By Bill Knudsen
Since April 6, 1977, I have pretty much seen it all as it relates to Mariners baseball: Griffey doing his Spiderman imitation up the Kingdome wall; hitting back-to-back dingers with his old man; Buhner high jumping over the wall in Fenway to catch that sure-fire home run ball; Ichiro’s frozen rope, belt high, throw from far right field to third base; and Edgars double to send Junior into that euphoric pig pile at home plate. Yes, I’ve seen thousands of Mariners games. The good…the bad…the ugly. Can you say Bobby Ayala?
But I’ve got to say, the catch that Kyle Lewis made Sept. 14 against the Oakland A’s in a smoky T-Mobile Field was TOP-FIVE all-time on my list of Mariners’ great plays. Especially considering the fact it would have been a game-changing grand salami, had he missed it. That ball was gone from the moment it left Ramon Laureano’s bat at 110 mph. It was at least four feet above the wall. But somehow the Lewis kid did what supremely talented kids do, he put his body in harms way and just followed his instincts. As he ran toward the dugout, the unmitigated joy on his face said it all. It was a smile like the one on Griffey’s face in 1990, when he took that dinger away from Jesse Barfield in Yankee Stadium. Some players are just special. Kyle Lewis is one of those guys.
P.S. Jimmy Johns should set Kyle up for life with FREE sandwiches, as he inadvertently gave them a million bucks in free advertising.
The brilliant Seattle Mariners marketing department has sold more than 16,000 cardboard cutouts at T-Mobile Park (16,000 x $30 = $480,000). Absolutely incredible!
(Sadly, cardboard cutouts don’t purchase $35 parking spots, $14 craft beers, $12 hot dogs, $10 garlic fries or $30 baseball caps.)
As you may know…Mariners rookies have combined for 23 home runs this season: Kyle Lewis (10), José Marmolejos (6), Evan White (5), Sam Haggerty (1) and Tim Lopes (1)…But did you know… that the Mariners lead all teams’ rookies in home runs this season?…Mariners rookies rank ahead of fellow rookies from the White Sox (14), Angels (11), Rays (11) and Rangers (9)…despite playing in nearly 100 fewer games than their counterparts, the 2020 Mariners rookies rank T9th for most home runs in single-season club history, tied with the 2010 Mariners rookies…they trail Mariners rookies from the clubs of 1977 (48), 1984 (42), 2011 (41), 2017 (36), 1989 (35), 2019 (32), 1986 (29) and 2013 (27)…via STATS INC.
If I have a choice of coaching, game strategy or talent, I’ll take talent every time. When all is said and done, the team with the better talent will win most of the games. And lest you doubt it, the Seattle Mariners are stockpiling skilled young talent like never before. In a little over 15 months their farm system has come from 29th to 4th in MLB. Most of these kids have been winners all their lives. They are smart, fast and have a passion for the game. And no one has told them they are supposed to lose because they are Mariners. (Hell, half of them were not even born the last time the M’s were winners.) And while its fair to say I’m a devoted 43-year “homer”, I’m telling you unequivocally that these kids are gonna make you proud. If they have not done so already.
Kyle Lewis, Evan White, Dylan Moore, Ty France, Marco Gonzalez, Justin Dunn, J.P. Crawford, and soon, Julio Rodriguez and Jarred Kelenic (who is the best talent to wear an M’s uniform since Griffey) are just a few of the super-talented, young Mariners who will get the homeboys back on the front pages of the sports section. (As sad as The Seattle Times sports section is these days.)
Kelenic (KELL-nick) is a 21-year-old outfielder prodigy, who bats left, throws left, is 6’1” and 195 lbs. And we traded the great Robinson Cano to get him from the NY Mets, where he was drafted #1. He has hit .290 lifetime, has plenty of power, runs like a scared deer, and is brimming with confidence. The kid is 21, going on 35. Once he steps into right field next March in Peoria, he’ll become a fixture there for years to come. He has a keen sense of the game and is already taking a leadership role for the club in Tacoma. The kid’s a born leader. When he comes up to The Show, he’ll never go back.
Ed Pepple • Rest in Peace, coach • 1932-2020
(952 victories and 4 state championships)