Martinez Ready To Bring Smiles To The Mariners

Since it’s too early for the big picture, here are some small ones from Seattle Mariners spring training:

Dennis Martinez was playing pro baseball when Richard Nixon, Juan Peron and Golda Meir were still calling shots, George Foreman was taking shots from Muhammad Ali in Zaire and “Band on the Run” and Gary Glitter were trying to shoot down quality rock ‘n roll.

For some Mariners fans, however, history and Martinez go back only to October 1995. As the Cleveland Indians ace, Martinez lost the opening game of the American League Championship Series 3-2 to Mariners rookie Bob Wolcott in one of the most preposterous outcomes in recent postseason play. Martinez bounced back to win Game 6 4-0 to end the Mariners’ flabbergasting season.

Who should be the first person to greet Martinez, 41, when he came into the clubhouse as a Mariner for the first time this spring? Joey Cora, who proved there was indeed cry- the first time this spring? Joey Cora, who proved there was indeed crying in baseball after his Game 6 optical cloudburst.

What did the gregarious Martinez say to Cora?

“I make you cry,” Martinez recounted, smiling. “Now, I make you laugh.”

Somebody who could use a little humor is Randy Johnson, who is keeping to himself even more than usual. While reporters are used to being blown off by the moody pitcher - hey, we’re used to being ignored by household pets - when Ken Griffey Jr. gets nothing in exchange for a “Hi,” El Unito Grande needs to lighten up.

Best reason to have Martinez in camp: Friday morning in the clubhouse, with pitcher Salomon Torres in rapt attention leaning forward on a stool, Martinez was deep into discourse on two decades in the pitching arts.

With veteran Chris Bosio gone, Johnson self-absorbed and newcomers Jeff Fassero and Scott Sanders still feeling their way around, Martinez could loom large on the bench, especially for the Mariners’ handful of young Latino pitchers.

If many of the club-record 60 names in camp are unfamiliar to even the grittiest Mariners farm-system addict, there is a reason. They aren’t from the farm system, with the occasional exception of Jose Cruz Jr. or Jason Varitek.

Most of the non-roster invitees are career minor leaguers or major league short-timers who grew up in other systems and are looking for a final breakthrough, although openings on a veteran Mariners roster are few.

What’s a little different is their ages: Catchers Brent Mayne and Alan Zinter are 28, pitchers Paul Abbott, Jason Brosnan and Josias Manzanillo are 29, as is infielder Brian Raabe. Infielders Todd Haney, John Patterson, Dan Rohrmeier and outfielder Kevin Reimer are 30 or older.

“They’re looking for exposure and some major league meal money,” said Roger Jongewaard, the Mariners’ vice president for player development. “What’s happened is that over the last few years, agents have begun to demand for these players an invitation to the major-league camp as part of the minor league contracts they sign. It used to be a perk, but now everybody seems to get it.”

What the Mariners hope to get from this unwieldy mob is another Rich Amaral, 35 next month, a longtime minor leaguer who bloomed late and aggressively took away a vet’s seat on the bench. An early leader for the big-league clubhouse: Raabe, a college teammate of catcher Dan Wilson at Minnesota, who could platoon with Cora at second.

The off-season’s most unorthodox scouting and signing manuever: The acquisition of pitching coach Nardi Contreras by manager Lou Piniella. Although they were both natives of Tampa and Contreras had been a 13-year minor leaguer, followed by coaching jobs in the White Sox, Braves, Expos, Yankees and Diamondbacks organizations, the two had not met until a couple of years ago at a Florida gathering of Promise Keepers, the Christian men’s movement founded in part by ex-Colorado football coach Bill McCartney.

To succeed the fired Bobby Cuellar, Piniella interviewed only Contreras and veteran Ray Miller, who took a job with Baltimore. “Nardi had two good referrals - from (GM) Woody Woodward and my pastor.”

After going through 15 starting pitchers and a record-high ERA last year, it is no surprise to learn Piniella might have sought pitching help via non-mortal as well as mortal means.

Prediction: If the team is half as aggressive as the owners were in cudgeling more money out of the public for the new stadium, the M’s will win the A.L. West by 20 games.