Pete Crow-Armstrong parked himself on the railing of the dugout and started a conversation with the photographer wearing a backward Seattle Mariners hat.
And there he stayed for the next several innings, talking about baseball, life and all sorts of topics with Ken Griffey Jr.
“We just started shooting the (stuff). Simple as that,” Crow-Armstrong said.
Griffey’s presence is all over this All-Star week in Seattle, from his involvement in the HBCU Swingman All-Star Classic on Friday to his role as one of the ambassadors for the midsummer classic.
On Saturday he was mainly a photographer, hanging out in both dugouts during the Futures Game before taking pictures of the celebrity softball game in which his son, Trey, participated.
But during the Futures Game, Griffey spent several innings chatting away with Crow-Armstrong, a first-round pick of the New York Mets in 2020 who now plays for Double-A Tennessee in the Cubs system after being part of the Javier Báez trade in 2021.
Crow-Armstrong initially wanted to introduce himself. It turned into much more.
“I think it’s important to carry yourself as if you were talking to your mom, your dad, your grandmother, whoever,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I’m not trying to be in his ear. I’m trying to just say hello, be respectful. Whatever I got out of that was going to be pretty cool either way and end up being a nice conversation.”
Crow-Armstrong is rated as the top prospect in the Cubs system and one of the top 15 in baseball, depending on the publication. He went hitless in two at-bats in the Futures Game but took away plenty from his conversations with Griffey and others on his coaching staff, including Raul Ibañez, Félix Hernández and Adrián Beltré.
“What’s so cool about it is these guys don’t have to be here,” Crow-Armstrong said. “They love being in baseball enough, they like seeing the storybook of baseball get longer and longer.”
