My, oh my: 31 years

PEORIA, Ariz. – Thirty-one years ago, Dave Niehaus arrived in Arizona for his first spring training with the Seattle Mariners and was shocked at what he saw.

No, it wasn’t the first ragtag group of players on that 1977 expansion team that astounded Niehaus, then a young broadcaster beginning his Mariners play-by-play career.

It was the condition of the facilities in Tempe, where the Mariners would spend six weeks preparing for the franchise’s first season, that astounded Niehaus. The practice fields had rocks strewn throughout the infield dirt, and there were gopher holes all over the outfield.

It was hardly a setting fit for a major league baseball team.

“When I first got down here, I thought, ‘My gosh, how are they ever going to play on that field?’ ” Niehaus said this week, reflecting on his most vivid memories of the Mariners at spring training. “It wasn’t only the field, but the stadium, too, because it was dirty and unkempt.”

Niehaus remembers the Mariners’ first manager, Darrell Johnson, and his coaches working to get the practice fields in shape before the players arrived.

“There were rocks and boulders out there, and the coaches were out raking the infield,” Niehaus said. “It looked like something that had been neglected for years and years.”

Fortunately for Niehaus and the Mariners, things got better. They trained 16 mostly enjoyable years in Tempe, where the facilities not only improved, but so did the team. Since 1993, the Mariners have trained in Peoria, and Niehaus has been there for all of them.

Here are a couple of his favorite spring training memories:

Playing in Peoria

The Mariners moved from Tempe to their current location in Peoria, on the northwest corner of the Phoenix metropolitan area, in 1993.

It was hardly a smooth first spring in Peoria.

Construction of their facility wasn’t complete, and the Mariners conducted their first Peoria camp using the clubhouse and practice fields currently occupied by the San Diego Padres. That was little inconvenience compared with the team’s game-day routine.

Peoria Stadium also hadn’t been completed, and the Mariners played all of their exhibition games on the road. Back then, the Highway 101 loop around the city wasn’t complete and travel to ballparks in Scottsdale, Phoenix, Mesa and beyond was tedious.

“We were always on the road and we always had to come back here to Peoria after the games,” Niehaus said. “There was gridlock traffic after 3 o’clock anywhere in the Valley and you couldn’t get around it. You had to take I-10 or I-17 or Highway 51. We didn’t have the loop, and it was a mess.

“What made that spring so memorable was that we started out 0-10, and then Lou stopped the bus on the way back to Peoria,” Niehaus said.

The Mariners had played horribly again and, as the bus crawled through traffic, Piniella noticed some kids playing ball. He ordered the bus to stop, then turned around and addressed the team.

“You would get your butts beat by those guys,” he told the Mariners.

Junior’s rise to the majors

Ken Griffey Jr. had climbed rapidly through the minor league system and, going into spring training in 1989, the Mariners had every intention of starting him at Triple-A Calgary.

Then he started swinging a hot bat and the Mariners couldn’t keep him on the farm.

“To me, it’s funny how Griffey made the ballclub,” Niehaus said. “Griffey made the ballclub not because of the way he hit, although I’m sure that was most of it. But he impressed (manager) Jim Lefebvre because of his plate discipline and the way he would work a count and get on base. He wouldn’t jump at pitches and he had that great discipline at the age of 19 that nobody had at age 39. The rest is history.”

Griffey doubled in his first major-league at-bat in Oakland, and his first at-bat at home in the Kingdome was a home run.

Griffey will return to Seattle when the Cincinnati Reds play at Safeco Field on June 22-24.