The never-ending stream of Ken Griffey fluff stories and anecdotes this year could soon get old, but this particular one put a smile on my face.

Shannon Drayer has a very worthwhile blog post about top prospect Greg Halman, which includes a passage about what it was like for him to meet his childhood idol (Griffey, of course):

The year earned him a trip to big league camp. If that wasn’t dream come true enough, shortly after he arrived, his childhood hero Ken Griffey Jr. took up residence in the same clubhouse.

Jr. was holding court with the media that first day in the clubhouse as the team came in from drills. A steady stream of young players walked by. Some said hi, some gave a hand shake, some tried to act like it wasn’t a big deal while still sneaking sideways glances at the future Hall of Famer as they passed by.

When Halman walked by, he could not hide his excitement. I could tell he was trying to hide it, but he still had a huge smile on his face and a bounce in his step as he approached Jr. to shake his hand. When he walked past, he turned around to take another look and smiled as he shook his head.

The icing on the cake came three days later. Jr invited Halman along with Callix Crabbe and Tracy Thorpe to dinner. Halman went into full fan mode at this point, calling home despite the fact that it was 4am there and insisting that Jr. talk to his dad and brother on the cell phone.

“You better be ready to talk to Ken Griffey anytime,” he said with a smile.

“It was unbelievable, it had to be one of the best experiences, if not baseball, then my entire life,” he continued.

“To see that man in person, he says that he is just a regular guy, but he is not. I want to make him understand that he is not. He made this game. When I was in little league I did everything that he did. He made playing baseball for me more fun. I hated being a right hander because of him. I am never going to forget this day. Never.”

Not much different from what we’ve heard from Jeff Clement, Bryan LaHair and others, but for some reason I really enjoyed it.

Check out the rest of the post as well… lots of good stuff.  Seems like Halman really has his head on straight and is a very humble guy.