Lights, Camera, Action, Mariners Take A Pratfall
Who says nobody will miss the Kingdome?
About 7,000 missed it Monday - and this was Opening Night. Imagine how many might miss it if the Seattle Mariners find themselves 10 games out of first place again by Memorial Day?
The final Mariners opener in the Pimple of Pioneer Square was neither the unqualified success for which the ballclub hungered nor a weepy nostalgiarama for indoor baseball, no matter how crisp the weather was across the street.
The most prominent banner on display? “Safeco Field Countdown: 101 Days!” Sheesh. You’d have thought the gray lady was down already. So in lieu of any meaningful Kingdome tribute, the Mariners concocted others.
With the dome darkened for pre-game introductions, Jay Buhner detoured out of the follow spotlight to deliver a hug to trainer Rick Griffin - the rehabilitation maestro behind Buhner’s rapid return to right field after Tommy John surgery during the winter.
And with the lights up, Ken Griffey Jr. delivered a blast into the lower deck in right-center in the third inning - and upon crossing home plate, pointed up to the press box at Hank Aaron, whose record-breaking 715th homer is being given a 25th anniversary feting this season.
The thoughtful and the theatrical - it’s a mix that’s very Mariners.
However, that the M’s would eventually go on to lose 8-2 to the faceless Chicago White Sox was unfortunate, damning and no tribute at all.
For as much as they tried to protest last year that the 10-9 loss to Cleveland in the opener was just one game of 162, it was very much their season in a salted peanut shell - a game given away by a bullpen whose charitable donations were so great as to trigger an IRS audit. Monday’s loss had a familiar smell.
Seattle’s ace-by-default, Jeff Fassero, was raked, a trend left over from spring training. Rookie Brett Hinchliffe, thought to have won a job in the starting rotation himself, did his damnedest to lose it out of the bullpen. The M’s were unable to bunch any hits against White Sox starter James Baldwin and were left instead to the capricious pleasures of the solo home run.
The only thing missing was Randy Johnson, who was getting the Ayala treatment from his new pals in Arizona.
As it was last year - and always is after season openers - time is still very much on Seattle’s side. Popular wisdom is not.
“I think we’ll have to show some patience,” Piniella cautioned.
Uh-huh. He watches too much of this, Piniella will be a patient, all right. To know Lou is to know there’s one of those old T-shirts hanging in his locker - the one with the cartoon of some predator saying, “Patience, hell - I want to kill something.”
“We can make some changes, if necessary,” he said - in almost the same breath as the patience remark.
Now that’s the Lou you gotta love.
From Piniella to Buhner on down through all the vocal leaders on this club, the party line is that Seattle absolutely, positively has to get off to a good start this season. They have their reasons and we have ours: that the starting pitching is so suspect that making up much ground in a pennant race will be impossible.
“It has a calming effect,” Piniella pointed out. “If we can get off reasonably well, we’re going to improve, but the confidence you get from a fast start does wonders for a team.”
Does wonders for the attendance, too.
For only the second time this decade - the other was 1995, interestingly enough, when barely 34,000 showed up - the M’s did not sell out their home opener. A week ago, they were more than 10,000 tickets short; Monday’s final count was 51,656. That’s not chopped liver, but it’s miles from the mania that gripped the city just two years ago.
Maybe the White Sox - beyond Frank Thomas - are so anonymous as to inspire only indifference. Maybe fans are saving their funds for once Safeco opens its gates.
Or maybe they’re trying to tell ownership that unless it ponies up for a true pennant contender - hitters and pitchers - then it’s not a product worth ponying up for.
Piniella is pleading patience because he settled on a roster with five true rookies - second baseman Carlos Guillen (who had Monday’s other Mariners homer) and pitchers Hinchliffe, Freddy Garcia, John Halama and Eric Weaver.
Pitcher Mac Suzuki and outfielder Charles Gipson also have less than 100 days of major league service. Hinchliffe is so green he had to be directed to the locker room for Sunday’s workout by a reporter.
Rounding out the pitching staff are two graying lefties (Fassero and Moyer), two injury-prone retreads (Butch Henry and Mark Leiter), a half-season wonder (Jose Paniagua) and a closer with a damaged psyche (Jose Mesa).
Hell, this is an expansion pitching staff. It would have fit right in here in 1977.
Not that youth can be blamed for everything. Left fielder John Mabry ran the M’s out of a potential big inning in the sixth and has four years in the show.
And it’s not as if the M’s are the only team with youth. Chicago has six rookies and four others with less than 100 days. But the White Sox also have a public acknowledgement from ownership that has no intention of trying to win anything.
The M’s, however, are desperate to win, if only to entice the franchise cornerstones - Griffey and Alex Rodriguez - that this is the place to re-up before their contracts expire in two years. Indeed, they have already floated a $100 million offer to Griffey, though probably more as public relations than anything else. He’d probably be more persuaded if they’d used some of that money to corral a veteran pitcher or two.
It’s Kingdome thinking by ownership that still has a new stadium to fill.