Day Twenty Six: Mike Cameron
In the summer of 1999, Seattle was astir with excitement. Or at least people who cared about baseball were excited, but at that point I didn't really care to discuss the subject with anyone else. So in my mind's eye it was everyone. The swaggering sluggers, the Seattle Mariners, those great palookas of the Dome: Grif, Bone, 'Gar, and ARod, were going to be breaking in "The House that Griffey Built" in July. It was going to be amazing. We had all suffered (or so we thought) through years of tainted indoor baseball and were going to finally get the opportunity to watch our guys play on real grass, with the ocean breeze (foreshadowing) caressing our cheeks in the grandstands. My first game at the new park was August 25th versus the (very) lowly Detroit Tigers. John Halama started and the three RBIs were supplied by Arod, Grif, and 'Gar. The Mariners won 3-2 to put their record at an even .500. They would go on to completely tank September and finish the season under .500. That was a great first foray for me as a fan into the new park, and I find it interesting looking back on it now that John Halama, who had been acquired in the soul-crushing Randy Johnson mercenary deal of the previous summer got the victory that day. Because there was about to be an even bigger soul crusher coming that off-season.
It is easy to forget, or perhaps it is more convenient to forget, given the complete and utter failure of the Mariners organization over the past ten years, that there was a time when Ken Griffey Jr. was not universally loved here. It is much happier to just completely gloss over the 1999 season and the offseason when remembering the legacy of The Kid. I often do it, but in thinking about my great hero, Mike Cameron, he is intrinsically linked to those bad memories, and the joy that came after. Griffey had always been a smile in public, suffer in private kind of person, we would find out later just how difficult coming to play in Seattle had been for him, and there was a love fest (Lossom and I were in the nosebleeds for Grif's first two games back with the Reds) that resulted in his happy return to the Mariners, but in the late 90's Griffey was definitely beginning to hate being here. All through that 99 season we had to hear about how unhappy he was. He was having another world-beating season, but just below the surface of his insane numbers lurked the growing reality that this was going to be the last year he played as a Mariner. We had lost Randy the year prior, but Randy was always a headcase. There was sadness but it wasn't Griffey. This was something uniquely painful. And so it went.
In the offseason, and I won't go into the minute details of the affair because that isn't fair to Griffey now, a trade was hammered out between the Seattle Mariners and the Cincinnati Reds. Griffey would go to Cinci and the Mariners would get a bunch of dudes you have never heard of. But one of those guys was supposed to replace Griffey in the cavernous centerfield that had been built with his range in mind (just as the short porch in right is his as well). And that young man was 27 year old Mike Cameron.
Cammy, as we soon came to know him, had put together several decent years offensively and above average defensively with the ChiSox and for one year with the Reds in 99. There was no expectation that he was going to be able to fill the hole that was being left by Griffey. In fact, there is literally no other player who could have replaced Griff. When he was traded he was pretty much unanimously viewed as the greatest player ever. Some might have argued for Babe Ruth, but how can you argue for someone you have never seen? We had all seen Griffey. And it was something. And here comes a guy with a big hitch in his swing and he's expected to be the new Griffey. What a load of pressure! You could just imagine Mike Cameron falling to pieces. But that is not at all what Mike Cameron did.
From the minute that Cammy started gently gliding around centerfield you knew that we were all going to be in for a treat. If you have been a Mariners watcher these past five years or so, (since the sad end to Franklin Gutierrez's career), you know that finding someone who can actually play major league centerfield in a way that isn't maddening is truly a rarity. There is a reason that Kevin Kiermieir gets the start every day in Tampa Bay even though he can't hit a lick. And why Kevin Pillar played meaningful seasons with Toronto. If you can save runs in centerfield your chances of winning are much much improved. And Cammy could save runs with the best of them. I am not going to trot out any advanced analytics or things of that nature. I am skeptical at best of how those things apply to fielding, but I will tell you to go and watch some Mike Cameron outfield highlights. Especially from the first three years he was with the Mariners, but really you can watch him from any moment in his career. He was a once in a generation talent. His good friend Torii Hunter always said that Cammy was the best in the game, and many would say that Double I was the best so that is pretty high praise. And I can picture Cammy gliding into the ball's path right now. Just kind of long legged jogging. Never really having to put on the burners because his angle and jump was always the best. That is where Cameron was unequalled. His route and knowledge of where the ball was going was unprecedented. I have never seen anyone with that kind of radar and wheels combined. It made so many average pitchers great in the heyday of the post-Griffey Mariners. When you had Cameron in center, Ichi in right, and Winn (sorry Mack) in left you had the best defensive outfield of the decade. Without a doubt. People like Aaron Sele made millions of dollars because of these guys. And Cammy exemplified their swagger. Between him and Ichiro it was pretty much a constant cool guy highlight reel. And then there was Cammy at the plate.
Nobody is ever going to confuse Mike Cameron's offensive career with the man he replaced, but Cammy had some great seasons in the batter's box. In both 2001 and 02 he was a great hitter. There was always a giant hole in Cammy's swing, but he made up for it with a strangely unique form of plate discipline. He would strike out badly on high stuff and pretty much rake everything else and lay off anything down or away. He had great OBP's those first three years as a regular starter. And he had the second best bat drop and trot to first base I have ever seen. And the only one better was his half of a season teammate in 2000, the untouchable Rickey Henderson. Do yourself a favor and watch Cammy drop his bat after a walk (watch game 1 of the ALCS from 2000 on youtube) and Rickey do the same thing. They are so cool. There have been bat flips that are gif-able after huge homers, but Cammy and Rickey are the only guys whose common step out of the box after a walk routine are gif-able. I could watch a gif of Cammy dropping his bat after drawing a walk. Might have to make one. So yeah, I really enjoyed watching Mike Cameron play baseball.
But there is something more to Cammy than just his game. I really liked him as a person too. He was always so warm to everyone around him. His sheer enjoyment of the game was contagious. After feeling betrayed by my childhood hero (seriously, a lot lot of people forget how gnarly that Griffey trade was), to be able to grab onto someone who was having fun, looking really cool doing it, and playing baseball at a level that was both competitive and approachable was a god-sent. Cammy made Safeco a great place to be that summer of 2000. There were so many reasons to feel discouraged in 2000, but with Cammy out there in center there was nothing to do but smile. Oh and by the way in 2002 he hit four home runs in a single game. NBD.
So while Safeco might be "The House that Griffey Built", it is also "The House that Cammy Owned" for several years. And when you watch some blithering idiot out in center in 2021 remember Mike Cameron and thank the baseball gods you got to watch him rove through the grass out there in center.
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