I’m a few days late, but basically 10 years ago right now Cincinnati Reds fans were in a state of euphoria that you’re lucky to ever have as a fan.

The Hall of Famer arrived in his prime and in his chariot at Cincinnati’s Lunken Airport. All it cost us was Mike Cameron, Brett Tomko, and a couple of prospects we’d never hear of (and we never did hear about Jake Meyer or Antonio Perez).

Griffey would be a red for what seemed like a lifetime, and he’d help bring home a World Series Championship to the clubhouse he ran around in as a kid. A championship that would have been the first for the then-starved Cincinnati Reds fans; who’d gone a decade without their own title.

We had our hometown Hall of Famer, and we were picked to win the NL Central by Sports Illustrated. We had basically a decade of Griffey’s best ahead of us. I was young and life was good.

The honeymoon was ever so short. By June Griffey was struggling to hit .260, and was actually mentioned in trade rumors. He had cleared waivers later on that season in case they wanted to dump him. I couldn’t even fathom that! Here we’d waited a lifetime to land this player, and it was crumbling before we even had the chance to see the fruit bloom.

So much has changed since that February day at the beginning of the millenium.

So many injuries later, so many changes in my own life, and so many piled up losses later; Griffey is back in Seattle with the sun setting quickly. The Reds are still chasing that elusive championship.

No one really won or lost in the Griffey trade, as fate would have it. But one never forgets the memories of when Griffey first arrived in the Queen City. It was a perfect feeling for a fan to have.