Time to leave ‘95 behind and make a deal for future

No Seattle baseball team is more revered than the 1995 Mariners, but I have to wonder if the miraculous comeback engineered 10 years ago isn’t impeding the progress of the very franchise it saved.

Whenever the idea of the Mariners becoming aggressive sellers on the trading market is suggested, we’re reminded of that blast from the past.

Remember the ‘Refuse to Lose’ mentality! Remember the team that made up 13½ games over the last six weeks of the season! Remember ‘95!

I remember 1995. I remember the signs and the banners. I remember the noisy crowds that snaked their way down the Kingdome ramps and converged on the sidewalks outside, greeted by honking car horns that only exaggerated the sound of giddy bedlam.

More than anything, I remember thinking how I needed to savor the scene, because it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You can count the teams that have assembled absurdly improbable comebacks on one hand: The 1914 Boston Braves. The 1951 New York Giants. The 1969 New York Mets. The 1978 New York Yankees. The 1995 Seattle Mariners.

Someday, another baseball team will crawl back into contention and end up erasing a 13½-game deficit in the standings. But it probably won’t happen in Seattle, and it definitely won’t happen with the 2005 M’s, a restoration project whose notion of a miracle would be a .500 finish.

The trading deadline looms on July 31. Which is to say, management has nine days to decide whether it wants the team to try to win 81 games – an arduous task that’d force the Mariners to go 40-27 down the stretch – or seek some more new blood to complement the acquisitions made since former ace Freddy Garcia was traded to the White Sox 13 months ago.

General manager Bill Bavasi has been stalling, disinclined to give up on a team that swept the Angels in a four-game series at Anaheim on the eve of the All-Star break.

But the Mariners are 2-5 since the break, producing the kind of inconsistent work that’s plagued them all season: When they get OK pitching efforts, they don’t score enough runs. When they score enough runs – as they did Tuesday night at Toronto, where they broke out for 10 – they are undermined by terrible pitching.

This team would be unwatchable were it not for the fresh faces who have arrived since Bavasi suspended competitive operations for a necessary housecleaning last summer. Phase I brought Jeremy Reed, Mike Morse and Miguel Olivo for Garcia. Phase II saw Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre come aboard as free agents.

Now it’s time for Phase III: Initiating trade talks with every contender for the likes of left-handed closer Eddie Guardado, starting pitcher Jamie Moyer, outfielder Randy Winn, and lefty set-up reliever Ron Villone.

Each could bring some young talent into the organization – especially Guardado, who deserved to be the Mariners’ lone representative in the All-Star Game. With his age issues (he turns 35 on Oct. 2), contract issues (there are club/player options for 2006) and health issues (a torn rotator cuff that might yet require surgery), Guardado’s trade stock never will be more valuable than it is today.

So what’s holding Bavasi back? That 1995 thing, of course, and the accompanying suspicion that any July deal might send a message to fans that the cause is lost.

Seattle management takes pride in promoting the team less as a business operation than as a sort of extended family. This is an organization that’d rather be blistered by a cult of stats-driven bloggers than open up piles of handwritten letters authored by brokenhearted loyalists upset about trading a popular veteran.

But when Mariners executives tout their fans as ‘the best in baseball,’ they ought to take a prominent place in the trade market as if their fans are, well, the best in baseball.

At the very least, Mariners fans should be regarded as knowledgeable enough to read the standings.

Four American League playoff spots will be available. Eleven teams have a better record than the Mariners. That sweep of the first-place Angels in Anaheim? Interesting, but about as legitimate as one of those New Year’s predictions from the Weekly World News: ‘Martian Teenager to Wed Cher! Labrador Retriever On Tap For Undersecretary of State!’

If I’m Bill Bavasi, I’m resigned to rolling up my sleeves, taking a deep breath, and continuing the roster face lift he committed to last summer.

Trade those with trade value who aren’t in the team’s long-range plans, and replace those who have no trade value (Pat Borders) with youngsters who can learn on the job (Olivo).

As starter Aaron Sele was taking his regularly scheduled drubbing Tuesday, pitching coach Bryan Price grabbed the dugout phone and tried to place a call to the bullpen.

Except the phone didn’t work. Bullpen coach Jim Slaton could be seen picking up the receiver and putting it down. Nothing.

Which pretty much describes what it’s like to follow the 2005 Mariners: We understand a change is necessary; we’re just waiting for the phone to ring.

It’s July 22, and the team has won 41 games.

Hello? Anybody home?