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Griffey recalls raunchy prank on rookie A-Rod

Otto Greule Jr / Getty Images Sport / Getty

With his Hall of Fame induction less than a month away, Ken Griffey Jr. is reliving some of the good, bad, and ... weird anecdotes from his decorated 22-year career.

On Wednesday, Sports Illustrated's Ben Reiter published a revealing interview with the 13-time All-Star that touched on everything from family life to the steroid era, and, of course, his undying love for pranks.

"That's the last guy you wanna f--- with in the clubhouse, try to pull a prank on," former Mariners teammate Jay Buhner said of Griffey.

He wasn't lying.

During the SI interview, Griffey shared this cringe-worthy story with Reiter about the time he pranked the No. 1 pick in the 1993 draft. You might know him:

Alex Rodriguez, then an 18-year-old rookie shortstop who, like Griffey, had been the top pick in the draft. Griffey enlisted Seattle's trainer, Rick Griffin, to convince Rodriguez that the club's stars - including Buhner and Randy Johnson - were involved in a scheme to sell their sperm to the highest bidder, as if they were thoroughbred stallions, and that Rodriguez might himself attract an appreciable stud fee. He brought in a fake doctor. "Dude, you got great genes," Griffey told the rookie. The callow Rodriguez was skeptical at first. Then he started to come around. "How much money do you think we could make?" he asked. Griffey, mercifully, pulled the plug before donations were to be harvested. "Everybody has rookie hazing," he says. "That was his."

Here's hoping to more of Griffey's Hall of Fame stories next month when the "The Kid" is officially inducted into Cooperstown on July 24.

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