Mariners win while having some laughs
SEATTLE – In lieu of a better form of fun they can have in the final days of a last-place season, the Seattle Mariners are down to individual moments of euphoria.
On their way to a 4-3 victory Thursday at Safeco Field over the Texas Rangers, there was this joy:
“Ryan Franklin gave up six hits and three runs over seven innings in his final start of the season. He won for the eighth time, doubling the number of victories last year.
“Ichiro Suzuki slapped a first-inning single, leaving him two hits from reaching 200 for the fifth straight season.
“Mike Morse made the greatest catch of his fledgling left-field career, reaching over the padded wall and into the seats to catch a pop foul down the left-field line in the first inning.
“Center fielder Jaime Bubela, who played for Double-A San Antonio this year and was attending college in Texas a few weeks ago when the Mariners called him up, recorded his first hit as a major leaguer.
“The Mariners won a close, well-played game when Richie Sexson got three hits and drove in two runs, giving him 121 RBIs this season; Adrian Beltre drove in the go-ahead run in the fifth inning and made two spectacular stops at third base on blistering grounders; Franklin kept the Rangers’ bats quiet for seven innings; and relievers George Sherrill, Rafael Soriano and Eddie Guardado did the same for the final two.
But enough about good baseball.
It’s too late for the Mariners to have anything but fun with the time they have left, and Bubela provided the perfect opportunity in the sixth.
He lined a single up the middle for his first major league hit. Before he reached first base, Mariners trainer Rick Griffin was in the dugout scheming.
For 10 years, Griffin has enjoyed pulling a fast one on rookies when they record their first big-league hits.
His specialty is to tuck the game ball in his pocket, then grab another and write “pertinent” information on it. Usually, he gets the date wrong, misspells a few words, crosses them out and spells them correctly, and generally makes a mess of the ball. Then he’ll give it to the player and wait for his response.
Griffin climbed to the top step of the dugout and called for the ball. The Rangers threw it to him, and he began his work, writing:
“10-6-04”
“First major league hit”
“Approx. time 5:31 (crossed out). 5:34 p.m.”
When Bubela returned to the dugout after the inning, pitcher Jamie Moyer presented him with the “decorated” ball.
The rookie looked at it and smiled. In the warmth of his best baseball moment, it took him a while to realize he’d been had.