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All-Century Roster: Mariners
By Gary Brooks
SportsLine Baseball Editor
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Never had it taken so long for a franchise to get on the winning side of the standings. The 1977-born Mariners finally did in 1991 when Ken Griffey Jr. turned into a full-fledged star but the 83-79 record still left them in fifth place in the AL West.
 | | | Ken Griffey Jr. ranks as the best player in franchise history.(Allsport) | |
It wasn't until 1995 that Seattle felt its first genuine enthusiasm for baseball as the Mariners made a late-season rally to overtake the Angels, beating them in a one-game playoff for the division title. The September and playoff October flurry of moments to remember in Mariners history probably saved the franchise from death. Without a winning past and with some troublesome ownership and dwindling fan support, the team was a candidate for a move on more than one occasion. As it turned out, the 1995 team's success caused a new stadium to be built and turned the Mariners into a popular pick to be the team to beat for the rest of the decade.
Of course, that didn't work out. The Mariners did return to the playoffs in 1997, losing in the Division Series to the Orioles, and set several offensive records in the 1996 and '98 seasons, but the team's chances of reaching the World Series crumbled amid some awful relief pitching.
By 1999 the new stadium, Safeco Field, had opened, but the Mariners were once again at a crossroads trying to get back to a winning record for the first time since 1997.
Lineup
| Dan Wilson, catcher, 1994-99 |
| Though his batting average, homers and RBI have each dropped over the past
four seasons, Wilson is regarded as a fine handler of the pitching staff, a
solid defensive catcher, and is the only Mariners catcher to have played in
an All-Star Game. He was selected in 1996 when he hit .285 with 18 home
runs and 85 RBI. |
| Alvin Davis, 1B, 1984-91 |
| Though his career faded quicker than expected, Davis is still called "Mr.
Mariner." He was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1984 and an All-Star
selection that season in which he hit 27 homers and drove in 116. He
remains among the top five in team history in most offensive categories. |
| Harold Reynolds, 2B, 1983-92 |
| Reynolds was a two-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner who was
the first Mariner ever to lead the AL in an offensive statistic when he
stole 60 bases in 1987. He's one of just five players with 1,000 hits as a
Mariner. |
| Alex Rodriguez, SS, 1995-99 |
| There is a continually developing feeling that Rodriguez is the best player
in the game, the kind of guy every GM in the league would pick to start a
team with. At 24, he's already won a batting title (at age 21 in 1996) and
had a 40-40 season. His offensive numbers just might make him the best
shortstop ever by the next time an All-Century team is put together. |
| Jim Presley, 3B, 1984-89 |
| Presley is found on all the Mariners' career statistics lists and
highlighted his stay in Seattle by being selected to the 1986 All-Star
team. He hit 27 homers and drove in 107 that season. |
| Phil Bradley, OF, 1983-87 |
| Left field has been like the Bermuda Triangle of Mariners history,
especially in the past 10 years. Seattle has continually filled the spot
with players who were supposed to end the rotation there but
strange outcomes have made it an ongoing merry-go-round. Since Bradley left
after the 1987 season the Mariners have had nine different opening-day left
fielders. Bradley made the position solid for four seasons and was an
All-Star in 1985. He is one of only three players to have hit .300 or
better for their Mariners careers. |
| Ken Griffey Jr., OF, 1989-99 |
| Griffey was chosen by his peers as the player of the '90s and his
superstardom is the reason there is still a team, and one with a new
stadium, in Seattle. He won just one MVP (1997) but has no lack of
credentials for a Hall of Fame candidacy. He holds most of the team's
batting records and has 10 Gold Gloves to go along with 10 All-Star
appearances. |
| Jay Buhner, OF, 1988-99 |
| "Bone" joined Griffey in creating one of the most powerful outfield tandems
in history in his prime and became a Seattle fan favorite for his
combination of skills and personality. His shaved head is as much of a team
icon as Griffey's home run swing. He hit 279 home runs and drove in 864
runs, played in the 1996 All-Star Game, won a Gold Glove and was the
inspiration for more than 15,000 fans, including a couple hundred women, to
shave their heads for free admission on the annual Buhner Buzz Night. |
| Edgar Martinez, DH, 1987-99 |
| Martinez is one of only five right-handed batters in the past 50 years to
win two batting titles. He led the AL in 1992 with a .343 average and in
1995 at .356. He's also one of just six players ever to have four
consecutive seasons with 100 RBI and 100 walks, joining Babe Ruth, Lou
Gehrig, Ted Williams, Ralph Kiner and Frank Thomas. He provided the most
popular hit in team history when his double scored two runs to lift the
Mariners over the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the 1995 Division Series
giving Seattle its first and only playoff series victory. |
Pitchers
| Randy Johnson, SP, 1989-98 |
| The 6-feet-10 "Big Unit" developed into the most feared pitcher in the game
before his career in Seattle fizzled in a dispute with the club's
management over whether or not he'd receive a contract extension beyond the
1998 season. Johnson won the Cy Young Award going 18-2 in 1995, pitched
no-hitter in 1990 and created a mystical aura every time he took the mound,
bringing the possibility of something extraordinary every start. |
| Mark Langston, SP, 1984-89 |
| Langston was Seattle's best pre-Johnson pitcher and interestingly, it was
he who was traded to Montreal to acquire Johnson. Langston is right behind
Johnson on the Mariners' leaderboard for wins, strikeouts and shutouts. He
was selected to the All-Star team in 1987 and won Gold Gloves in 1987 and '88. |
| Jamie Moyer, SP, 1996-99 |
| Though consistently overlooked, Moyer was among the winningest pitchers in
baseball from 1996-99, going 59-25. The left-handed changeup artist led the
majors in winning percentage from 1996-98 going 45-17 (.726). Having been
released by three teams, Moyer is the definition of a late-bloomer, but his
ability to keep pitches on the edge of the plate has made him valuable. |
| Mike Moore, SP, 1982-88 |
| Moore's record as a Mariner was 66-96 -- that's right, not the other way
around -- yet he was one of the club's best in its first 23 seasons. Moore
had trouble picking up wins for some awful teams but was a workhorse who
still leads the team in complete games (56). |
| Erik Hanson, SP, 1988-93 |
| Hanson brought an outstanding shoulders-to-toes curve ball to the majors in
1988. He won 18 games with a 3.24 earned-run average in 1990 but that would
turn out to be the highlight of his career. He lasted a couple more seasons
in Seattle finishing with a 45-42 record and respectable 3.76 ERA but
didn't turn into the 1-2 punch with Randy Johnson that was supposed to make
the Mariners a winner. |
| Mike Schooler, RP, 1988-92 |
| The Mariners' closer history remains troubled and because of it, Schooler's 1989 and 1990 seasons remain prominent. He had 33 and 30 saves and until Jose Mesa saved 33 games in '99, Schooler's were the only 30-save seasons in club history. |
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| Bench |
| Omar Vizquel, Bruce Bochte, Julio Cruz, Al Cowens, Tino Martinez, Dave Henderson, Tom Paciorek. |
| Best season |
Even in August of 1995 it appeared the Mariners were headed
for their 17th losing season in 19 years. But with the Angels collapsing
atop the AL West, the Mariners took off on a race toward first place. They
took the division lead, eventually settled for a tie on the final day, and
then beat the Angels 9-1 in a one-game playoff for a 79-66 record in the
lockout shortened season. Seattle went baseball crazy with the genuine
enthusiasm of a first-time winner but the Mariners fell behind the New York
Yankees two games to none in the Division Series despite three home runs
from Griffey. But falling behind simply set up what many people still feel
was one of the greatest playoff series ever.
 | | | Randy Johnson led the M's to a playoff victory over the Yankees in '95.(Allsport) | |
Randy Johnson, the '95 Cy Young winner, pitched Seattle to a Game 3 win
in the Kingdome. Edgar Martinez's two homers, including an eighth-inning
grand slam, beat the Yankees 11-8 in Game 4 setting up an epic Game 5.
Three Cy Young Award winning pitchers appeared as Dave Cone started for the
Yankees
but was gone by the time the game went into extra innings. New York's Jack
McDowell and Johnson, each with just a days rest after starting Game 3,
came in in relief. In the 11th inning, after the Yankees took a 5-4 lead
off of Johnson, the Mariners rallied off of McDowell. With Joey Cora and
Griffey on base, Martinez pulled a pitch down the left-field line and
Griffey raced around from first. His slide beat the incoming throw and his
smile at the bottom of a pile of teammates at the plate became the most
prominent image in Mariners history.
The team lost to Cleveland in six games in the ALCS but Seattle had
become a baseball town and the Mariners appeared set to become a dominant
team of the future.
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| Worst season |
| After the club's first ever winning season in 1991 the
elements of success had been put in place. But a poor decision to replace
manager Jim Lefebvre with Bill Plummer was just the first of many problems
both on the field and in the clubhouse in 1992. The team went 64-98, 19
games worse than the previous season. The only positive was that it led to
Lou Piniella being brought in to manage and the Mariners began a return to
respectability. |
| Best individual season, player |
| Ken Griffey Jr. became the Mariners' first
Most Valuable Player in 1997. He hit home runs in his first two at-bats
on Opening Night against David Cone and continued to pound the ball all
season finishing with 56 homers, 147 RBI and a .304 average as Seattle won
its second division title. |
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| Best individual season, pitcher |
| Randy Johnson's career reached its first
peak in 1995 when he was nearly unbeatable. He went 18-2 with a 2.48 ERA,
struck out 12.35 batters per nine innings and received 26 of 28 first-place
votes in Cy Young Award balloting. |
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