Griffey reflects on the greatest play of his career

Ken Griffey Jr. will be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in a matter of months and throughout his historic career, 'The Kid' made a number of remarkable plays.

One in particular, though, stood out in the mind of the former American League MVP.

On Aug. 9, 1998 Griffey stole a home run off the bat of Detroit Tigers slugger Luis Gonzalez, in what he described as the best play of his career in a piece for The Player's Tribune released on Wednesday.

The 10-time Gold Glover described how a tricky overhang at Tiger Stadium made the play more difficult than some could have imagined. He wasn't going to let the overhang stop him from making at least an attempt at the ball, which ended up working out in his favor.

"I’ve seen guys climb the wall getting ready to make a catch in Detroit and it’s in the first row because of the overhang. They lose sight of the ball completely, like they were jumping for an invisible home run ball," Griffey wrote.

"It didn’t matter, though. Like I said, as a center fielder, you have to have the mentality that every ball hit to you is fair. It’s like a good rebounder in basketball - you have to crash the boards thinking every shot will be a miss. You always run down every ball."

The owner of 630 home runs smashed some memorable ones in his career, including back-to-back home runs with his dad in 1990, but he said nothing will ever top the catch at Tiger Stadium.

"If you ask me about the most memorable play I ever made, it’s probably going back-to-back home runs. But my best play? That happened at the 415-foot mark, just below the Tiger Stadium overhang. If I close my eyes, I can still feel the ball rolling back into my palm."

Griffey Jr. retired from baseball in 2010 after 22 seasons in the bigs, which included a .284/.370/.538 slash line including 1,836 RBIs and 13 All-Star appearances.