OAKLAND, Calif. - As Ken Griffey Jr. closes in on another major milestone, it's clear 500 home runs means a lot more to his family than it does to the slugger.

While his wife, kids and father made the long journey to Oakland to see if Griffey can hit the two homers he needs to become the 20th player in that exclusive club, Griffey tried to deflect any questions about the meaning of the milestone.

''I haven't hit it yet, so I can't tell you how it will feel,'' Griffey said before Monday's 13-2 loss to the Athletics. ''We'll see when the time comes. Right now, I can't worry about how I'll feel three weeks from now, a month from now or whenever. I'm just worried about today.''

Griffey's entourage will have to wait at least one more night. He went 1-for-3 with a single before leaving the game in the sixth inning trailing 11-2.

''I just threw him a lot of sinkers,'' A's starter Mark Mulder said. ''If he was going to hit a home run. I wanted it to be off my best pitch.''

Even though the 34-year-old Griffey is poised to reach 500 faster than all but five players, getting there has taken longer than people thought.

Griffey finished the 2000 season - his first with Cincinnati - with 438 homers, trailing Barry Bonds by only 56, and seemed ready to reach 500 in early 2002.

But three injury-plagued seasons have delayed the milestone by two years. Now, instead of Griffey being the player mentioned as most likely to break Hank Aaron's career record of 755 home runs, it's Bonds who has that label with 674 homers.

''If he had stayed healthy, he would have done some awesome things,'' said Expos manager Frank Robinson, one of the members of the 500 club.

After a slow start this season it seemed as if Griffey would never regain the form that made him an All-Century player ahead of Bonds. Pitchers challenged him with impunity and even intentionally walked Sean Casey to face him - quite an insult for a player of Griffey's caliber.

But over the past couple weeks, Griffey once again is hitting the way he did when he was younger. He has nine homers is his last 15 games, including two Sunday against Montreal.

Griffey's heralded return home to Cincinnati has not been the fairy tale people thought it would be. Acquired in a trade with Seattle before the 2000 season, Griffey signed a below-market $116.5 million, nine-year contract just to be able to stay at home.