Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. relishing chance to photograph Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Ken Griffey Jr.’s wife, Melissa, asked if he could do some chores around the house this weekend.

“No,” he told her, “I have to work the Masters.”

They haven't spoken in a few days, he said kiddingly.

But hey, it's Masters week, and the Hall of Fame baseball player simply couldn’t pass up the rare opportunity to work as a photographer for Masters.com, taking pictures of golf’s biggest stars like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Phil Mickelson on perhaps the sport’s most picturesque stage.

A star shooting stars, if you will.

“I'm not here to take anybody's job, but I am here to learn about as much as I can about sports photography as well as the history of the Masters," Griffey said. “To be able to sit here and really soak it in for four or five days has really been absolutely unbelievable.”

The 55-year-old Griffey, a 13-time All-Star, said he's a late bloomer when it comes to sports photography.

He started when his children got into sports.

“People would think if I'm sitting in the stands smiling, they can come up and talk to me,” Griffey said with a laugh. "So if I got a camera, they didn't really know what I was doing. It was a way for me to really focus in and watch the kids, and not critique what they were doing, but just be in the moment with them."

He's since taken it to a different level.

Griffey has shot the World Series, the All-Star game, NFL games and soccer — not to mention driving the pace car during his trip to the Indy 500 last year. This is Junior's first time shooting golf, though he's played Augusta National once before.

(He'll modestly tell you his handicap is 13, but some close to him say it's much closer to scratch.)

“I think I'm probably best at shooting baseball because I understand it so well,” said Griffey, who played 22 big league seasons with four teams and finished with 2,781 hits, a career .284 batting average and 630 home runs. He also won 10 Gold Gloves as an outfielder.

“Football, too," he added.

Griffey has all of his own photography equipment, including the long telephoto lenses.

When he first became immersed in the hobby, Griffey phoned former Seattle Mariners teammate Randy Johnson for some advice. He knew “The Big Unit” had taken photojournalism classes and worked some sporting events after retiring from baseball.

Johnson rattled off several tips and Griffey gathered what he could from him.

With typical modesty, Griffey said he's still very much a work in progress.

“You know, I’m getting better at it because I'm starting to understand and know what they expect from me,” Griffey said of his time working for Masters.com. “I mean, I can go out there and rattle off 30,000 pictures — anybody can — but it's about so much more than that. The lighting is a big thing, the background, so many things.

“You can have a good picture of someone,” he said, "but if the background isn't right it can turn out terrible."

Griffey said he wants to shoot motocross racing next. But for now, he's excited to finish out the week and see how the Masters turns out — and be there to document a little bit of history.

“I like it all, because every sport has its challenges,” Griffey said. “But this has been a really fantastic week and I'm really grateful for the opportunity."

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