Blowers Making Progress With Extra Work
April has never been Mike Blowers’ favorite month - he has been a notoriously slow starter throughout his major league career - but he’s never had one that demanded quite as much patience as this one.
For the first time, Blowers is in a straight platoon role. He faces left-handed starting pitchers (Paul Sorrento faces all right-handed starters) and there haven’t been many southpaws starting against Seattle.
Blowers has a career April average of .203, but in Seattle’s first 20 games this season the Tacoma Kid has amassed a total of 14 at-bats and one hit, a home run.
“It’s been an adjustment I’m still trying to make,” Blowers said. “There was one stretch of eight, nine games I didn’t play at all.”
According to manager Lou Piniella and hitting instructor Lee Elia, Blowers has been taking extra work lately and, despite a chest cold, showing improvement.
M’s loan $10 million to park board
The Mariners have loaned another $10 million to the project to build the team a new baseball stadium.
The loan announced Monday will keep construction on track through May, and comes after the team loaned the project $5 million last month.
With the new loan, the board overseeing the $414 million stadium project has received nearly $60 million in loans and advances since it was formed in 1995.
The board will repay the loans after lawsuits over the project are resolved and construction bonds are released from escrow. A state Supreme Court hearing on whether the bonds can be released is scheduled for May 13.
Notes
In pregame ceremonies Tuesday, Alex Rodriguez accepted his Sporting News Player of the Year award for the ‘96 campaign, but after a lengthy, impressive introduction, reserve catcher John Marzano started out onto the field until Rodriguez ran past him and accepted his trophy. … Of Ken Griffey’s first nine home runs this season, two have tied the game - and four have put Seattle ahead. … In Seattle’s last eight wins the team has five home runs and five sacrifice bunts. The team also is practicing what Piniella calls “selective” base-stealing techniques - and the Mariners have stolen 15 bases in 19 attempts this month. … Seattle ends its homestand with a 7:35 start tonight against Kansas City, to be broadcast on Fox Sports Northwest. Probable starting pitchers are Jim Pittsley (0-1, 2.57) for the Royals and Tim Davis (0-0, 6.75) for the Mariners.