H
|
ope, as they say, springs eternal. For Seattle Mariner fans over the last
decade or so, spring has been the time of year when we could revel in the fact
that we weren’t 12 or 13 games out of first and out of the race by June. In mid March our dreams of a ’95 like run
down the stretch to the AL West pennant and playoff baseball have not yet been shattered
by reality. (I can’t believe that I am saying this, but for those of you too
young to recall, the 1995 Mariners, the team that had Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar
Martinez, Randy Johnson and Jay Buhner, made a thrilling mad dash to
the AL West pennant coming from 13 games back at the beginning of August to
defeat the Angels in a 1 game playoff and then the Yankees in a first round
playoff series. That ‘95 team and season saved baseball in Seattle.) But, don’t
look now Mariner fans, if the team’s early Cactus
League results mean anything, this could be the season we start to shed the
last decade’s worth of failed hope. |
| Ken Griffey Jr. |
Yes…to
this reporter it looks as if the Mariners definitely have something brewing down
in Peoria. As of yesterday’s games they have won 8 straight and the highlight has
been, unwontedly, the offense. For a team with the worst plate skills in
baseball over the last 3 seasons this is definitely a good sign. Through 9 spring
games thus far the Mariners have bashed 20 home runs while making nothing of opposing
pitching in the process. They are scoring runs in bunches and are winning
games. They currently have something like 16 players hitting .300 or better so
far this spring (11 are better than .400). Justin
Smoak, Jason Bay and Franklin Gutierrez particularly have all
looked good and Bay is showing signs of returning to the form that made him a
National League All Star several season ago. He seems to have a good idea at
the plate, isn’t swinging at bad pitches and leads the team in walks, on base
percentage and “on base plus slugging”
percentage through these first 9 games. Overall it has been an impressive start
to the spring for the Seattle Mariners.
 |
| Justin Smoak |
Of
course the pessimist in me points out that Major League history is littered
with teams that had great springs that then went hollow when the regular season
started. Such facts reinforce that something about the mind that wallows in the
negative and tugs at our hope to bring it down. Contrasting this, however, is
the fact that every now and then the miraculous manifests, like it did for the
Mariners in ’95. For me as a Mariner fan, those are the moments I choose to put
my attention on.Those are the moments that give me hope.
And
hope, after all, does spring eternal…doesn’t it? Go M’s!
Copyright © 2013
By Mark Arnold
All Rights Reserved
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