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Baseball season has officially begun.
I can start watching my beloved Seattle Mariners again. I like their chances this season of possibly reaching the playoffs. That’s tough to say because I remember a time when my team had the best collection of talent in the game and winning a World Series seemed possible.
Oh, how times have changed.
Watching the Mariners always reminds me of the team’s glory years and in my opinion, what should have been a dynasty.
I grew up in the Seattle area and adopted the hometown teams as any young sport geek should. I don’t have a great story about attending my first game in a Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park and seeing history or even a successful team.
My memories were built inside the largest concrete structure in the world. Yep, I grew up going to the Kingdome.
I remember walking through the tunnel at my first Mariners game and seeing the bright lights and beautiful green Astroturf — it almost even looked like grass.
I was four years old at the time and wasn’t the sports purist I am now, which is why I liked Astroturf. I was deprived in that respect. I loved the Kingdome. I remember sneaking beers inside with my friends during high school.
Damn, that was easy to do back then.
I remember watching a team that had no business calling itself a member of the Major League. When I was young, the Mariners were a joke.
I remember cheering for guys like Alvin Davis (Mr. Mariner) and Harold Reynolds.
I remember being upset when I heard news that the Mariners traded their best pitcher, Mark Langston, for some guy named Randy Johnson.
What were they thinking?
The fortunes of my team all changed with one at bat.
Afterward, a possible dynasty could have been built.
I remember watching Ken Griffey Jr.’s first big league at bat on TV.
It was in Oakland against pitcher Dave Stewart, one of the best during his era. Jr. hit a double off the wall, and for the glory of this sports geek, that lowly Mariner franchise was never the same.
I listen to people like Bob Costas and Billy Crystal rant about what Mickey Mantle meant to them when they were growing up. I can’t help but feel the same way about Griffey.
He was my guy. Hell, still is.
Griffey went on to become the player of the ‘90s, along with officially giving fans across the country reason to pay attention to the Mariners. He put the city on the baseball map.
Throughout the ‘90s, the Mariners put together arguably the greatest group of talent on one ball club. Their upper management did a marvelous job of scouting players, making trades and signing key free agents.
Not many people cared to notice or remember, but the Mariners of the mid-to-late ‘90s should have won a World Series — or three.
I don’t hate them for it. It’s like hating your puppy for fertilizing the carpet. They didn’t know any better.
Fact: The Mariners had the first overall pick in the MLB draft twice (1987, 1993) and took Griffey and Alex Rodriguez.
Each would go on to be the player of a decade — Griffey in the ‘90s and A-Rod in the 2000s. My team would later have a lineup consisting in order of A-Rod, Griffey and Edgar Martinez.
Beat that, Yankee fan.
Here’s how good A-Rod was as a 20-year-old rookie in 1996: .358 BA, 36 HR, 123 RBI and 215 Hits.
By ‘96, the Mariners should-have-been dynasty was built and winning should have followed.
It didn’t.
They had a future hall of fame manager in Lou Piniella calling the shots from the dugout and throwing bases whenever the team needed a boost or form of comic relief.
Only a sports geek could call a base-throwing buffoon a genius, but Piniella is.
Their lineup was a dream.
Along with Griffey and A-Rod, they had the era’s most under-rated superstar, Edgar Martinez, who was, in my opinion, the best right handed batter of his time. They also had Jay Buhner hitting sixth and averaging 41 home runs per season from ’95-’97.
Don’t forget the Mariners also had the most dominating left handed pitcher possibly in baseball history in Randy Johnson, the Big Unit. Why didn’t this team win?
I have two theories.
First was the team’s inability to find a steady bullpen or consistent pitching at the bottom of the rotation. That pains me to say because I felt the team did practically everything else right.
They had four future hall of famers in Griffey, A-Rod, The Unit and Edgar. That should have been enough to make up for pitching deficiencies.
It wasn’t.
The second theory is the hard truth of baseball’s business techniques.
During the salary boom of the ‘90s and baseball operating without a cap or limit to a franchise’s spending, it made it virtually impossible to keep star players. Corporate goons like the Yankees and Red Sox starting buying players and offering salaries too high for mid-budget teams like Seattle to compete with.
By 1998, the run was basically over.
Randy Johnson was traded at mid-season. A-Rod would bolt in 2000 for 250 million reasons.
People blame him for leaving. I believe the Mariners offered him around 120 million, which was all they could afford.
The worst part about A-Rod leaving was that the team was unable to trade him and get star players in return. That’s the harsh reality of the free agent system Yankee and Red Sox fans love so much.
This could-be dynasty truly ended in 1999 when Griffey asked to be traded to his home town Cincinnati Reds.
That day ranked right up there with my dog dying. I’m still not mad at him for wanting to go home.
He gave us baseball in Seattle. He was my first sports hero.
He built Safeco Field and is the reason my future children will have the opportunity to see natural grass and an outdoor ballpark during their first big league game.
Damn, I love baseball. Go Mariners.
Listen to the Johnny Ballgame Show every Monday from 3:30 to 6 p.m. on KUOI 89.3 FM or www.kuoi.org.
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