Day Twenty Two: Jose Lopez

Jose Lopez is one of my favorite Mariners. There is an era, between roughly 2004 and the second half of 2009 that is particularly memorable for me. There is no reason statistically (other than Ichiro's continued dominance) that these years should be filled with joy. There were some particularly grim moments in there as well. The entire 2008 season is a bit of a nightmare. But honestly even that year was filled with enjoyable shirt-sleeves evenings out in the VIP lounge of the Centerfield Bleachers. We didn't discriminate good baseball from bad in those days (shit, we still don't). The Mariners put decent players on the field and consistently played interesting baseball with lineups filled with interesting players. All truth be told, there is certainly the possibility that these teams might have felt like garbage if Ichiro hadn't been out there. But he was out there. And no matter what there was gonna be something cool. And from the time he made a regular day to day appearance in the lineup, Jose Lopez was out there too, doing cool stuff and demonstrating his sweet swing.

Lopez came up in 2004 and played about 50 games each of his first two years in the bigs. In 2006 Mike Hargrove gave Lopez the everyday greenlight at second base. He didn't disappoint. That first full year of playing everyday he made the All-Star team and put together a blistering first half. He had 98 hits at the break! Going down to the park and watching the top end of the lineup that year was a ton of fun. Ichi, Lopez, Beltre, Sexson, and Raul. That was a really good lineup looking back on it. There were holes for sure and the pitching staff struggled, but the lineup did its job. I remember always knowing that you were probably going to see Ichiro or Jose Lopez get a hit that year. And both of them, in their own free swinging and unique ways were genuine pleasures to watch in the box and scuffling around the bases. Some people might look askance at me for talking about Ichiro and Lopez in the same breath so much, but that's how it was. There was a lot of potential for greatness being born in the second half of the Bush administration. Even after the abysmal showing in 2008, the team rectified itself and played decent ball for the first 5 months of 2009. And of course Jose Lopez was right in the middle of all this. He hit 25 funk blasts that year. The most he would have in his short career, but I feel like I was in the stands for all of them. I just really enjoyed the way the ball came off Jose's bat.

Jose Lopez is also one of the few Mariners that I have met personally. My friends and I were drunkenly eating an abrasive memorial dinner at Benihana (not called that anymore, but it's still fucking Benihana) in May of 2009 I think (RIP RJR) and as usual we looked at all the cool pictures of Ken Jr and Sr and famous Yankees eating at the restaurant throughout the 90s. And lo and behold! Who should we see as we were leaving the restaurant but Jose Lopez! He was having a subdued meal with his mother (I think) and was not ready to be drunkenly accosted by a gang of fools. But we surely did celebrate him. Hey man! You're awesome! And the like. I don't think he was really aware that he could be recognized in Seattle, but we certainly put those suspicions to rest! Poor guy. And that 2009 season was the last time he was a recognizable as a legit ball player. Glad we could get an inappropriate level of harassment in there before his career ended. Thanks for all the great hits and poorly fielded balls, Jose! I love you!