With the season winding down and the next to last moment I wanted to see played out on baseball's grand stage, it's time to enter a few random thoughts on the season.
The season was a hard one on my beloved M's, made harder by the fact that "wait 'til next year" will have to be a motto that doesn't include Edgar Martinez in a playing capacity for the first time since 1986 (I am dearly hoping to see him suit up as a first, third base, or hitting coach, most likely the latter). Edgar's humility saw the M's rise from being the joke of the league to a perennial contender, this season notwithstanding, and he outlasted a few future Hall of Fame teammates to play for the team and the fans he loved. He is one of the greatest DH's in history, a dubious distinction indeed, but one that will raise the eyebrows of the men in Cooperstown five years hence.
Today, the single season hits record was broken by Ichiro Suzuki, currently the best leadoff hitter in the game, and one who has, phenomenally, in 4 years time, not ONCE hit fewer than 200 hits. Only a pathetic season by the Mariners will possibly deny him the AL MVP.
Back to Edgar: Edgar was the last Mariner still with the team from the "Lefebvre's beliebvre's" crew that came out in 1988, when the Mariners made what was then considered an incredibly stupid trade of ace fireballer Mark Langston to a wild armed lanky Expos pitcher named Randy Johnson, and brought Ken Griffey Junior onto their team to create a phenomenal 3-4-5 combo in Griffey, Jay Buhner, and Edgar Martinez. Jay Buhner is long retired, but Griffey and Johnson made their own marks this year.
Griffey joined the exclusive 500 homerun club before predictably deteriorating to the DL once again. Now that he has hit the mark that is considered a virtual certainty for the Hall of Fame, perhaps it is time for him to retire.
Johnson pitched the 15th perfect game in major league history, and just may have posted one of the best statistical years for a 40 year old pitcher in history. Some run support would have bolstered his lackluster .500 record, but he has at this writing 282 strikeouts, an ERA below 3.00, and the lowest batting average against in the majors.
The only other player remaining from the "Lefebvre's beliebvres" crew is "Little O", Omar Vizquel, who continues to prove year after year that my comparison of him to Ozzie Smith in 1990 was, quite possibly, the most prophetic thing I've ever said my entire life.
So now, it's down to postseason. While I will watch, it doesn't have the same feel without any of my players in it (and A-Rod doesn't count; I didn't mind him going to Texas, but...THE YANKEES?!?!)
signing off,
Gideon MacLeish