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Seattle Mariner fans…who remembers the
1998 season, Randy Johnson’s last
season as a Mariner? Well, technically it was only two thirds of a season; the
Mariners traded Randy at the deadline to the Houston Astros because he was going to be a free agent the next
year and they weren’t going to be able to re-sign him. Do you remember that? Do
you remember Randy saying the Mariners didn’t respect him because they didn’t
make him a competitive offer? Do you also remember that for the first half of
the 1998 season before he was traded Randy had 9 wins and 10 losses for the
Mariners with an ERA north of 4.0, numbers decidedly un-Randy like, and that
after he was traded to the Astros he went 10-1 for them down the stretch with
an ERA just over 1.0 while helping them to the playoffs? Does anyone besides me remember all that?
I
sure do. The whole scene just really pissed me off. I was upset at the Mariners
for their inability to communicate with and keep the man who was becoming
arguably the best pitcher in baseball. And I was upset with Randy for basically
tanking the first half of the season with the Mariners, a fact that was proved
by his performance for the Astros in the second half. It is observable that a
person usually reserves their largest upsets in life for those they liked and
admired the most; the magnitude of the upset matches the magnitude of the
affinity broken; and I really liked and admired Randy Johnson. Notwithstanding
the tendency of people to always claim they were at historic events even when
they weren’t, I really was at Randy’s historic no-hitter
against the Tigers in 1990, the first
no hitter in Seattle Mariner history. His last strike out to end that game is indelibly
inscribed in my memory.
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| Randy Johnson |
And
who can forget his magnificent performance in the Mariners magical run of 1995
and his heroism in coming out of the bullpen in the final game of the playoff
series against the Yankees that year
after he had started and won game 3 two days earlier?
Who
can forget these things? I sure can’t, and that is why I am glad that the
Mariners this time have stepped up and signed their ace Felix Hernandez to a contract extension guaranteeing he will be a
Mariner for the next 7 years. I am not even going to talk about money in this
article. Who cares? What I care about is that I can go to The Safe (Safeco Field) or flip on the TV and watch one of the best
pitchers in baseball, a man who before it is all through may become one of the
best ever in the history of the game, pitching for my team, the Seattle
Mariners. If Jackie Z (Mariner GM Jack
Zduriencik) succeeds in putting an offense around him, with this signing we
already have our pitching ace in place, a definite requisite to making it to
the playoffs and World Series.
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| Jack Zdurinciek |
And
make no mistake, Hernandez is an ace. Over the last 4 seasons he has been at or
near the top of all Major League pitchers in strikeouts, innings pitched and
Earned Run Average and at 26 years old has already garnered one Cy Young Award and 4 All Star appearances.
Last season he led all of baseball with 5 shutouts. He has never been seriously
injured and is just coming into his prime. His stuff on a normal day is
electric and on a good day is unhittable, as the Tampa Rays experienced last year when Felix mesmerized them at
Safeco Field with a perfect game, the third no hitter and first perfect game in
Mariner history. Rays hitter Elliot
Johnson describes what it was like trying to hit Felix that day: “…they all look like fastballs out if his hand,
but it winds up being a breaking ball, or that split-finger looking change-up—whatever that thing is.” Elliot Johnson,
as you can see, was utterly baffled by Felix’s mastery, as were all the Rays
that day.
But
there is one other reason I am glad for this signing. When news of Felix and
the Mariners reaching agreement on this deal was announced, I heard that several
eastern baseball analysts, I don’t even know who, commented that it was bad for
baseball for Felix to stay in Seattle. The reason, they said, was that the
Mariners sucked and Felix would never get the chance to be in the playoffs on a
national stage or get to be seen by the rest of the country at large. Great
players, they said, need to play in places where the whole country can
appreciate them, and that just does not and will not happen in this far, ‘off
the beaten track’, Northwest outpost called Seattle. That is what I heard that
they said.
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| Felix Hernandez |
Well
you know what I think? I think these eastern “anal-ysts” can take their biased
and invalidating baseball views of Seattle and stick ‘em deep where the sun don’t
shine, if you take my meaning. What are we supposed to do? Sit here in Seattle
keeping our best players for 5 or 6 years and then turn them over to the
Yankees, Red Sox or Angels so they can go to a World Series with someone else?
Screw that! We are trying to win a World Series here for God sakes! It can be
done and this Felix signing shows a real intention by the M’s to do it and for
that reason I applaud it…loudly!
In
closing, I want you all to know that I have forgiven Randy for his
dumping of us fans and the Mariners during the ’98 season. I have had a harder
time with Mariner management, but I am dealing with it. But I am really glad
that I will not have to go through all of that upset again with Felix
Hernandez. Now…let’s get on with it and win a World Series. Wouldn’t that be
something?!
Copyright ©
2013
By Mark Arnold
All Rights
Reserved
