Day Four: Felix Fermin

After the 1993 season the Mariners traded fan favorite and gold glove shortstop, Omar Vizquel to Cleveland for promising young slugger Reggie Jefferson and Felix Fermin. I remember being really upset by this trade because already at this point it was pretty clear that Little O was a very special player. His defensive prowess was rivaled only by Ozzie Smith, but like Smith towards the beginning of the Wizard's illustrious career, Vizquel couldn't hit a lick. So even though my friends and I were pretty pissed to see Vizquel go, we were hopeful that Jefferson would become that first baseman that the Mariners had been lacking since losing Alvin Davis and Pete O'Brien. And Fermin was a much better hitter than Vizquel. But he didn't barehand final outs of no-hitters. Looking back all these years later, not many do. And for that you can't really fault Felix. But I'm pretty sure everyone did.

Fermin got off to a great start in 1994, and became a staple in the Mariners lineup. His defense was steady, and his bat was a solid addition in the way that pre-ARod shortstops used to be. He ended up finishing the strike shortened season with an average over .300. The 1994 Mariners were a pretty fearsome team and it is quite likely that they might have pushed their way into the playoffs if things had been allowed to finish up in August and September. But throughout all of this, Fermin was NOT Omar Vizquel. And again, that really isn't a knock on Felix Fermin. He had the best season from a shortstop in 1994 that the Mariners had probably ever seen. Not that there had been a lot of gems offensively, but Fermin's all around steady play was the sort of thing that really makes me miss the pre-analytic days. There is absolutely no way that Fermin (or Vizquel for that matter) would make their way into the line-up of a club hoping to contend in 2020. Maybe the Diamondbacks Nick Ahmed is the closest thing right now to a shortstop of the old variety. But even Ahmed hits double digit homers now. Fermin was cut from the cloth of Raffy Belliard, Greg Gagne, and Manny Lee. A lost kind of player in the post Steroids, maximize out-comes era we find ourselves (not) in today. So even though I pretty much couldn't stand Fermin at the time because he wasn't Omar, I see now that he was a serious part of the Mariners team that was about to get over the hump. In 95 he played a much smaller role, but nevertheless he was a member of that fated squad. And you can't erase that. But my favorite memory of Felix Fermin is not about his role in Mariners history, or his ability really at all. It is about him being a conduit for my growth (if you want to call it that) as a fan of the Mariners.

My dad and I were at a game in the early spring of 1994 and Fermin was starting at short (as he did pretty much every game that year). We were sitting in the upper deck of the Kingdome just up the third base line behind homeplate. Anyone who has ever been to the Dome knows that those seats are pretty damn far up there. But the stalwarts from that era who would sit up there were true to the blue in a way that I don't think we have in this town anymore. Seattle felt like a baseball town during baseball season, even if it was definitely a basketball town most of the time. And the upper deck of the Dome was a place unto itself. So there we are, in the wax-paper beer cup section of the Dome and I'm 11 years old. My dad had already showed me that sometimes yelling at players from the upper deck of a pro ball stadium was not only ok, but a thing to be celebrated. I don't know if I had prepped myself for this moment or if it came spontaneously. Fermin is playing short and someone hits a sharp grounder into the hole towards third. Fermin dives for it but cannot reach the ball. It skips into left. A pretty typical 1994 single. Nothing shameful. I jump up as this is transpiring and yell "Omar would have had that!!!" as loud as I can. The flannel hatted folks around me, slowly turn and say "Yeah! That's right! You tell em kid!" And look at me with respect. I was so pleased with myself. I think for the rest of the inning I just sat there thinking in my head "Yeah, Omar would have had that one. For sure." And feeling not just a little satisfied with myself for my savvy and clever call. I don't remember anything else about that game. But I remember that Omar would have had that.

And rest assured, Omar certainly would have had that.