police female athletes' bodies — in tennis arenas, swimming pools, volleyball courts, and more — with much more scrutiny than we do their male counterparts.

U.S. Olympic beach volleyball players Misty May-Treanor (left) and Sean Rosenthal (right). Photos by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images, Ryan Pierse/Getty Images.

The LPGA, however, maintains that its dress code is certainly not the latest example of any sexist industry double standard.

Amid the uproar, the LPGA released a statement, blasting media reports and claiming the criticism has been misguided.  

The statement reads, as Yahoo News reported:

"Recent comments in the media about a 'new' LPGA dress code are much to do about nothing. We simply updated our existing policy with minor clarifications, which were directed by our members for our members. This is not a regression, but rather a clarification for members of the policy, with references relevant to today's fashion styles. There was not meant to be, nor will there be, a discernible difference to what players are currently wearing out on Tour."

Regardless of the LPGA's dress code, the fact the organization's email sparked such strong responses shows this is a discussion we must keep having.

After all, athletes of all genders should be seen as competitors — as athletes capable of dressing in the clothes that enable them to be great at their sport — not as aesthetic objects to patrol.

"Policing these women's bodies and clothes takes away from their professional accomplishments," Suzannah Weiss wrote for Teen Vogue. "And if the sport wants a positive image, body-shaming is not the way to get it."

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