"The last week and a half has been really rough," Ken Griffey Jr. said today from his home in Orlando, Fla.

But Griffey wasn't talking about his decision to request a trade from the Seattle Mariners, the team he has grown up with.

"Two I've known have gone - Payne (Stewart) and Walter (Payton)," he said.

"While my decision was mainly about family, this is what led to my final decision: Payne missed the cut at Disney (the Disney golf tournament in Orlando, Fla.). On Saturday, he went to see his son play football - his first football game - and he caught a touchdown pass. On Monday, his wife and daughter kissed him goodbye. Forty-five minutes later, he's not there anymore."

Stewart died last week aboard his Learjet, which flew uncontrolled for hours and crashed.

"With our travel," Griffey said, "I play on one end of the country, and they live at the other end. I'd be flying all over the place. With Trey in school, it would even be tougher . . ."

These days, Griffey drives his son to school every morning. Trey, 5, has begun to play youth baseball, and Griffey wants to be there to watch. Griffey's father missed many of his youth games because he was also a major-leaguer with a heavy travel schedule.

"I know people might ask about us moving to Orlando, but that's where we want to live," Griffey said. "Everyone should live where they want. If we stayed in Seattle, I'd only have the off-season to do things with Trey, and sometimes it gets so wet it's tough to do things."

Now that he's made the decision to leave, will he enforce his right to approve or nix a trade?

"I haven't thought of it," he said of baseball's 10-5 rule, which allows a 10-year veteran who has been with the same team for at least five years the right to approve a trade. "(Agent) Brian (Goldberg) handled it when we met with the Mariners.

"I had never even met Pat (Gillick) before," Griffey said of the M's new general manager, who flew to Orlando on Monday to get the news. "He seemed like an all-right guy. I was only there for a few minutes and told them how I felt, and that was it. There was no yelling or screaming. They may have talked about the 10-5 rights with Brian after I had left. But I do know that I'm supposed to be the one with the hammer."

Cincinnati's ballclub already has indicated its interest in the Mariner center fielder, one of four active players named to baseball's recent all-century team. Was he interested in going to Cincinnati to play, especially since his dad is the Reds' bench coach?

Griffey laughed. "Well, my dad may be somewhere else," he said.

Griffey will be 30 soon. Does age have anything to do with it?

"That only means I've caught up to dad's (uniform) number," he said.

"So many things could jell or not on this trade," Griffey said. "They might not find a trade they like. They told me, `You may not find one you like.' But if there is no trade, I'll be going to spring training with Seattle at my normal time. You don't have to worry about me. There's not going to be any distractions. It's not going to be that bad. You'll still see me, trade or not."