Originally published Friday, February 20, 2009 at 12:00 AM

Willie Mays: It was Griffey's decision

Baseball legend Willie Mays, who talked to Ken Griffey Jr. on the day he chose the Mariners, tried to downplay his role in guiding Griffey back to the Mariners.

By Larry Stone

Seattle Times staff reporter

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Willie Mays downplayed his role as an advisor.

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Baseball legend Willie Mays, who talked to Ken Griffey Jr. on the day he chose the Mariners, downplayed his role in guiding Griffey back to the Mariners.

"Kenny made his own decision," Mays said Thursday in a phone interview with The Seattle Times from his California home.

"I just talked to him about different things. What I got out of it, he wanted to take care of his family. I'm sure the Seattle ballclub is trying to do that to bring Kenny back. It was his decision, not mine."

Another legendary Hall of Famer, Hank Aaron, also called Griffey on Wednesday, in his case lobbying for the Atlanta Braves.

Griffey's prime topic with both was his legacy and how a return to Seattle would affect it. Both Mays and Aaron left their longtime teams at the end of their careers to finish with different teams in the city where they started their careers. Mays went to the New York Mets, Aaron to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Mays called Mariners president Chuck Armstrong at the behest of former Mariner Harold Reynolds to ask permission to talk to Griffey.

"I said, 'Willie, you're probably the greatest player ever, and the reason Junior wore No. 24,' " Armstrong said. "I gave him Junior's number."

"Ken said it was a legacy thing,"Armstrong added. "When he talked to Willie, that was the word he used — legacy, and what it meant to him and the Giants, and what Junior means to this franchise. He [Mays] told him that would live on long after his own lifetime, and Ken's lifetime."

Mays, 78, is heading this week to Scottsdale, Ariz., where the Giants train.

According to an ESPN.com article, it might have been Griffey's teenage daughter, Taryn, who sealed the deal, not the Hall of Famers.

Griffey's agent, Brian Goldberg, told ESPN's Jerry Crasnick, "She told him, 'Dad, I really think you should go back to the Mariners and not have any regrets about how you finished.' That kind of put it over the top."

But a good word from Willie Mays couldn't have hurt.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com

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