LOS ANGELES -- Slumping for much of the season, Ken Griffey Jr. feels burdened during his first year with the Cincinnati Reds, complaining about his treatment from fans and reporters.

	Griffey Jr.

"It's kind of tough when you've got the media on you and you come to the ballpark and you have fans yelling things that are off the wall," the center fielder told foxsports.com in an interview posted Monday.

"All the things that I had to deal with the first couple of months of the season ... I felt like calling Johnnie Cochran and saying, 'Hey, come defend me, I'm on trial,' and that's how I felt. I felt like I was on trial. Everything I did was brought up."

Going into Monday night's game at Milwaukee, Griffey was hitting .249 with 34 homers and 100 RBI. At this rate, he would finish with the lowest batting average of his major league career, and he would have his lowest home-run and RBI totals since his injury-shortened 1995 season.

He said criticism of his season has gotten to him.

"Everybody's human, you're not some piece of meat," he said. "Everybody has some type of feelings. Some people can block it out and some can't."

He isn't surprised that the Mariners lead the AL West and feels its unfair to say his absence is the difference.

"They're a better team because they added $30 million in payroll that they didn't have last year," he said. "If you do that, you're going to win. You're going to have a better team. The fans don't see that. All they see is they're winning and Griffey's not there."

Griffey detailed his version of what led the Mariners to trade him to the Reds, who signed him to a $116.5 million, nine-year contract that included $57.5 million in deferred salary -- far less than he would have commanded as a free agent.

And he isn't happy with the way he's been treated in Seattle since the deal.

"I took some shots in Seattle, still am. I call them the parting shots," he said. "They don't say the stuff until you're gone. That's not being a man. If you're going to say something, at least let the guy defend himself. It's not his reputation that's on the line, it's mine."