Griffey sets Sounders goal of becoming Yankees of MLS

Baseball great Ken Griffey Jr wants to help the Seattle Sounders become the closest thing MLS has to the New York Yankees.

The former Seattle Mariners star has joined the ownership group of the Sounders, which also includes Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and chart-topping rapper Macklemore.

Griffey, a Baseball Hall of Famer who hit 630 MLB home runs in his career to sit seventh on the all-time list, spent 13 years with the Mariners and retired in 2010.

The 50-year-old father-of-three said of his and wife Melissa’s investment in the MLS side: “I wanted to be a part of something, not only for myself, but for my kids to be proud of. This is it.

A club true to its city. 

We welcome Ken Griffey Jr. and his wife, Melissa, to the Sounders Family!

 https://t.co/ErZyLgF6f3 pic.twitter.com/861Oy9SM3x

— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) November 17, 2020

“You always want to be a part of a winning team. To be on a championship-calibre team and an organisation that wants to win and wants to compete and wants to go out there every single game and put the best product on the field, not only for the guys who are in that locker room, but for the 70,000 people who are watching [in the stadium] and the people who are sitting at home watching, that’s important. You want a winner.

“I don’t play games to be competitive, I play to win. I want the Sounders to be compared to the Yankees. Twenty-seven, 28 championships. That’s what I root for, that’s what I want.”

Established in 2007, the Sounders won the MLS Cup in 2016 and 2019.

The Yankees were formed in 1901 and have won a record 27 World Series titles.