A Mariner a Day!

1993 Upper Deck had one of these for every one of the MLB teams and all of them are amazing. From the corny names to the trapped in time looks, to the overly produced shots, I would love to have a full set of these one day. But for our purposes here, this "Pacific Sock Exchange" (Do you get it????) card (which looks like it was definitely shot at Gasworks) is the topic of conversation. And the man especially I want to fondly remember is Kevin Mitchell, the guy who didn't actually play with the club for the 93 season, but who is an intrinsic part of Mariners history nonetheless. At the time this card was made, Griffey and Jay had just put together their best seasons in 1992, but I would not say that either had offensively reached the place that they would one day attain (although they were both elite defensively already), but the answer to the great left-field question had been solved in 1992 with the addition of Giants slugger and 1989 NL MVP Kevin Mitchell. When this...

I didn't follow the day to day grind of the Diamondbacks during their ascendant years of the late 90's and the early 00's culminating in the improbable (or perhaps utterly probable) World Series victory of 2001, but I definitely followed the Mariners of the early to mid 90's with a daily fervor. And so I cannot actually say that I saw the very best that Randy Johnson had to offer as a pitcher, but the seasons between 1993 and 1997 are still pretty amazing. It's a testament to Randy's will and adaptability that these crazy Cy Young caliber years were just a preview of what he could do when he fully developed all his pitches. From 1999 to 2002 Randy won four consecutive Cy Young awards and struck out well over 300 batters each year. That is ridiculous. He hit a grand slam in the World Series and he refused to answer Curt Schilling's phone calls. He became one of the all-time greats. His statistics are basically a study in perfection. But it wasn't always...

It took a while but here we are. There are many great players that I have had the pleasure to watch as a Mariners fan over these three decades: Griffey, ARod, Randy, and Edgar. All of these players innovated their positions and changed the way that the game is played. For all these fruitless years of championship-less baseball the Mariner fan has been treated to arguably the very best in cutting edge talent that the game has known since Mays and Mantle were changing the game a couple subway stations away from one another in the New York of the 1950s. They named an award after Edgar, Griffey is still the only baseball player ever to have a popular shoe, ARod was the best shortstop ever (come at me bro), and Randy the greatest lefthanded pitcher that anyone still living has ever seen (There's no way other than stats to compare him to Lefty Grove but it's still a fun discussion). But each of these players was only as big as the game. Even at the pinnacle of his fame, Griffey was...

Marco, Marco, Marco. There isn't much more disappointing than a soft-tosser with the demeanor of a firebreather. No matter what he's going to end up looking kinda lame because fools are going to get their hits. Marco Gonzales is a very good lefthanded pitcher. He started the most games in 2019 which I suppose says something about his commitment and drive, but quite honestly, I view Marco Gonzales as the pitching version of Mitch Haniger. They are exhibits A & B in the case against Jerry Dipoto. There have been some miraculous salvages (The Cano trade) during Trader Jerry's (Funny they called the last guy Trader as well) tenure as alchemical wizard prince of the worst baseball franchise, but there have been some serious headscratching question marks that would lead me to believe that he has utterly no plan nor idea what he is doing, nor does he know WHEN you should trade someone. And that last piece is the crucial part. So let's just pile on Marco Gonzales here and...

Andy Benes has always looked like he's probably an asshole. I don't know why, but there is just something in his manner, his facial makeup, the way he holds his glove, a whole lot of stuff honestly, that made me think that both him and his brother Alan were probably total jerks. He was an excellent pitcher for the Padres in the early 90s and I remember his 1989 Topps Rookie Card was a hot ticket for a while there (what a world!). So when he became the first ever mercenary hire in Mariners history during the summer of 1995 it seemed like, although his face still looked jerky, that he was going to be able to really help the club push towards the playoffs. As it turns out, Andy Benes was total garbage during the summer run of 1995, but he put the Mariners in a position to win time and time again. His ERA that summer was well over 5, but he ended up having 7 wins to his credit when the mystical dust settled on that fated season. That is about as good as you can ask for from a hi...

Henry Cotto had an excellent mustache and was born in New York City when that was a really common place for great baseball players to be born. He ran the bases like a champ and had great range in the field. He was a perfect 4th outfielder for the Mariners during the early days of relevance. In 1988 he stole 27 bases and was only caught 3 times. His yearly numbers are pretty much all like this. He didn't run a ton, but he made it when he did. Harold Reynolds on the other hand, was thought of by many in Seattle as an excellent baserunner, but in reality HR was quite terrible. In 1988 Harold stole 35 bags...and was caught 29 times. Can you even imagine that happening today? What would it take to allow someone to kill that many runs in the era of analytics? It's an amazing feat. But so is Henry Cotto's career line of 130 steals and 26 caught stealing. That is an 80 percent success rate. I can't tell you how good that is. It's elite. And Cotto could do that. And he lo...