Mariners Update - Seattle says goodbye to Nolan, hello to Oakland arms
Sandra Vigil
for the Mariners and capped an anti-climactic homestand that
saw the M's mathematically eliminated from the AL West race
with 4 wins against 6 losses.
The highlights and the lowlights:
o Randy Johnson, heir to the strikeout throne
With 13 strikeouts in a losing effort on Sunday, Randy Johnson
became only the eighth man in American League History to strikeout
300 or more batters in a season. Before a 22000+ crowd, Johnson
made the sublime look almost trivial as he mowed down one batter
after another. The crowd was not to be fooled however as they
responded to the disguised Johnson as he walked to the bullpen
mound for warmups, when he was announced as the starting pitcher
and with every strike he threw. Johnson wore a jersey with the
number 34 instead of his usual 51 in honor of his friend and
mentor, Nolan Ryan.
The crowd, fairly good sized considering the Mariners were
competing with a Seahawks televised game, was literally with
Johnson on every pitch and he didn't disappoint. For the second
time in a week, I fought back tears at a baseball game. However,
the mark was bittersweet for Johnson, who was attempting to tie
Mark Langston's mark of 19 wins in a season and to be the first
Mariner pitcher to win 20 games. He made only 2 mistakes, both
to former Mariner Dave Henderson and even pitched the 10th in the
hopes of hanging on long enough for the M's bats to produce runs,
but his supreme effort was wasted by the Mariners inability to
score runs off the A's bullpen.
Ryan, has been partially credited as a contributor to Johnson's
success this year. Ryan spoke with Johnson during the Mariners
last swing into Texas last year and the two produced a video on
pitching in the off season. In fact, during Ryan's press conference
in Seattle, Ryan crowned Johnson "the pitcher of the '90's", stating,
"He is going to be the dominant pitcher. I don't see anybody else
with his talent now."
o Ryan's last stand
The kingdome buzzed on Wednesday, September 22 with the expectation
of being part of history. The fans were set to be the last outside
of Texas to watch the legend, Nolan Ryan, work his fastball magic.
What they didn't know was that they would unwittingly become the
very last stop on the Ryan Express.
Ryan received ovations and applause at nearly all points
possible: During warmups, jogging the the mound, during warmup
pitches, during the announcement of the starting pitchers, and,
sadly, upon his final exit. Some of the normally late arriving
crowd waited too long this time, as the pitcher they saw on the
mound upon settling into their seats was not Ryan but Dreyer.
In the end, Ryan would exit without recording an out, giving up
a leadoff hit to Omar Vizquel, walks to Rich Amaral, Ken Griffey Jr,
and Jay Buhner, and a grand slam homerun to Dann Howitt. Ryan then
exited after his fourth pitch to Dave Magadan. Dave Fleming took
the win, Ryan the loss. In the end Ryan the image of Ryan remains
that of legend. His strength and graciousness was understood and
appreciated by all those who were there, as well as those who will
claim to have been there. He knew he was hurt before he started and
he probably shouldn't have pitched, but in his season of disappointments,
he was determined to do his best not to disappoint. In the end,
he was grand.
o Seattle bats ineffective against Tacoma South
The Mariners got their first look at what just might be 3/5ths of
Oakland's 1994 starting rotation when Steve Karsay, Todd Van Poppel,
and Miguel Jiminez came to town. And, if the weekend is indicative
of things to come, Seattle may want out of the the west. If every
team has one team that is the thorn in their side, no matter how good
they've been playing, Oakland is that team for Seattle. The young
pitchers looked, for the most part, poised and assured. Karsay was
very effective, striking out a career high seven batters and allowing
only four hits and no runs in 5 2/3 innings pitched.
The win by Karsay mathematically eliminated the M's from this season's
pennant race. It's believed that this is the latest the M's have hung
onto a magic number.
Additionally, this game saw Griffey hit his 43 homerun of the season,
putting him one behind league leader Juan Gonzales, who did not play
a game of the Seattle series.
o Odds and ends
- In ceremonies on Fan Appreciation night, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy
Johnson, and Mike Blowers were honored by the local chapter of the
Baseball Writers Association of America.
Griffey was named player of the year, Johnson was named pitcher of
the year, and Blowers garnered the new award of unsung hero. Blowers,
a non-roster invitee to spring training with career highs in about
everything including average, home runs and RBI, was the unanimous
choice among Piniella and the coaching staff who voted independently
on the award.
- A limited number of unsold commerative tickets from Nolan Ryan's
final game are available through the Mariners.
- Seattle will likely finish the year with the best one-year
differential in the AL. They are 18 games up on last year and are
followed by Kansas City and Boston.
- Ted Power moved into a tie for 16th place in saves for AL pitchers
38 years or older when he recorded his 12 save on the 22nd.
- Tickets for the 1994 Cactus League exhibition will not go on sale
October 1 as was mistakenly announced by the city manager of Peoria,
Arizona. The schedule is not drawn up until December.
- From the former Mariner file, Greg Briley has been release by the
Florida Marlins, a move possibly related to his complaints about
lack of playing time.
/S
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