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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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One of MLB's first openly gay players explains why its new hazing policy is a big deal.

It's one of baseball's most time-honored traditions: Veteran players making rookies dress up in embarrassing costumes.

Recently, the New York Mets rookies dressed like the women's team from A League of Their Own and fetched coffee for their teammates. A few years back, the Washington Nationals dressed as the U.S. Women's Gymnastics team and rode the train around D.C..

Starting to see a pattern?

This kind of hazing isn't unique to baseball. You see it in other team atmospheres too, from exclusive clubs to fraternities and sororities. It's meant to build camaraderie, to prove that the newbies are willing to put the team ahead of anything else.

But sometimes — OK, a lot of the time — this kind of hazing goes too far and crosses into offensive or dangerous territory.

That's why the MLB just announced a new zero-tolerance policy for all forms of hazing that mine humor at the expense of someone else's gender, religion, race, or sexual orientation.

Billy Bean — a former player of six years, one of the first pro players to come out as gay, and now the MLB's vice president of social responsibility and inclusion — explains what the big deal is:

"We didn't used to take pictures or talk about what we used to do. Now players are posting pictures in the clubhouse in real time ... We need to be cognizant of the 7- and 8-year-olds that have access to your Twitter feed 24/7," he says.

Billy Bean takes a swing. Photo by Billy Bean used with permission.

"If the hazing is disparaging toward women, or the LGBTQ community, or old stereotypes that people used to think were funny about ethnic backgrounds or religious views, that's not funny anymore."

Plenty of players and ex-players have come out against the new policy too, but as far as Bean is concerned, they can suck it up.

"We have an average salary of over $4 million a season," Bean says. "I don't think it's too much to ask of the players to think a little bit before they engage in this tradition."

The league isn't out to be the fun police. Bean says there are plenty of friendly initiations that don't send a harmful message.

He says the New York Yankees rookies recently dressed up as "the baby bombers," an ode to their reputation as a young team full of powerful sluggers.

"That wasn't mean-spirited," he says. "It was creative. It was funny."

The bottom line? No one should be forced to do anything they truly don't want to do.

Since the news, many players have come out in support of "the old way of doing things," which is disappointing to some. But league officials say a lot of other current players are glad about the changes and had complained about being forced to dress in offensive costumes.

This move by the MLB certainly doesn't mean pro sports culture is "fixed." There are currently no active MLB players who openly identify as gay, for example, and the odds of that being the case are astronomically low.

But this new policy is a small step — however small — in the right direction.

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The Cubs' first trip to the World Series in 71 years includes a bit of unexpected history.

Dexter Fowler to be the first black man to play a World Series game as a member of the Cubs.

The Chicago Cubs will face off against Cleveland on Tuesday, Oct.  25, 2016, and in doing so are set to make history in a way that sports fans and casual observers alike can appreciate.

It's been a long time since the Chicago Cubs made it to the World Series — 71 years, to be exact. For that reason alone, the team's 2016 season is one for the history books. The Cubs defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 to advance to their first World Series since the 1945 season.

But there's another reason to celebrate their victory, one that has to do with just how much has changed in the past 71 years.

The Cubs celebrate defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 in game six of the National League Championship Series on Oct. 22, 2016. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images.

The last time the Cubs played in the World Series, baseball was still two years away from Jackie Robinson's history-making Major League Baseball debut.

A legend, a hero, and a true trailblazer, Robinson became the first black athlete to play Major League Baseball in 1947 as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. That year, Robinson was named Rookie of the Year; two seasons later, he was named National League MVP; in 1955, he won his one and only World Series championship.

Robinson is seen here in a 1951 photograph. Photo by Keystone/Getty Images.

On Oct. 25, Cubs center fielder and lead-off hitter Dexter Fowler will step into the batters' box for the first pitch of the 2016 World Series.

Fowler, who is black, will not only be the first member of the Cubs to step up to the plate in the team's first World Series appearance in 71 years, but he will be the first black man to do so in a Cubs uniform.

Fowler takes batting practice before a 2015 game. Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images.

Sportswriter Rany Jazayerli was one of the first people to have made the connection, posting the observation to his Twitter account:

The tweet caught Fowler's attention. Clearly, this bit of history, as delayed as it may be, means a lot to him.

Pretty cool, right? In the past, Fowler has talked about Jackie Robinson's achievements, highlighting how Robinson's work and sacrifice helped pave the way for his own success in MLB.

Fowler hits a home run during a 2015 game against the San Francisco Giants. GIF from MLB/YouTube.

"I don't think God could have picked a better person [than Jackie Robinson] to do it," Fowler said in an interview a few years back. "It definitely takes a strong individual to do that."

In sports and in life, we've made a lot of progress over the past 71 years. There's still a long way to go.

In 1953, Ernie Banks became the first black athlete to play for the Cubs. While he went on to have a Hall of Fame career, he never made it to the World Series, and it ate him up inside.

"Sometimes I’m at a Hall of Fame reunion and I’ll look around and see I’m the only one in the room who never played in a World Series," said Banks in an interview with Ron Rapoport. "I’ve had nightmares about it. Once I even talked to a psychiatrist. There wasn’t much he could say, just that I’d done the best I could and it wasn’t meant to be."

Banks died in January 2015. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.

Sadly, Banks passed away in January 2015 without seeing his beloved Cubs do what he tried to accomplish during his own career. Still, it's the progress and work of players like him and like Robinson that got us to where we are today in terms of racial equality in sports, and that might be more important than any championship ring.

Fowler makes a diving catch during the ninth inning of a 2016 playoff game. GIF from MLB/YouTube.

There's still work to be done, however. So long as inequality in its many forms exists — whether on the basis of race, gender, religion, class, country of origin, or anything else — there's work to be done, and whether you're a Jackie Robinson, an Ernie Banks, or a Dexter Fowler, you can help bring about positive change in the world through bravery and empathy for others. It's about much, much more than sports; it's about life.

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