Tale of 2 Griffeys.(expectations and realities of play of Ken Griffey, Jr., for the Cincinnati Reds)

The legend of Junior seemed like fiction in his homecoming season, but with a "new Ken Griffey" Cincinnati again foresees a Reds-headed league.

Because the story was simply too cute, the plot line too clean, perhaps Ken Griffey Jr.'s Tale of 2000 was doomed before it began.

Hometown kid comes home, pledges allegiance to what the Cincinnati Reds had once been, what they could be again, and then prods an under-funded franchise directly to a World Series while proving himself once again as the player of his generation.

It could have happened. But it didn't come close.

"The expectations and the innocence," manager Bob Boone says, "just wore off."

Whereas just one spring ago Griffey was the absolute focus of baseball's spring, he and the Reds are going through their tasks this month as just another citrus section in the Grapefruit League compote Texas' Alex Rodriquez outshines him. Los Angeles' Gary Sheffield outshouts him. And if the Tale of 2000 did not pan out as conceived by fans, media and even some teammates, he really doesn't want to hear about it anymore.

That's their problem. It's not mine," he says. "I try to be the best player Ken Griffey Jr. can be and not what everybody wants me to be. Ten years from now or whenever I decide to retire, I'll have a good career. I will have enjoyed doing something I've wanted to do ever since I was a little kid. And that's the only thing that matters."