Elia delighted with return to Mariners
PEORIA, Ariz. – Lee Elia is back where he says he belongs, with a baseball bat in his hand, young hitters to refine and the Seattle Mariners as the backdrop to his work.
Elia has joined the Mariners as a special assistant under manager John McLaren, working with the club all of spring training and about a third of the regular season.
It’s a return to the organization that gave Elia some of his best baseball memories – the 1995 Refuse to Lose division championship team, and the 2000 and 2001 playoff seasons.
Best of all, it’s a job that makes Elia realize this is what he should be doing, at age 70.
“This might seem corny but it’s true,” he said. “I’m really, really happy.”
How happy?
“He’s like an 18-year-old going to the prom with the prettiest girl in the class,” trainer Rick Griffin said. “He’s such an integral part of the history of this team.”
Elia was around for the best of the Mariners.
He was the hitting coach under manager Lou Piniella from 1993-97, when he watched a collection of players come together to win two division championships. He returned as a coaching consultant and was around when the M’s reached the American League Championship Series in 2000 and 2001.
“The things we went through in that timeframe, I’m probably not versed enough in the language to say what it really meant,” he said.
No team makes Elia reflect like the 1995 Mariners.
“I came back here with Lou and we were 82-80 the first year in ‘93. Then ‘94 came around and we could sense that we had enough material to get better.”
He believes the best thing to happen to that team was one of the worst moments in Seattle sports history. Midway through the 1994 season, ceiling tiles fell from the Kingdome roof while the Mariners were taking batting practice.
The dome was out for the season and Mariners played the rest of their games on the road _ at least until major league players went on strike in August. Still, the month they spent together bonded that team, Elia said.
“Then in ‘95 when we came back, there was still a little of that bond left,” he said. “Then in one week, we went from 12 games behind the Angels to seven. They got cold and we got hot.”
The M’s beat the Angels in a one-game playoff to win the division, then beat the Yankees on Edgar Martinez’s 11th-inning double in the deciding fifth game of the A.L. Division Series.
Elia has been around the current group of Mariners about two weeks, and he already has good feelings about this team.
“We had special people on those clubs before, and I think this club is close to that,” he said. “We’ve got two pretty good starting pitchers (Erik Bedard and Felix Hernandez) and that should negate losing streaks. We’ve got guys who are still coming in their careers. I’ve only been here a little bit, but I can tell that it’s very capable.”
Nobody seems more thrilled to be back with the Mariners, even in a limited role, than Elia.
As M’s manager John McLaren assembled his own coaching staff last fall, Elia was in Europe with his daughter.
When he returned home to Florida, he called McLaren to ask if there were any openings. McLaren was non-committal but said he’d get back to Elia.
He did, offering not a full-time coaching job but the next best thing, an opportunity to work with hitters as a special assistant.
After discussing the offer with his wife, Elia called McLaren and accepted the job, and now he’s back in uniform with a bat in his hand and hitters to work with.
“I couldn’t sit in the stands as a scout, making reports and doing paperwork out my ears,” Elia said. “I feel like I’ve got something to present. This is where I belong. I belong on the field as long as I’m capable.”