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Seattle Mariners

Ranking past Mariners All-Stars from 1977-2022: Nos. 1-10

Ichiro Suzuki signs autographs for fans during batting practice before the All-Star Game at Safeco Field, in Seattle on July 10, 2001.  (Tribune News Service)
By Bob Condotta Seattle Times

SEATTLE – So, it obviously can’t be denied that the Major League Baseball rule stating every team must have at least one All-Star representative was the main reason any Mariners players were included in the early years of the franchise.

But since the arrival of Ken Griffey Jr. in 1989, the Mariners have been well represented at the All-Star Game, with three MVPs, three starting pitchers and a few others who turned in game-winning moments.

And as another All-Star Game in Seattle awaits, it feels like the appropriate time to recall all of the Mariners who have taken part in past games.

There have been 48 individual Mariners named as All-Stars from 1977-2022, making 91 appearances overall.

Some have taken part in more than a few – Ichiro and Griffey are tied for the most All-Star appearances as Mariners with 10.

And then there are the 35 who were selected to just one All-Star Game as a Mariner.

That’s a list that includes some big names such as Jay Buhner, Alvin Davis and Kyle Seager; two who made their debuts last year – Julio Rodriguez and Ty France; as well as some who time might have forgotten such as Matt Young, Craig Reynolds and Floyd Bannister.

But All-Star Games are a time celebrating not only the game’s present but also remembering its past.

So, in that spirit, here’s the final part of a series ranking every Mariner named to an All-Star Game before 2023.

10. OF Julio Rodriguez

Year: 2022

Comment: After blistering months of May and June (a combined 13 HR, OPS of .866 and .903), Rodriguez became the sixth Mariner rookie named to the All-Star Game. He went 0 for 2 as a reserve in the game with three putouts. But his legacy of that weekend will be wowing the Dodger Stadium crowd by hitting 63 homers in the first two rounds of the Home Run Derby to advance to the final before losing 19-18 to Juan Soto. This year, he’ll get a chance to try to become the second Mariner to ever win it at home.

9. 1B Bruce Bochte

Year: 1979

Comment: Bochte was an obvious choice to represent Seattle in the first All-Star Game the team hosted, hitting .326 at the All-Star break. He also provided the first All-Star highlight in team history, hitting a single off Gaylord Perry to score Rick Burleson and put the AL ahead 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth inning. He also sacrificed Brian Downing to second in the eighth with the game tied at 6. Alas, the AL didn’t score, and the NL won on a bases-loaded walk drawn by New York Met Lee Mazzilli in the top of the ninth.

8. P Freddy Garcia

Years: 2001-02

Comment: Garcia is one of only two Mariners pitchers to get a win in an All-Star Game, and it could hardly have come in a better circumstance, getting the W in 2001 in Seattle. Garcia entered in the third inning with a scoreless tie and retired the side. When Cal Ripken Jr. led off the inning with a solo homer, Garcia got the win as the bullpen made the lead hold up. Garcia’s 2002 appearance was one of the more unique in recent MLB history. With the score tied at 7-all, Garcia entered in the 10th inning. And with the AL out of other available pitchers, Garcia ended up batting in the 11th, grounding out against Vicente Padilla. After Garcia pitched a scoreless 11th, which included a strikeout of Padilla, then with the Phillies, the game was infamously called at 7-7.

7. SS Alex Rodriguez

Years: 1996-98, 2000

Comment: Rodriguez’s four All-Star appearances are seventh in team history. He played in only three games, sitting out in 2000 with a knee injury he’d suffered the week before. He went 3 for 7 in his three All-Star Games as a Mariner, including a home run that helped propel the AL to a 13-8 win in 1998. But Rodriguez’ best Seattle All-Star moment might have come the year after he left, when he represented the Rangers as the starting shortstop. In what was Ripken’s last All-Star Game – voted in as the starting third baseman – Rodriguez offered to let Ripken take over short – his original position – as the first pitch neared. As the crowd realized what was happening, even all of those still mad at Rodriguez could feel a little lump in the throat. Ripken played one inning at short without getting a ball his way – the first out of the game was made by Rodriguez on a pop up to short – before the two then went back to their assigned spots.

6. P Felix Hernandez

Years: 2009, 2011-15

Comment: King Felix somewhat oddly made the All-Star team every year from 2009-15 except for 2010, the year he won his only Cy Young. For context, he was 7-5 at the break with a 2.88 ERA and went 6-7 with a 1.53 ERA the rest of the way – so maybe it makes some sense. Hernandez started the 2014 game but pitched just one inning, striking out two and not allowing a run in a 5-3 AL win. He pitched only four innings total in All-Star Games but did so while giving up just two hits and no runs in facing 14 batters.

5. DH/3B Edgar Martinez

Years: 1992, 1995-97, 2000-01, 2003

Comment: Martinez’s seven All-Star appearances are the third-most in Mariner history and provided one definitive highlight – a home run off Greg Maddux in the second inning in 1997 in Cleveland that helped key a 3-1 AL win, which was started by Randy Johnson. Martinez was named as an All-Star at both 3B and DH, the only player in team history to get named to the team at two positions.

4. 2B Robinson Cano

Years: 2014, 2016, 2017

Comment: Cano’s three All-Star Games aren’t anywhere near the most in team history. And he only went 1 for 4 in All-Star Games as a Mariner. But we’re putting him here because that one hit was a big one – winning MVP honors of the 2017 game when he hit a go-ahead home run off Wade Davis in the 10th inning to give the AL a 2-1 victory.

3. P Randy Johnson

Years: 1990, 1993-95, 1997

Comment: Johnson gets the nod here for being the first Mariner pitcher to start an All-Star Game, and the only one to get more than one start, in both 1995 and 1997. Johnson allowed just two hits and one run with six strikeouts in seven All-Star innings as a Mariner. He also provided one of the more iconic moments in Mariners All-Star history in the 1993 game. Entering in relief for former Mariner Mark Langston and facing Philadelphia’s left-handed hitter John Kruk, Johnson sailed a 98-mph fastball over his head that had Kruk apparently jokingly patting his chest as if he’d just had a heart attack. Joke or not, Kruk flailed at a few pitches before striking out to end the inning.

2. OF Ichiro

Years: 2001-10

Comment: Ichiro is tied with Griffey for most appearances, making it each of his first 10 years with the team. And like Griffey, he tended to show up – he went 8 for 26 in All-Star Games, a .308 average, with an .819 OPS. And he is obviously most remembered for winning the MVP Award in 2007 when his inside-the-park home run helped lift the AL to a 5-4 win – the 10th straight victory for the American League.

1. OF Ken Griffey Jr.

Years: 1990-99

Comment: No one else can be in the top spot but Griffey, who made the game every year but one during his first 11 seasons with the Mariners – as a rookie in 1989. His 10 appearances are tied with Ichiro for the most in team history. He is also tied for MVP wins with Ichiro and Cano, winning the franchise’s first in 1992 in leading the AL to a 13-6 win in San Diego when he went 3-for-3 with a home run (off Maddux) and a double. He also went 10 for 23 as a Mariner in All-Star Games. But Griffey’s true All-Star legacy is the Home Run Derby, which he more than anyone helped turn into a must-watch. Griffey is the only player to win it three times, doing so in 1994, 1998 and 1999. But his most memorable moment might have arrived in a year in which he didn’t win it, in 1993 in Baltimore when he clubbed a 465-foot homer off the B&O Warehouse off Eutaw Street, the only player to hit it in fair territory. Griffey tied with Juan Gonzalez before losing in a playoff.