August 8- Seattle Mariners

Back on March 4th I tackled the original trident cap that the Seattle Mariners wore from 1977-1980, but I purposely left out one particular detail as it pertains to the cap that I’m writing about today. The 1979 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 50th playing of the midsummer classic between the All-Star of the American League and National League and it took place at the four-year-old Kingdome in Seattle, Washington. The game is perhaps most remembered for the play of Dave Parker in the outfield, as he had two assists on putouts at third base and at the plate. With Parker receiving the MVP award for this game, and teammate Willie Stargell winning the NL MVP, NLCS MVP, and World Series MVP, all four possible MVP awards for the season were won by members of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game was also notable for the play of Lee Mazzilli, the lone representative from the then-lowly New York Mets, providing the 7-6 margin of victory. In his only All Star appearance, Mazzilli tied the game in the eighth inning with a pinch hit home run off of Jim Kern of the Texas Rangers, and then put the NL ahead for good in the ninth, drawing a bases-loaded walk against Ron Guidry of the New York Yankees. This would be the only time the Kingdome would host the All-Star Game. When it returned to Seattle for a second time in 2001, the Mariners had moved to their new home at Safeco Field. The other important detail from this game is that the Mariners inadvertently created one of the most iconic logos in All-Star Game history which they would ultimately don as the primary logo for their caps and uniforms.

Since the All-Star Game was first played in Chicago at Comiskey Field in 1933 it had become customary for the host team to come up with some sort of a cool logo when advertising for the game. You’re probably thinking that my math is off based in the year of the first game played and how the 50^th game took place in 1979. Well, from 1959-1961 the All-Star Game was played twice per year, typically one in June and the other in July. In 1961, the final double-dip, the second game, hosted at Fenway Park, ended in a tie. Now where have we seen that happen?

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that the logos created are usually only meant for their one-time use at the All-Star Game; however, the Mariners and their fans took quite a liking to the logo they had created for their midsummer classic and decided to make it their official logo for their game caps from 1981 through 1986. With the exception of a few of the teams who incorporated the cap logo into their All-Star Game logos, the Mariners are the only team to do it the other way around.

One of the unfortunate things about this cap is that not a whole lot happened for the Mariners while they wore it with the exception of the players strike which took place in 1981. I don’t know how many times I’ve said it or listed it, but changing uniforms does have a tendency to bring success for a lot of teams, but when it doesn’t, all Hell breaks loose. Besides the strike, this bit of bad fortune befell upon the Mariners: On April 25, 1981, Mariners' manager Maury Wills advised the Kingdome groundskeepers to enlarge the batter's box by a foot. A's manager Billy Martin noticed. Martin showed umpire Bill Kunkel that the batter's box was seven feet long instead of six feet. Martin felt that batters being able to move up a foot in the box could cut at pitches before a curveball broke. Wills was suspended for two games and fined $500. In May, while in Arlington, Texas to play the Texas Rangers, the Mariners' uniforms were stolen. 

On May 28th, this happened...

 

In the sixth inning, Amos Otis of the Kansas City Royals topped a ball down the third-base line. Lenny Randle, the Seattle third baseman, charged the ball, fell on his stomach and appeared to blow the ball into foul territory. Larry McCoy, the home plate umpire, ruled the ball foul, but manager Jim Frey protested. After a discussion, the umpires awarded Otis first base, ruling Randle had illegally altered the course of the ball. Two days later in a game against the Rangers, the Mariners wore their batting practice jerseys, Milwaukee Brewers' caps, and Rangers' batting helmets. The Mariners purchased the Brewers caps at the Rangers' souvenir-stand; the Rangers did not offer Seattle caps for sale.

The only other notable moment came in 1985. On July 9^th, in a game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Mariners at Seattle, Jays catcher Buck Martinez executed a double play by tagging out two runners at home plate. In the third inning, Phil Bradley was on second when Gorman Thomas singled. Bradley was tagged out at home, on a throw from Jesse Barfield to Buck Martinez. There was a collision between Bradley and Martinez; Martinez broke his ankle. Martinez was sitting on the ground in agony and threw the ball to third base in an attempt to tag out Gorman Thomas. The throw went into left field and Thomas ran towards home plate. Toronto left fielder George Bell threw the ball back to Martinez. He was still seated on the ground in pain but was able to tag Gorman Thomas for the second out.

Despite having stars such as Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry (nicknamed the "Ancient Mariner"), 1984 AL Rookie of the Year Alvin Davis, two-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner Harold Reynolds, three-time American League strikeout leader Mark Langston, and shortstop and team captain Spike Owen on their rosters, the Mariners teams of the entirety of the 1980s were characterized by perennial non-achievement, gaining a reputation for poor performances, low attendance, and losing records. Moreover, the team's ownership again changed hands after the 1988 season, as then-owner George Argyros sold the club to a group headed by communications magnate Jeff Smulyan. However, the 1989 rookie season of center fielder Ken Griffey, Jr., acquired with the first overall pick of the 1987 amateur draft, gave fans hope that a change of fortunes might be on the horizon.

The Mariners since wore the caps for their Turn Back the Clock nights on June 25, 2010 against the Milwaukee Brewers and July 1, 2011 against the San Diego Padres. With all that in mind, it made my markings a bit of a challenge, but I’m pretty happy with my selections and their place in Mariners’ history.

#12- Born and raised in San Diego, California Mark Langston was a second round draft pick by the Mariners out of San Jose State in the 1981 amateur draft. From then until the end of the 1983 season he came up through the ranks of the Mariners’ minor league system, but bypassed AAA altogether when he made is MLB debut on April y, 1984. His most notable season in the minors came in 1982 when he was with the Class-A Bakersfield Mariners and went 12-7 with a 2.54 ERA and 161 strikeouts in 177 1/3 innings.

Langston served as the team’s ace his rookie season, going 17-10 with a 3.04 ERA and a league-leading 202 strikeouts. He ended up finishing in second place for the AL Rookie of the Year Award thanks in part by his jerk of a teammate Alvin Davis who had a great offensive showing. Either way, the important thing to note from the two finishing one-two for the Rookie of the Year Award is that they both beat out Kirby Puckett and Roger Clemens. 1982 proved to be a pretty rough sophomore season for Langston, but he picked his game back up in 1983 when he led the league in strikeouts again with 245. Unfortunately he also led the league in earned runs with 129 as well. Yikes!

In 1987, of course the first year not wearing this cap, Langston had his best year in Seattle, going 19-13 with a 3.84 ERA and once again leading the league in strikeouts with 262. He also made his first All-Star Game appearance and won the first of his back-to-back Gold Gloves. Langston would win seven for his career. But not to sell him short, Langston also finished fifth for the AL Cy Young Award, the highest finish he garner for his career.

Langston went 15-11 with 235 strikeouts in 1988, but got off to a mediocre 4-5 start in 1989 when he found himself on the trading block in July where he was sent to the Montreal Expos along with Mike Campbell for Gene Harris, Brian Holman and Randy Johnson. Langston pitched for 10 more seasons, eight of which came with the California Angels from 1990-1997 when they changed their name to the Anaheim Angels. In 1998 he was a member of the NL pennant-winning San Diego Padres. Noted for his pickoff move to first base, his 91 career pickoffs were, at the time of his retirement, the most in baseball history. Today, he has the fourth-most pickoffs in baseball history, behind only Kenny Rogers, Terry Mulholland and Andy Pettitte, all of them also left-handed pitchers. Currently, Langston serves as a radio color commentator for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim during Angels home games. Starting in 2013, Langston does radio color commentary for all games and is also a co-host of the Angels post-game call-in show Angel Talk on radio station KLAA. He also appeared as himself in an episode of “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.”

#29- Speaking of players most of you have probably never heard of, Phil Bradley is arguably one of the greatest hitters in the history of the Mariners’ organization. Bradley played high school baseball in Macomb, Illinois for the Macomb High Bombers. Due to his success there, the Macomb High School baseball field was later dedicated in his name. Also a talented football player, he played college football at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri and was their starting quarterback from 1978 through 1980. One of the most decorated athletes in Mizzou history, Bradley lettered in football from 1977-81, and in baseball in 1979-81. Bradley quarterbacked the Tigers to three bowl games. He was a three-time Big Eight Conference "Offensive Player of the Year" and set the conference total offense record at 6,459 yards which stood for 10 years. In baseball, he starred as an outfielder on Mizzou teams that won the Big Eight championship in 1980, and went to the NCAA Tournament in 1980 and 1981.

Bradley was selected in the third round of the 1981 amateur draft by the Mariners and made his Major League debut on September 2, 1983, as a pinch hitter against the New York Yankees. Bradley became Seattle's regular left fielder in 1984, batting .301 in 124 games. In 1985 he hit .300 with career-highs in home runs (26) and RBI (880 in 159 games and was selected to the AL All-Star team. He also finished 16^th for the AL MVP that season. On April 29, 1986, Bradley was Roger Clemens' 20th and final strikeout as the pitcher set a major league record for strikeouts in a game. In December of 1987, the Mariners traded Bradley and Tim Fortugno to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for Mike Jackson, Glenn Wilson, and minor leaguer Dave Brundage.

Bradley hit a respectable .264 in his only season with the Phillies. Almost one year to the day since arriving from the Mariners, the Phillies, desperately in need of pitching help, dealt Bradley to the Baltimore Orioles for Gordon Dillard and Ken Howell. Back in the more familiar AL, Bradley's batting average rose to .277 in his first season in Baltimore. In mid-season 1990, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox for Ron Kittle. His final major league appearance came on September 29, 1990, as he drew two walks and scored a run in a 5-2 White Sox win over the Seattle Mariners. For the Mariners Bradley his .301 lifetime with 52 home runs, 234 RBI and even stole 107 bases.

July 26- Seattle Mariners

2001 was an incredibly difficult year to be living in the Pacific Northwest as an Oakland Athletics fan, but somehow I managed. I was just at the tail end of my senior year at Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Washington and working at Just Sports (@JustSportsPDX) when it all began. First off, some of you may have heard of Columbia River recently, especially if you’re a big sports fan. Here’s a link to explain why. Yup, that was my high school, but that’s beside the point. No, my issues started in late November of 2000 when the Seattle Mariners purchased the contract of Ichiro Suzuki from the Orix Blue Wave of the Pacific League in Japan, sending Mariners fans into a feeding frenzy as they all needed to have a piece of the Ichiro sensation. As you could imagine, most of my days were filled with selling nothing but Mariners gear. On the outside this was good; more money for the store meant more money to pay my wage as more hours were available. However, on the inside I was a pot of hot water about to boil over. The Mariners had only been successful one year in my life, 1995, something that I covered in two posts on January 31^st and May 27^th. My Athletics had edged the Mariners by half a game in 2000 and all I wanted to do was rub it in the faces of the people who I felt were jumping onto the bandwagon of one of the biggest sporting fads of the last decade. After all, I grew up in Southern California when Hideo Nomo was brought over to the United States by the Los Angeles Dodgers and I also saw his career go from instant Hall of Famer to role player in a very short time. I thought the 2001 Mariners were going to be the 1995 Dodgers all over again. Boy, was I wrong.

Things immediately started off the exact opposite of how I thought they would. Within the first nine games of the season the Athletics and Mariners played each other six times with the Athletics biting it hard to the tune of 1-5. To make matters worse the Mariners finished the first month of the season with a 20-5 record while my Athletics finished 8-17. Needless to say, panic had set in. And of course to make matters worse, the store was doing so well in selling Mariners gear that we opened a separate kiosk at the opposite end of the mall which only carried Mariners gear. Guess who got stuck working at most of the time, yours truly. The Baseball Gods sung their praises and boasted the Mariners into the limelight, something that most had felt would take years to recover after the loss of Ken Griffey, Jr. Nope! It only took one full season with out him to reach a higher plateau than anyone could have imagined. From May 23^rd through June 8^th the Mariners went on a 15-game winning streak, a feat that would be bested by my Athletics the following season with a hard 20. But none of that mattered. Once the Mariners lost a game, two games in a row if a team was lucky, they would start another streak right back up.

The worst moments of the season (for the Mariners) came on August 5^th and September 20^th through September 23^rd. August 5^th, as some of you may remember, is a game that is routinely played on ESPN Classic, is probably the worst result in Mariners history and is by far one of the greatest games in Major League Baseball history. This is the night when the Mariners got out to a 12-0 lead against the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field and ended up losing in the 11^th inning by the score of 15-14 thanks in part to a miraculous comeback in the seventh through ninth innings and a walk-off RBI single by Jolbert Cabrera. As for the games in September, those four games account for the longest losing streak the Mariners suffered the entire season, three of which came at the hands of the Athletics, which ended up being key victories as the Athletics managed to finish the season with 102 wins and 60 losses despite the absolutely horrific start. The Mariners, on the other hand, tied the Major League record with 116 wins which was originally set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs. Most of the Mariners season consisted of one to two run victories; however, you can’t help by look back on these five games and easily say that any one of them could have, should have been a victory for the Mariners, especially their game against the Indians. To make matters worse, the Mariners were only able to notch one victory against the defending World Series champion New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. And like the 1906 Cubs, the Mariners ended their season with a record, but not a championship trophy.

For 10 of the last 12 years I held the piece of history above the heads of every Mariners fan I know. After all, until the Anaheim Angels won the World Series in 2002 the Athletics owned the American League West, except for 1985 when the Kansas City Royals were still in division. But the more I look at things, the more I notice how many empty seats are in Safeco Field for every game, the more I see how the team has gone through seven managers after Lou Pinella and the more I see homegrown talent traded away for overhyped multi-millionaires, it all makes me realize how important a World Series title would have been for that team, the fans and the city. Who knows how different things would be? Lou Pinella might have just stepped down two to three years ago, Pat Gillick would still be putting World Series-caliber teams together and even Portland, Oregon might still have a AAA baseball team if not a Major League team in the works. People outside of the sport realm don’t really understand how a championship can change the economy of a city or its surrounding area, but I sure as shit do.

It’s sad. My selfishness and spoils got the better of me I guess. I’m not at all taking the blame for what happened, but it’s all so clear now how rivalries should never be taken to intense depths. Wins and losses come and go, but sometimes, the grand scheme of things, the thing that will hurt your pride the most is the most beneficial for you in the end. If the Mariners winning the World Series that year helped keep the interest and support in Portland, I would have been comfortable with that in a heartbeat. But, it didn’t. And like Mariners fans of today, all I can do is look back on the season that once was.

This cap is an interesting relic from the 2001 season. Most of you have probably seen it, but very few probably remember that it was only used for 14 games, only on Sunday home games throughout the 2001 season. The Mariners went 11-3 under this cap, losing to the Toronto Blue Jays on May 6^th (11-3), the Indians on August 26^th (4-3) and the Texas Rangers on October 7^th, the last day of the regular season by the score of 4-3. Like I said earlier, a lot of one to two-run games. The silver material used for the bill is a metallic-looking thread which had only been used one other time on a baseball cap by the Houston Astros, a post I’ll get to in the not too distant future. The compass logo was first introduced in 1993 and has been a fixture on all the Mariners caps as it normally sits in the center of the “S” on the home and road caps. This particular cap for the first to use it as a primary cap logo and was subsequently used for all/most of the batting practice caps after the 2001 season.

#48- One of the most important figures for the 2001 team is somebody who has gotten very little credit over the last decade for his service, Paul Abbott. Abbott was a third round draft pick by the Minnesota Twins in the 1985 Draft out of Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California. He didn’t play a major role for them, but he was still a 3-1 winning relief pitcher for the Twins on the 1991 team which earned him his only World Series ring of his 11-year career. At the end if the 1993 season he was released by the Twins and signed by the Indians where made five stars, none of which were great, and was released at the end of the season. From then until January of 1997 he bounced between the Royals, Cubs and San Diego Padres, but never made it beyond the minors until the Mariners decided to give him a shot. Abbott had a decent 1998 and 1999 season with the Mariners, but still found himself getting released and re-signed by the Mariners twice during that time period. Finally in 2000 then-manager Pinella put Abbott in a starting role where he started 27, pitched in 35 and went 9-7 on the season with a 4.22 ERA and 100 strikeouts, the highest of his career. With a savvy, reliable veteran arm in tact, Abbott remained one of Pinella’s five starters going into the 2001 season.

Abbott was given the fourth spot behind Freddy Garcia, Aaron Sele and equally if not more grizzled veteran Jamie Moyer. The Mariners and their fans figured Abbott was nothing more than a 33-year-old arm to throw the ball until they got something better, they were wrong. Despite carrying a 4.25 ERA throughout the season, Abbott managed to score the best win percentages in the franchise’s history, 81%. Abbott mustered everything he had that season and posted a record of 17-4, as well as a new career-high in strikeouts with 118. All of this came in 27 starts once again. He wasn’t at all in the running for any awards like his teammates were, nor did he make the All-Star team that year, nor any year of his career.

Abbott pitched one more season with the Mariners, the worst of his tenure, and he was released at the end of the season. Abbott was picked up by the Arizona Diamondbacks soon after and traded to the Royals in August of 2003 where he would make his only MLB appearances of that season. He was then signed by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in late 2003, made a few appearances in 2004, was released shortly after and picked up by the Philadelphia Phillies before the season ended. After that his MLB career was over.

#50- Jamie Moyer is hands down one of the greatest human being to every put on a Mariners uniform, let alone any MLB uniform. Moyer has received numerous awards for philanthropy and community service, including the 2003 Roberto Clemente Award, the 2003 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, the 2003 Hutch Award, and the 2004 Branch Rickey Award, and there was even this one time he almost fell of the second tier of Century Link Field while he was waiving the 12^th Man flag during a Seattle Seahawks playoff game against the Washington Redskins because he was so fired up. But, the one thing most people will remember him for is that he is one of only 29 players in baseball history to have appeared in Major League games in four decades.

Moyer’s career began when he was drafted in the sixth round of the 1984 amateur draft by the Cubs out of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To put things into a wild perspective, he was drafted the year before Rafael Palmiero (also drafted by the Cubs) and made his MLB debut on June 16, 1986, two months before Palmiero. From 1986-1996 Moyer had modest success, but jumped around to a lot of teams until ending up on the Mariners via trade by the Boston Red Sox for Darren Bragg. In Seattle he started 11 games and went 6–2. His record of 13–3 led the majors in winning percentage at .813.

In 1997, Moyer was fifth in the AL with 17 wins. His 17–5 record gave him the second-highest winning percentage (.773) in the league. Moyer made his first postseason start against his former club Baltimore, but was forced out with a strained elbow in the fifth inning. In 1998, Moyer went 15–9 with a 3.53 ERA. He was third in innings pitched with 234.1. He registered his 100th career win against the Indians on August 27, as well as his 1000th career strikeout with a sixth inning strikeout of David Bell. He was named Seattle's Pitcher of the Year by the Seattle chapter of the BBWAA. He walked two or fewer batters in 29 of his 32 starts. He ranked fourth in the American League averaging just 1.9 walks per nine innings. Moyer was also third among the league in innings pitched and seventh winning percentage. He matched his career-best seven-game winning streak from May 11 to July 7. He started the Inaugural Game at Safeco Field on July 15 against the San Diego Padres, throwing a called strike to San Diego's Quilvio Veras for the first pitch and getting a no-decision in Seattle's 3–2 loss after leaving with a 2–1 lead after eight innings. He defeated Baltimore for the ninth straight time on July 31; he did not lose to the Orioles in the 1990s. Moyer's only loss at Safeco came on August 5 against the Yankees. He recorded three complete games in the final month of the season, tossing back-to-back complete games on September 14 and 19. His 2.30 ERA after the All-Star break was the second-lowest among AL starters, behind only Pedro Martínez with his 2.01 ERA. He pitched 4 complete games for the second straight season, tying his career best. In 1999, Moyer went 14–8 with a 3.87 ERA and was voted to The Sporting News AL All-Star team. He again won the Seattle Pitcher of the Year award and finished sixth for the AL Cy Young award.

2000 saw Moyer rebound from an early shoulder injury to tally 13 wins, giving him at least 13 in each of his past five seasons. He made his first Opening Day start for Seattle, but lost to the Boston Red Sox 2–0 on April 4. His shoulder problems led his ERA to balloon to 5.49. A knee injury suffered on the last pitch of a simulated game caused him to miss Seattle's trip to the ALCS against the eventual World Series champion New York Yankees. Moyer lost five consecutive starts from August 4–24. He allowed a career-high and a club-record 11 earned runs in a 19–3 loss on August 9 against the Chicago White Sox. He allowed 11 runs, 6 earned, in a 14–4 loss on August 14 against the Detroit Tigers, joining the Astros' José Lima as the first two pitchers since 1950 to allow ten or more runs in consecutive starts. Moyer allowed a career-high seven walks in a no-decision on August 29 against the Yankees. The Mariners' 7–2 win on September 9 against the Minnesota Twins snapped a six-game losing streak. Moyer lasted just one and two-thirds innings in his final start, getting a no-decision September 28 against the Rangers. Moyer suffered a hairline fracture of left kneecap while pitching a simulated game on October 7.

In 2001 Moyer rebounded hard, winning 20 games, ranked tied for second in the AL, and his 3.43 ERA was sixth in the AL. He earned his 150th career win against the Rangers on September 24. He became only the second Mariner in history to win 20 games on October 5, former teammate Randy Johnson being the other. Moyer went 3–0 with a 1.89 ERA in the postseason. He won Games 2 and 5 for the Mariners against the Indians and also carried Game 3 against the New York Yankees before Seattle lost in Game 5. Moyer would finish in fourth place for the AL Cy Young that season.

Moyer continued to thrive with a successful campaign in 2003 wile becoming the first player 40 years or older to win at least 20 games. He went 21-7 that season and posted a career-low 3.27 ERA and 129 strikeouts. He was selected to the first and only All-Star Game of his career and finished fifth for the AL Cy Young that season. It would be the last time he would be on a Cy Young finishing ballot.

Moyer’s career with the Mariners came to a sad end on August 19, 2006 when he was traded to the Phillies for minor league pitchers Andrew Barb and Andrew Baldwin. The only important thing to take of note from this time period is that Moyer earned the elusive World Series ring in 2008 as the Phillies won for the first time since 1980. Most important about this is that Moyer was able to win it in his home city.

His career continued on until the end of the 2012 season. He is the oldest pitcher to record a win on April 17^th against the Padres as a member of the Colorado Rockies. He would subsequently break that record on May 16^th against the Diamondbacks which would ultimately be the final victory of his career.

Moyer brought me many years of absolute frustration as an Athletics fan, but in the end, I had the utmost respect for him. The one thing that I think really personified his career was a commercial the Mariners put together in 2006 about him which, in my opinion, is still one of the greatest team commercials ever released.

May 27- Seattle Mariners

Before you make an attempt to read this article I must first ask that you click on this link and either watch the whole thing first, or having it playing in the background while you read on. I assure you, it’s not a virus or anything, just a little something to help get into the experience.

Prior to about a month-and-a-half ago I had never heard that song in my life. I’m not one to seek out newer music as my preference in new music/bands took a hiatus some time after the end of the year 2000. I’ve always been a bit of an old school guy, classic rock to be more specific. Most of that has to do with my upbringing; born and raised in the Bay Area I quickly became accustomed to one particular local band whose best-selling album was released the same year I was born, 1983. That band and that album; Sports by Huey Lewis & the News. I know a lot of you are feeling where I’m coming from on this, and a lot of you probably think I’m the biggest cracker around. It’s ok, to each their own. Truth be told I do listen to a lot of underground rap; mostly a lot of old school Bay Area stuff. There are certain sounds and instruments within songs that trigger a deep fondness from my past and the sensation it puts me through sends me into a frenzy to the point where I have to keep listening to a particular song over and over and over until I get my fix. In some cases, the same thing can be said about sports.

When I first heard “My Oh My” by Macklemore I was immediately hooked. As inspiring as the lyrics are, if you take them out you still have a pretty solid song comprised solely of a piano, drum and tambourine. But the one thing that gets me the most is hearing Dave Niehaus’s final call of the Seattle Mariners American League Division Series win against the New York Yankees, a game that still sends chills down my spine despite the fact that I didn’t grow up rooting for the Mariners. Nope, I’m an Oakland Athletics fan through-and-through, but one thing I have grown to know over the 30 years I’ve been alive it’s that you have to take a time out once in a while to appreciate the joys of others.

1995, first off, was kind of an interesting time period for me. I was 12-years-old and in my first year of Junior High School n Bakersfield, California. A few of my friends didn’t have a specific tam that they followed, but they were all very quick to say that Ken Griffey, Jr. was their favorite player. By default of Jr.’s presence with the Mariners that essentially made them my enemy; however, for that brief five-game series we all had a common enemy, the Yankees. My friends and I took turn watching each game at a different person’s house. I really didn’t care where, I was just happy to be watching playoff baseball, something that was taken away from all the baseball fans the previous season.

Until Game 1 of the series I had never really heard Niehaus’s voice. Living in Southern California we primarily got Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers games, and of course became very familiar with Vin Scully. Within the first few innings I was hooked on Niehaus, an appreciation that grew stronger once I moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2000. There’s a certain grainy ripple that catches the back of his throat when he talks, much like Mick Jagger’s voice if you ever listen to the Rolling Stones’ albums “Exile on Main Street” or “Sticky Fingers.” 

I think the line in “My Oh My” that gets me the most is, “the voice on the other end might as well have been God’s.” It’s an eerily true, but non-sacrilegious truth. No matter if it’s Niehaus, Billy King, Bob Sheppard or any other vocal figure of the game, to us, this is exactly how God should sound. The level of genuine excitement that exudes from Niehaus’s mouth as Griffey, Jr. is more than enough to make anyone believe that the unthinkable can happen.

Like my other Stars and Stripes posts, I compiled the Mariners Memorial Day record, but all ready wrote it in another post on May 13^th. So, without further ado, my marks

“My Oh My”- I couldn’t think of a better way to mark this cap. David Arnold Niehaus was the lead play-by-play announcer for the Mariners from their inaugural season in 1977 until his death after the 2010 season. In 2008, the National Baseball Hall of Fame awarded Niehaus with the Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor for American baseball broadcasters. Among fans nationwide and his peers, Niehaus was considered to be one of the finest sportscasters in history.

Niehaus graduated from Indiana University in 1957, entered the military, and began his broadcasting career with Armed Forces Radio. He became a partner of Dick Enberg on the broadcast team of the California Angels in 1969. Niehaus also broadcast the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL and UCLA Bruins football and basketball during this period.

In 1977, Danny Kaye, part-owner of the expansion Seattle Mariners, recruited Niehaus to become the franchise's radio voice. Despite working for a franchise who from its first year in 1977 until 1991 was without a winning season, his talent was recognizable, and Niehaus was considered one of the few attractions for Mariner fans. Even in the period before the team's memorable 1995 season, the Mariners were regularly one of the leading major-league teams in terms of the percentage of radios in use.

If there’s one moment I love to remember Niehaus by, besides the ’95 ALDS, it has to be what took place on September 27, 2009 in Toronto as the Mariners were set to square of against the Blue Jays. During the pre-game broadcast Blowers predicted Matt Tuiasosopo’s first career home run. What started as simply selecting a possible notable player for the day's game became an extended humorous rant by Blowers. In the course of pre-game banter, he stated that the home run would come in Tuiasosopo's second at bat, on a 3-1 count fastball, and that the ball would land in the second deck in left center field. This then happened - with correct prediction of player, at-bat, count, pitch and general landing area - in the top of the 5th inning.

Blowers was on the television side of the broadcast when the prediction came true, and was simply laughing, with no explanation to the TV audience. Radio announcers Rick Rizzs and Dave Niehaus, however, recalled the prediction, restated it for the audience, and were beside themselves in laughter and disbelief as the prediction came true. Said Niehaus on-air, seconds before the event, "I've never been so excited on a 3-1 count in my life!” Here’s the clip so you can fully appreciate it if you haven’t seen it yet. Being the voice of a team was its pluses and minuses. On one hand you’re always the bearer of bad news if the team loses, but on the other hand, like in this moment, you can rekindle the childlike wonder of the game, that first feeling you had when you saw baseball for the first time. At soon as Tuiasosopo makes contact with the ball you can feel it tingle through your body as Niehaus giggles while trying to get the call out. Only something so absurdly brilliant came make a grown man act like that.

Niehaus suffered a myocardial infarction (heart attack) at his Issaquah, Washington, home on November 10, 2010, and died at age 75 while preparing to barbecue some ribs on his deck. Heart problems had forced Niehaus to undergo two angioplasties in 1996, causing him to give up smoking and change his diet. He is survived by his wife, three children, and seven grandchildren. In a formal statement, Mariners Chairman Howard Lincoln and President Chuck Armstrong said "Dave has truly been the heart and soul of this franchise since its inception in 1977... He truly was the fans connection to every game." Washington Governor Chris Gregoire said "Today the Pacific Northwest lost one of its sports icons...Dave was an institution here starting with the team's first pitch in 1977. With all due respect to the great Alvin Davis, Dave is 'Mr. Mariner.'" At news of Niehaus's death, tributes came from Jay Buhner, Griffey, Jr., Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, other Mariners broadcasters, and fans.
Prior to the Mariners' home opener in 2011 against the Cleveland Indians the city of Seattle and King County declared that April 8 be "My oh My! Dave Niehaus day". A successful petition drive by Mariners fans Glen Garnett and Mark Caylor got the city of Seattle to give the block of First Avenue S. between Edgar Martínez Dr. S. and S. Royal Brougham Way the honorary designation of Dave Niehaus Way S. Up in the press area at Safeco Field a sign was unveiled giving tribute to Niehaus as well. A bronze statue of Niehaus was unveiled on Friday September 16, 2011 at Safeco Field. Niehaus 's longtime broadcast partner Rizzs presided over a private ceremony to unveil the statue. The statue depicts Niehaus at a desk, behind a microphone, wearing headphones with his Mariners scorebook in front of him. Niehaus is wearing a favorite necktie with tiny baseballs on it and a sport coat. He's holding a pencil in his right hand and wearing the 2001 All-Star Game ring on his left. The scorebook in front of him is open to the 1995 ALDS game against the Yankees. The pages are engraved with Niehaus's actual notes and scoring of the game. The scorebook is so detailed, you even see the word "Unbelievable" scribbled—and misspelled—at the top in Niehaus's handwriting.

May 8- Everett AquaSox

Of all the Minor League caps I own this is one that had always been on my radar until I finally scooped it up in December of 2010. The name “Sox” have been around baseball almost as long as the game itself, and I always find it to be rather nostalgic when a team can cleverly incorporate into their team name. The Everett Aqua Sox is definitely one of the teams.

I didn’t really notice it at the time but the current logo for the Aqua Sox has a slight difference in comparison to the original logo introduce in 1995 when the team changed it’s affiliation from the San Francisco Giants to the Seattle Mariners.

The symbol on the cap of the frog for the original logo merely featured an “E” while this cap features the sideways Mariners trident which is the centerpiece of their alternate/road cap that I wrote about on January 20^th http://hatsandtats.blogspot.com/2013/01/january-20-everett-aquasox.html. I don’t think I really need to point out how awesome that cap is as well.

Like the cap that features the trident, the Aqua Sox introduce this version of the cap, as well as two others (the second I’ll get to down the road) for the start of the 2010 season. While uniform and logo changes have always had a tendency to haunt teams in Major League Baseball, this change actually proved to be on of the more successful move in baseball history. I say this because the team ended up winning their fourth division title in the franchise’s history as well as only the second Northwest League Championship, but the first as the Aqua Sox.  The 2010 squad managed by Jose Moreno posted a 49-27 record which is their second-best franchise record behind the 49-26 record the Everett Giants posted in 1987.

With my original post I had marked my cap with the jersey numbers of Luis Rodriguez and Tom Wilhelmsen. Rodriguez was a member of the 2011 team while Wilhelmsen was a member of the 2010 Championship team. Due to the amount of time that has passed, on top of the Major League call-ups, it made it a little difficult to pick out some quality names to write a bit about. Lucky for me playing the waiting game has given me two more names for this particular cap.

#38- In 2005 the Mariners signed Yoervis Medina as a free agent out of Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, Venezuela. From 2006-2009 he pitched in 65 games for the Mariners’ Venezuelan Summer League team until finally making his United States debut in 2010 with the Aqua Sox. During his time with Everett he made eight starts, going 3-2 with a 4.60 ERA and 48 strikeouts. Medina was then promoted from the short season-A Aqua Sox to the intermediate-A Clinton Lumber Kings for six games at which he went 5-0 with a 2.50 ERA and 42 strikeouts. As the 2010 season came to a close he was promoted one last time to the AAA Tacoma Raniers for one game which ended with a win in his pockets, no runs allowed and four punch outs.

2011 was a very interesting run for Medina as he played the entire season in the Minors, but with all of the other Mariners affiliates he missed in 2010: the Arizona Rookie League Mariners, advanced-A High Desert Mavericks and AA Jackson Generals, which is where he spent all of 2012 as well. With that, Medina is one of the few players to play in every lower level affiliate, including international, for the Mariners organization.

In 2013; however, Medina got his break and was given a post on the 25-man roster. He made his debut on April 16^th out of the bullpen in the eighth inning with two out. Medina finished out the game walking two and striking out three without giving up a single run in the Mariners 6-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers. In the six appearances he’s made this season only one of them has been in a winning effort; May 4^th as the Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays by the final score of 8-1. Medina pitched one perfect inning for the Mariners in the eighth with one strikeout.

#45- This guy I probably could have left off the cap and just stuck with Medina; however, I like to pay tribute to as many players who have made an impact and gone to the Show as much as I can. Because otherwise, how would most of you know who any of these guys are or where they started?

Stephen Pryor made 11 appearances for the Aqua Sox in 2010 before being promoted to the Lumber Kings after the halfway point in the season. What did Pryor do with those 11 appearances? Not much. And by not much I mean he only walked seven, gave up seven hits and one earned run in 18 1/3 innings which equated out to four saves and a 0.49 ERA. Pretty stellar!

Pryor is no stranger to the Majors Leagues this season though. The Mariners 2010 fifth round pick made his MLB debut on June 2, 2012 at which he made 26 appearances, going 3-1 with a 3.91 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 23 innings of work. In 2013 he has been borderline perfect, only giving up a walk and three hits in 7 1/3 innings of work with seven strikeouts. Clearly both of these guys have a bright future and it showed back in 2010 when the Aqua Sox were one of the best teams in all of baseball that season.

April 2- Seattle Mariners

Where does the time go? I realize for most of you it’s hard to imagine a time when I had frosted tips and a pretty skimpy beard growth. Yes, this was my 2001 in a nut shell. I had moved to Vancouver, Washington about half-way through the summer of 2000 on account that life in Bakersfield, California wasn’t healthy for me anymore. My father and I were constantly fighting and I felt that I was slinking into a deeper hole of depression by staying there. My mother had moved to Vancouver two years prior. I didn’t think it was that bad at first, but then again, I had only visited during the summer months. I really had no comprehension of the rain that would eventually drive me crazy once autumn rolled around. Obviously it hasn’t made me too crazy as I still live in the Pacific Northwest. Not going to lie though, I still hate the rain most days.

By the time March of 2001 had rolled around things were starting to get a little crazy in the baseball world. The hype around the signing of some dude from Japan was building and building every day closer to Opening Day. There wasn’t much that any of us knew about him other than the facts that he played for the Orix Blue Wave and had pretty much been bred and taught by his father to be one of the greatest hitters of all-time. I was honestly rather skeptical. I mean, it was great that he had dominated Nippon Professional Baseball from 1992-2000, but how would his game translate to the Majors? I was working at the Vancouver Just Sports location at the time and one of the things I will never forget was how much Ichiro Suzuki product before the season started. It was quite amusing to be honest, and I’m going to do my best to try to not offend anyone with this next bit.

I think anyone who has been around baseball knows that Japanese people love to support their own. The first time I can recall this is when Hideo Nomo made his debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995. With Ichiro, things amplified a smidge. For those who don’t remember, Ichiro was the first position player to ever make the jump into the Show. Despite all the awards he won overseas: Japan Series Championship in 1996, stolen base award in 1995, seven-time All-Star, seven-time batting champion, seven-time Gold Glove award winner and three-time MVP; none of the critics felt that he game was going to be able to translate to the US on account that his frame is too small and his routines and motions are too unorthodox. I didn’t feel that strongly, I pretty much only though that he’d strike out a lot more than he did. But no matter how much the media dogged on him, Japanese folk would walk into Just Sports in droves and say, “Ichiro!” Very few words were exchanged between the customers and us, as the language barrier kind of tangled things up. Literally, all I did for the entire season was point out our Ichiro section and help them find the size they were looking for. The transactions usually broke down like this:

Customer: “Ichiro!”

Me: I’d point them in the right direction and point out the hats as well.

Customer: “L!” Size name were never used, it was only the first letter. For extra large they would say, “2-L!”

Me: Ring them up.

When the day finally came I happened to be working. We didn’t have a television in the store so we turned on the ESPN radio affiliate to catch the game. From what I recall that night was also the first time in about six years that I had listened to a baseball game from first to last pitch on the radio. Geez, I was breaking all sorts of record that day.

I chose to mark up this cap because this is the exact style that the Seattle Mariners wore on Opening Day of the 2001 season. The hat made its debut during the Mariners’ home opener back in 1993, which means that this year that hat will be celebrating its 20^th birthday. Hooray! Of all the moments throughout Seattle’s past I had to roll with this. While I realize the importance of the 1995 American league Division Series versus the New York Yankees, the impact this mark has on the baseball realm is almost similar to what Tiger Woods has done to golf.

4/2/01- April 2, 2001 was the day Ichiro made his debut in Major League Baseball…. but unfortunately it had to come against my Oakland Athletics. Despite being an “unproven” talent, Ichiro went 2-5 with two singles and the Mariners won the game 5-4. With his solid discipline at the plate, the critics eased off a little bit, but still questioned how he would perform in the field. It only took seven more games for Ichiro to silence everyone.

“The Throw” as it has been named in Japan took place on Wednesday, April 11 when a relatively speedy Terrance Long tried to test the arm of the fresh-faced rookie right fielder. What an embarrassing mistake that was. If you haven’t seen it or don’t recall it, shame on you. But here it is anyway: http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16865121&c_id=sea

The thing that we all tend to forget, at least at that time, is that Ichiro had nine years of professional baseball experience before the 2001 season. While the critics tried to argue that it’s a completely different style of baseball in Japan, here we are 12 years later to celebrate the man, sadly on a new team, who revolutionized what it means to be a five-tool player. In his first season Ichiro became the second player to win the Rookie of the Year award and the League MVP in the same season. Fred Lynn was the first to accomplish this with the Boston Red Sox back in 1975. In 2001 Ichiro batted .350, which earned him his first of two AL batting titles. He also Made the All-Star team, won a Gold Glove, stole 56 bases which led the league as well, had eight triples and a league high 242 hits. It was hands down the most impressive rookie campaign I had ever witnessed. Oh, and the Mariners tied the MLB record for most winds in a season with 116.

 Ichiro’s career clearly didn’t go downhill after that season, despite the lack luster years for the Mariners that soon followed their greatest success to date. From 2001-2010 Ichiro made the All-Star team every year, he hit .303 or higher ever single year, he had 206 or more hits every single year and he won the Gold Glove award for right field ever single year. In 2004 Ichiro broke George Sisler’s single season hit mark by knocking 262 into the field of play. This year also brought attention to long-time Mariners fan Amy Franz (@ichimeterlady) who had her famous Ichi-meter counter inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The other thing you have to consider in this time frame are all the other players that made the jump from, not only Japan, but South Korea and Taiwan as well. For the past eight years I have been ardent about Ichiro being a Hall of Famer once his career is over. At the time I got a lot of flack for it, but now there isn’t much of an argument anymore. The kid’s got the goods! Even though his career has taken a bit of a turn since the 2011 season, he’s still doing better than most Hall of Famers did in their twilight. For his career Ichiro has a .322 lifetime average, a .365 on-base percentage and 2607 hits at the moment. Ichiro is currently 39-years-old and still in better shape than a lot of guys throughout the league. Realistically, if he stays healthy and hits .274 or better he could break 3000 in about two years. Just imagine how many hits he would have been able to tally if he started in the Majors when he was 18-years-old like in Japan.

It took me a few years to really appreciate what Ichiro has done throughout his career, but that mostly comes from a pro-Athletics standpoint. He is, without a doubt, on my all-time fantasy team list, as he should be on pretty much everyone else’s. It’s a shame to see him wearing pinstripes, but it will be more than deserved when he gets enshrined in Cooperstown while wearing the Mariners compass.

March 4- Seattle Mariners

In lieu of yesterday’s post on Alex Rodriguez I was tempted to go back to the beginning of THE franchise in Seattle, the Mariners. While I realize that baseball had existed prior to 1977, this post will merely serve as a setup for something way more thorough in the future.

It’s kind of funny how many of my posts, thus far, have started with, “it’s kind of funny that this is the first time I’ve worn this cap.” It’s not really my intention; I just occasionally lose sight of which ones I’ve worn and haven’t since I purchased them. Not to mention, with as crazy as my last year was in regard to traveling, it was easy to not have a few (most) of them with me when I hit the road. A lot of that came as a result of my intense superstitions, especially with all of the Oakland Athletics hats that I own. As for this one, there really wasn’t much of an excuse to give.

I’ve always (and I mean always) been a huge fan of the trident in any variation on the Mariners caps and uniforms. Something about its simplicity and use within the name itself has always been a clever and praiseworthy move by any company/sports franchise. The one thing I didn’t understand about it was the color choice. That’s not to say that gold is an odd choice for a trident, especially when you [I] think back to those useless Greek Mythology classes you [I] took in Junior College, but in combination with royal blue it seemed a bit weird. All of these feelings stem from the one and done 1969 Seattle Pilots who became the Milwaukee Brewers and pioneered the color combination within Major League Baseball. I fully understand that a large part of it had to do with Seattle’s protest of the franchise breaching their contract with the city/MLB in the first place, but sometimes it’s just better to carve your own path; which the Mariners did in the early 90s when they changed to navy/teal/silver. From 1977-1980 the Mariners rocked this bad boy, and lost a lot of games under then manager Darrell Johnson. Over their first four seasons the Mariners went 246-402, but don’t worry, Johnson was fired with 58 games left in 1980 and the remaining 20-38 record the M’s posted was credited to interim manager Maury Wills. Still pretty bad though. It wouldn’t be until 1995 that the Mariners would sniff the postseason for the first time in franchise history.

If there’s one thing I can feel confident in saying as a result of these posts it’s that I can always find something incredibly interesting, as minute as it may seem, to write about and relate it to my daily routine. Seriously, not matter what the era or team may be, there I can always find a moment in my life in which it played some kind of role. My markings on this hat, for example, played a major role. Going through all the names on all four rosters left me at a bit of a head scratch. I didn’t want to make it too obvious with the names and numbers I pulled. I preferred to find something a bit meatier to embellish upon, but I suppose these will do.

#40- Sometimes, in order to win a World Series ring, you have to suffer a lot of really bad and questionable years. Very few know this path more than Rick Honeycutt. Originally selected in the 17^th round of the 1976 draft, Honeycutt made his MLB debut toward the end of the Mariners’ inaugural year. He began his career as a starter, going 26-41 with a 4.22 and one All-Star game appearance in 1980, during his time in the Pacific Northwest. He only made one more All-Star appearance in 1983 with the Texas Rangers for the rest of his career. His one World Series ring came in 1989 with YOUR Oakland Athletics. It should have been three, but we got hosed.

#45- Other than his name, Dick Pole wasn’t really much a spectacle within the League. He played a total of six years after making his debut with the Boston Red Sox in 1973, but after he was signed as a free agent in 1969. Pole played his final two seasons with the Mariners, which happened to be the Mariners first two. He went 11-23 with a 5.74 ERA in Seattle, and like I said, he wasn’t much to sniff at. The biggest reason I marked him on my cap actually has something to do with a story from the MLB Fan Cave… which coincidentally happened to take place during Game two of the A’s/Mariners Opening Day series in Japan.

Twitter was still a “new” concept to me. I had had an account since 2009, but up until the Fan Cave process I never really used it. When I got to New York I did my best to start chatter and respond to every fan who wanted to talk to me; something I take a lot of pride in. Since it was about 6:30 AM Eastern a few of the other Cave Dwellers and I were a bit delirious after staying up super late the previous night. In order to stay awake/pass the time/interact with others we started tweeting out the greatest baseball player names of all-time. After about 20 minutes of this someone outside of the Fan Cave named Brian Kong-Sivert (@BrianKongSivert) had mentioned Dick Pole. All of us were laughing hysterically when his name came up. It’s at that moment I leaned back and asked Tyler Hissey, the social media stooge, if I could drop a name. Despite chuckling it up with us in the process of our name game, he immediately said no to the player I had in mind. That player: former Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox great Johnny Dickshot. Yes, that is in fact his real name. Look it up! This was the first moment when I felt the sting of censorship. Little did I know, it was going to be a constant head-butting issue of mine over the next few months. I mean, it was ridiculous that I couldn’t drop a guy’s name down on account that the English language has included the first half into the curse word category. At the same time, it’s because of that distinction that Dickshot’s and Pole’s names are funny in the first place. But still; the Fan Cave was supposed to be a safe haven for fans to talk and joke about the game, not to have mom and dad leering over our shoulders, inspecting everything we wanted to say.

So, with that, I tip my cap to Brian, and I especially tip my cap to Pole’s parents for electing to name him Richard.

January 31- Seattle Mariners

This post is dedicated to Tommy Brentley, a great friend I made through my journey in and out of the MLB Fan Cave. Today he was selected as one of the Top 50 finalists for this year's edition of the Fan Cave and the lone representative of the Seattle Mariners. Do what you can to get him in and keep him there until the very end. Thank you for being a great friend Tom.

 
Like a lot of kids my age, I'll never forget watching Ken Griffey, Jr., Jay Buhner and Edgar Martinez when these hats were introduced. I was living in Southern California at the time, but as always, I still cheered hard for the Oakland Athletics. Nonetheless, when the Seattle Mariners started wearing the teal jerseys and caps, my fragile little head was on the verge of exploding. All my friends and I could talk about was how awesome that combo was, but also how the Miami Dolphins uniforms still looked “dainty.” (Definitely not the word I used when I was a kid) Bright colors have never really been a part of uniforms in baseball, outside of powder blue that is. But even with powder blue, the University of North Carolina has held a stronghold on that color well before anyone cared about what the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals were doing. As kids though, outside of a box of Crayola crayons none of us had ever seen something so appealing to our eyes. When one kid in school got a hold of a teal Mariners cap, we all became insanely jealous. For me, it would still be another 17 years before I got my hands on this bad boy, but I assure you, it was well worth the wait.

From 1994-96 the Mariners looked natural playing in such an unusual baseball color. This stretch also became the first time I really noticed Nike jump into the picture, but primarily for Ken Griffey, Jr. and Jay Buhner. Much in the same sense as the Atlanta Braves, TV exposure helped push The Kid and the Mariners into the limelight. OK, maybe not as much as the Braves and TBS, but enough to tap into my generation to get them to pay attention. Although the Mariners continued to sell this hat beyond ’96, it would be until the 2012 season that it would resurface back on their heads. 1995 was arguably the most successful of that three year stretch, and certainly one of the most memorable years in Mariners history as they took down the New York Yankees with a game-winning run by Griffey, Jr. in the 9^th inning of Game 5 of the American League Division Series. But the Mariners lost in six games to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series.

Another key component of this era is one of the more famous mascots in Major League Baseball, the Mariner Moose. The Mariners Moose was introduced to me when I was about 11-years-old in 1994. Now, the Moose was actually introduced in 1990 after the Mariners held a contest for kids 14 and under to submit what they wanted as their mascot. Out of 2500 submissions the moose was selected. Due to the fact that I was living in Bakersfield, California at the time I was not privy to the Moose as I posted above. I was in both the Los Angeles Dodgers and California Angels market, and mostly because the Angels were not exactly the caliber team that they are today, I never got a chance to see the Mariners play a home game on TV until around 1994. That's not to say that NBC or ESPN weren't playing games or showing highlights at the time either, but as an avid Oakland Athletics fan I couldn't care less what the Mariners were doing unless they were a threat to Oakland winning the AL West. Nonetheless, when the Mariners started playing some solid ball as a team, as opposed to just Ken Griffey, Jr. knocking the guts out of the ball, they got more exposure. Thus, I was introduced to the Moose. Plus, who could forget the line of Nike commercials starring Griffey, Jr. for President, which also featured the Moose as his running mate? Money!

The one thing I made sure to do was put him in the teal jersey which most baseball fans outside of the Mariners base have always found iconic. Especially considering they only did it for one year before bringing them back for the 2011 season. A very wise decision on management's part I might add. The one other thing I really wanted done was to put a cast on the right leg of the Moose as a tribute to when he bit the dust at the Kingdome in 1995 during the ALDS against the Yankees whilst being pulled by an ATV and wearing roller blades. Both of which were genius decisions by management as well. What's even better is that the team continued the ATV/roller blade stunt until 1999 as they were kind of forced to stop after opening Safeco Field which has natural grass. However, due to the location of the Moose in the stencil I decided to scrap it. But hey! At least I was thinking about it. And look at him waving to the kids. The Moose is still a winner in my book.

As for the numbers, they’re pretty obvious…

#24- If you ask any kid born in the 1980s who their top 3 favorite baseball players of all time are, I’m willing to bet that 9/10 would have Ken Griffey, Jr. somewhere on that list. I of course am that douchebag 1/10. Sorry! I’ll give you Top 10 though! Anyway, Griffey, Jr. was THE guy who was slated to overtake not only the home run record, but possibly the RBI record as well, on top of getting 3000 hits easily. But sadly, this didn’t come to be. In the three year stretch The Kid went .295/106/272… in 323 games. Granted, 1994 was shortened by the lockout, but still!!! Those stats are out of this world in such a short period of time. Oh, and by the way, in ’94 Griffey, Jr. wet .323/40/90 and was a dead lock for the MVP up until that point. Somehow he didn’t win an MVP until 1997, the one and only of his career, but he did win Gold Gloves and make the All-Star team all three years. A small consolation prize I suppose, but at least he’ll be a lock for the Hall of Fame.

#51- I’ve only worn this hat three times since I bought it and marked it, and every time someone takes a shot at guessing the numbers they always say Ichiro. I seriously cry inside when I hear that name… because they’re WRONG!!! From 1994-96 Randy “The Big Unit” Johnson brought batters to their knees with his inhuman slider… and mullet. Funny story about Johnson: He played high school ball in Livermore, California and attended Livermore High School the same years as my uncles. Two of my uncles recall easily hitting doubles off of Johnson, much to his chagrin. Going back: ’94-’96 proved to be rather prosperous for the Big Unit, especially 1995 when he went 18-2 with a League leading 2.48 ERA, a League leading 1.045 WHIP, a League leading 12.3 strikeouts per nine inning and a League leading 294 strikeouts. Johnson received 26 first place votes for the AL Cy Young award that year. The next closest was Cleveland’s Jose Mesa with two first place votes. Good effort though. What’s really amusing is how many people, outside of Seattle, forget that Johnson played for the Mariners from the middle of the 1989 season through the middle of the 1998 season when he was dealt to the Houston Astros for three Minor Leaguers. I don’t know, maybe you’ve heard of them: Freddy Garcia, John Halama and Carlos Guillen.