You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we'll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history.

ON THIS DATE IN 2004, Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 500th home run.

It came on Father's Day, with his father, Ken Griffey Sr., in attendance. If not for injuries, No. 500 would have been 600 for Junior. (He would finish his career in 2010 with 630 home runs.)

His swing, that gorgeous, left-handed swing, was as fundamentally perfect as any in baseball history. He hit 40 or more homers in a season seven times and led the American League four times. He homered in eight consecutive games, tying Dale Long and Don Mattingly for the longest streak ever.

Junior was equally good on defense in center field; he won 10 Gold Gloves. Only Willie Mays won more (12) among members of the 500-home run club. Griffey became the second player, after Mays, to hit 50 homers in a season in which he won a Gold Glove. He is only player in baseball history to do so in back-to-back seasons.

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And right there with his swing and his defense was that smile, the one that lit the gloomy Kingdome in Seattle many times. We saw that smile after the incredible leaping catch against the left-center fence at Yankee Stadium in 1990. We saw it when he and his dad hit back-to-back homers off Kirk McCaskill, also in 1990. We saw it when Junior scored from first on Edgar Martinez's double to win the ALDS against the Yankees in 1995.

Griffey was the first No. 1 overall draft choice to the make it to the Hall of Fame.

"All the Mariner draft picks came to work out at the Kingdome, you know, so they could see where they all wanted to end up eventually," then-Mariners catcher Scott Bradley said. "Junior is 18. He gets in the cage. Most kids would be nervous. Not him. While he was hitting, he was carrying on a conversation with the writers, who were all around the cage. He hit line drive drives all over the field. Then he took a rest. The next round, he hit ball after ball after ball into the upper deck in right field. I've never seen anything like it."

The Mariners didn't want Griffey to make the major league club in the spring of 1989, after he spent just one full season in the minor leagues. He was 19. They wanted to start him at Triple-A.

"So they played against every tough left-hander in the Cactus League so he would fail, and then they could send him back [to the minors]," Bradley said. "But he hit every one of them. So they had no choice [but to put him on the major league roster]."

Other baseball notes for June 20

• In 1997, Aaron Boone made his major league debut. He singled, drove in a run and was ejected by home plate umpire Gary Darling for reflexively throwing his helmet after being called out on a play at the plate. "It was the classic case of a rookie appearing to show up an umpire, and, 'You're gone!'" Boone said. "After that, I panicked. That night, I thought, 'What did I do? I'm going to be blackballed. I'm in trouble.' The next day, Gary was working third base. He looked at me, arms folded, dead serious. Then he started laughing. He told me, 'I checked up on you, you're all right.'"

• In 1972, Paul Bako was born. He was an excellent defensive catcher, one of few the great Greg Maddux truly trusted behind the plate. Bako also has a great sense of humor. Several years into his career, after I had talked to him multiple times, he came up to me, extended his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Paul Bako, catch-and-throw guy."

• In 1976, Carlos Lee was born. He hit the most home runs (358) of anyone with a last name that starts with "L."

• In 1960, catcher Doug Gwosdz was born. His name is pronounced Gooosh. He has the best nickname ever: Eye Chart. "Look at his name, and cover one eye with your hand," former Rangers manager Doug Rader said. "It looks like an eye chart."