Martinez Beefs Up, Mariners Benefit
When Edgar Martinez was a rookie back in 1987, he weighed 185 pounds - a lean, line-drive hitting machine.
“Today I’m about 205, maybe 208 some days,” The Edgar said Monday.
Most of it muscle added by years of weight-training, protein supplements and health food drinks. So just how strong is Martinez now?
The other day around the Mariners batting cage, Martinez was crushing baseballs. When he came out of the cage after one session, he put the weighted plastic doughnut on his bat and swung it.
Paul Sorrento watched for a minute, then nudged a teammate - and bet Edgar that he couldn’t hit a ball out of the park with the doughnut still on the bat. “I didn’t think it was possible,” Sorrento said.
What happened?
“He hit the first pitch out,” Sorrento said.
“It’s more timing than strength,” Martinez said.
“Edgar, it’s hard enough to hit one out without the doughnut on the bat,” Rich Amaral said.
Sorrento was so confident of his wager that he bet Martinez “anything he wanted” if he could hit one out. So what did Martinez demand after winning?
“A cup of coffee,” Sorrento said, laughing. “And I poured it for him, too.”
Notes
Seattle sold 4,000 seats Monday to Tuesday night’s game with Anaheim, and had sold 46,000 by Monday evening. The team has sold 40,000 tickets for a game Wednesday, and a total of more than 150,00 for three weekend games with Oakland. That means the team could finish with a total home attendance of approximately 3.2 million fans. … Randy Johnson flew home Monday rather than stay with the team and fly in after the game. Jamie Moyer - the Wednesday starter - flew home, too, because his wife, Karen, was experiencing labor pains. … Jay Buhner took a called third strike in the second inning and tied Jim Presley’s club record 172 strikeouts in a season. … It’s looking next to impossible for third baseman Russ Davis to get into another regular season game this year because he still can’t run. That means he’ll almost certainly not be on the post-season roster for the first series - should Seattle get there, of course. But if the Mariners get past Baltimore, it’s conceivable if improbable that Davis would be ready for the American League Championship Series.
Coming up
With a chance to clinch their second American League West title, Seattle will begin a two-game series with Anaheim Tuesday in the Kingdome at 7:05 p.m. on Fox Sports Northwest.