Professional Sports in the state of Washington have not been the same since the Seattle Supersonics packed up and moved to Oklahoma City as shown through the poor performances of the Mariners and the Seahawks.

Even the college level in Washington was hit by the move of the Sonics, with the University of Washington and Washington State University football teams sitting at the bottom of the Pac-10 conference, including a winless season for the Huskies.

But now the city of Seattle has a reason to rejoice after the Seattle Mariners announced they had signed future Hall-of-Famer Ken Griffey Jr.

Griffey played with the Mariners from 1989-1999 before being traded to his hometown in Cincinnati to play for the Reds. A trade that was considered by many to be the equivalent to trading Michael Jordan.

In fact, one of the guys who was traded to Seattle for Griffey was pitcher Brett Tomko who said, "I felt like I was traded for Michael Jordan."

In the 10 years Griffey played for the Mariners he hit 398 home runs, which at the time was ahead of Hank Aaron's home run record pace.

Griffey came into the league and hit his first home run when he was just 19 years old, playing along side his father Ken Griffey Sr.

One of the most memorable home runs of Griffey's career may have been his 36th on Sept. 14, 1990 when Griffey Sr. homered against the California Angels and the next batter, his son, also homered.

The Griffey's back-to-back home runs were considered one of the best father-son moments in sports history.

Even with all of the home runs he has hit, Griffey is known as one of the best outfielders in baseball history and was even voted an All-Century outfielder before he turned 30 years old.

Griffey has always been known to leave everything out on the field with spectacular diving catches in Center Field. His most memorable being when he jumped into the outfield wall, catching the ball at full speed, and breaking his wrist while holding on to the ball.

Unfortunately, a broken wrist was probably the least of his injuries during his career. After a 40 home run season his first year with the Cincinnati Reds, Griffey was plagued with injury after injury that forced him to sit out much of his next four seasons.

Griffey was forced to deal with multiple torn hamstrings, a torn patella tendon, separated shoulder and a torn ankle, which would cause him to lose ground in the chase for the all-time home run record.

After averaging around 69 games played per season from 2002-2004, Griffey bounced back in 2005 with 35 home runs and was named the comeback player of the year.

Griffey became one of six players in major league baseball history to hit 600 home runs on June 8, 2008 when he hit a towering 413 foot home run on a 3-1 pitch into the right field seats.

Griffey is currently fifth place all-time in home runs hit behind Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays with 611 home runs (49 behind Mays).

In an era where baseball is surrounded by the steroid controversy that follows some of the best home run hitters of the century like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and most recently Alex Rodriguez, Griffey has stayed away from steroids and other performance enhancing drugs and has played the game the right way.

Griffey has been not only a great player on the field, but has also been a huge influence in the communities of both Seattle and Cincinnati.

Griffey won the Roberto Clemente award which recognizes players who produce on the field and contribute to the community two years in a row when he played for the Mariners.

If nothing else, this 39-year-old, injury prone future hall-of-famer will be able to teach some of the young guys on the Mariners roster how to play the game the right way and what they need to do off of the field as well.

Griffey fans and all sports fans alike can only wonder how different the game would be and how different the game would look if it were Griffey holding that home run record instead of Bonds and the controversy he brought with it.