GENERATION GRIFFEY: RANKFEST - The Ultimate 90s Dude Countdown (90 Columns Ranking What Made Us Legendary)

If you still wear your hat backwards like Griffey, and you think all the Prime flavors are dumb because Gatorade Citrus Cooler is the best sports drink ever and you miss Blockbuster and Tower Records and Jock Jams makes you smile and you destroyed your friends in Street Fighter and watched Tommy Boy 362 times... well... My new book is for you. I ranked the 90s things that made our dude childhood legendary. A Rankfest, if you will. 90 columns. By me. For you. For US.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Let’s start with a quick Q&A: 

What is a rankfest? 

It’s a festival of ranking things in book form. Obviously. Also, I made it up. In this case, we’re ranking 90 of our favorite 90s things across 10 categories:

Commercials, Comedies & Comedians, College, Television, Sports & Action Movies, Food, Gear, Personalities, Video Games, Athletes 

Why ‘Generation Griffey’?

First, it’s a great name. We’ve got alliteration, ‘generation’ and the quintessential athlete from that era: Ken Griffey Jr… Junior is the perfect person to define the era of late 80s and 90s kids because the apex of his career matches our childhood perfectly. From the day he entered the Mariner’s lineup in 1989 through the next decade, nobody typified 90s style (the backwards hat), 90s swagger (the swing, the smile, the commercials) and 90s coolness (the kicks, the cameos, the crossover stardom) like Griffey.

His reign at the top of the sports/celebrity pyramid (with Jordan) from his rookie year in Seattle to when he joined the Reds in 2000 is the perfect bookend for all of us who grew up around the last decade of the last century. 

See, Generation Griffey is a spectacular name for this book.

What Are We Ranking?

Everything. Well, not everything, but the 90 most nostalgic things that make us dudes smile all these years later: the movies we quoted, the athletes we loved, the cards we collected, the foods we ate, the shows we watched and more. All of it. 

How Are We Ranking Things?

Glad you asked. If we were just ranking a list of similar items (movies, athletes, foods, etc…) it’s easy. We create several categories, assign them an objective number based on how we evaluated them in that area and… boom… we’ve got a ranking

However, in this book we're doing a countdown of everything, which means we’re putting things up against each other that have no common traits (like, let’s say, Hot Pockets, Barry Sanders and Saved By the Bell) . In this case, we need a much looser ratings system that can encompass everything without using an actual concrete number.

After careful consideration, these are the three categories I used as my baseline when considering how I rank every 90s thing:

1) Hold-Up-Ability: Does this thing hold up today? This is a simple question we all ask ourselves when we rewatch a movie or try a food we used to like or watch highlights from thirty years ago: Does this hold up? Do I still like it? Is it still bad ass?

Also, has our collective enjoyment of this person or thing diminished over time because of external factors like technology or a sport changing or culture changing or humor being different or anything like that? That’s a secondary thing to consider.

2) Take You Backness: How much does this take you back? This is perhaps the most important category. When you think of this thing/person, are you instantly transported to the 90s? Do you get that same feeling? Does it put a smile on your face? Do you instinctively nod? If ‘yes’ to all three then we are at peak “take you backness”.

3) Modern Influence & Relevance: How much did you quote, mimic, copy, or use this thing back in the day AND does this thing still matter in today’s culture? Some things/people had their moment and disappeared; others stand the test of time. The more often that something on this list is still referenced or referred to today, the more weight I’ll give that thing in my final consideration.

After coming up with a master list of a few hundred nineties things, I used the categories I mentioned earlier to rank the top 90 overall. I have no doubt you’ll find something I egregiously left off and that you’ll want to revoke my 90s card for putting something on. 

I mean, here is a random run of chapters somewhere in the middle of the book (I won't tell you where)... Trust me, we cover ALL OF IT:

See? And there are nearly 80 more chapters. I left no stone unturned. No dopeness unexamined.

And remember, Meathead Media is my own publishing imprint and the very best way to support my writing and Books & Biceps if you're a regular reader.

Every sale is personal, so I personally thank you for buying this!

PRE-ORDER YOUR DIGITAL COPY TODAY!

PUB DATE: 12/18/24

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jon Finkel is the award-winning author of 1996: A Biography, Hoops Heist, The Life of Dad, Jocks In Chief, The Athlete, Heart Over Height, “Mean” Joe Greene and more. His books have been endorsed by everyone from Mark Cuban, John Cena and Tony Dungy to Spike Lee, Kevin Durant and Chef Robert Irvine. He has written for GQ, Men’s Health, Yahoo! Sports, The New York Times and has appeared on CBS: This Morning, Good Morning Texas, Good Morning Chicago, and hundreds of radio shows, podcasts and streams. Jon was recently profiled in The New Yorker about the awesome community he’s built around his Books & Biceps newsletter. They describe him as “a gym rat’s Reese Witherspoon”.

Praise for Finkel's book, 1996:

"From Griffey and Prime Time to Jordan and Jeter, 1996 serves as a Vegas-style buffet of sports legend. Years come, years go. But Jon Finkel's masterpiece proves that, on rare occasion, some 365-day spans are worth bronzing in gold." ―Jeff Pearlman, author of Three-Ring Circus: Shaq, Kobe, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty

"Part time machine, part fax machine, this book brings the '90s vividly back to life, with all the insight and hindsight of the athletes who made the era so memorable. Finkel makes a strong case that 1996, like 1776, was revolutionary." ―Steve Rushin, Special Contributor to Sports Illustrated and author of Sting-Ray Afternoons and Nights in White Castle

Yes, two of my favorite SI writers, Steve Rushin & Jeff Pearlman, dug 1996. That's why I know you'll love Generation Griffey: