Originally Published: February 2, 2012, under the title, “1997 Seattle Mariners: A Wasteland Of Unfulfilled Promise”
The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes – Benjamin Disraeli
I don’t know who Benjamin Disraeli is, but I happened upon that quote just now and thought it perfectly encapsulates every halfway decent, contending Mariners team there’s ever been (and I thought it was a just pretentious-enough way to start a post like this).
The Seattle Mariners had some wildly talented teams between 1995 and 2003, but they were never SUCCESSFUL because they never took advantage of the opportunities they created. The 1997 team is a great example.
You might be able to argue (and I might be willing to believe) that the 1995 Mariners – while sickeningly talented – were too raw and inexperienced to succeed in their first brush with greatness. But, with this 1997 team, there was just no excuse!
The 1997 Mariners were like the 1995 Mariners on steroids (pun somewhat intended). This team led the league with 925 runs scored, they broke the Major League record with 264 home runs, AND they seemingly shored up their starting pitching woes by bringing in a couple of veteran starters who were more-than-capable while our veterans in 1995 ultimately weren’t.
Before I get into the pitching, would you LOOK at this offense?
Ken Griffey Jr. – 56 homers, 34 doubles, 147 RBI, 125 runs scored, 1.028 OPS
Edgar Martinez – 28 homers, 35 doubles, 108 RBI, 104 runs scored, 1.009 OPS
Jay Buhner – 40 homers, 18 doubles, 109 RBI, 104 runs scored, .889 OPS
Alex Rodriguez – 23 homers, 40 doubles, 84 RBI, 100 runs scored, .846 OPS
I mean, it’s just up and down the damn lineup! Anyone remember Paul Sorrento? Even HE had 31 homers and 19 doubles! Not counting left field (which was a wasteland of stop-gaps), 7 of our 8 regular hitters had an OPS over .800 (the lone guy under .800 was Dan Wilson, who in 1997 had himself 15 homers and 31 doubles)! To put that in perspective, the 2011 Mariners only had one guy (Justin Smoak) who played in over 100 games have an OPS over .700! Ruminate on THAT and tell me it doesn’t make you sick! Five guys in 1997 scored over 100 runs each! Three guys in 2011 scored over 50 runs each!
I could go on and on. The point is, that 1997 lineup was fucking loaded like you wouldn’t believe. No major injuries, no major slumps. Just power, power, power til the cows came home.
On the pitching side, we had a legitimate Big Three going. Randy Johnson bounced back from his lost 1996 season with a 20-4 record in 30 starts; good for 2nd in the Cy Young to Roger Clemons in spite of these numbers: 2.28 ERA, 213 innings pitched, 291 strikeouts, (12.3 K/9IP). The team was 22-8 in his starts. In those 6 no-decisions, 5 of them were Quality Starts that either got blown by the bullpen, or were shot by late-blossoming offense. Either way, that’s pretty amazing (to look at Roger Clemons’ roided-out numbers from that year is an easy way to burst a blood vessel in my brain, so I’m not even going to go there).
Backing up The Big Unit, we had Jamie Moyer in his first full season as a Mariner (we traded for him at the deadline in 1996 for Darren Bragg – who? – exactly). Moyer only went out and posted a 17-5 record with a 3.86 ERA. No big deal. And, as a legitimate third starter, we had Jeff Fassero, who we acquired from Montreal before the season for a big ol’ bag of nothing (admittedly, one of our more successful trades, until he fell apart in the 1999 season and we had to unload him). Fassero ended up 16-9 with a 3.61 ERA.
Between our Big Three, they were 53-18. The rest of the Mariners’ pitchers that year gave us a 37-54. And boy did they earn every one of those 54 losses!
The 1997 season will always be remembered for one thing: The Trade Deadline. Specifically: Jose Cruz Jr. for Mike Timlin & Paul Spoljaric, and Derek Lowe & Jason Varitek for Heathcliff Slocumb. Not only were these trades two of the least popular (losing Cruz Jr. at the time, and losing Lowe & Varitek retroactively when we realized how great they’d become) and least successful, but you could argue that they didn’t make one lick of difference down the stretch. All three were pretty pisspoor; and say what you will about Slocumb’s 10 saves in those final two months, I’ll remind you that he managed four losses in his short stint with us.
But, that goes to show you the absolute wreckage we were throwing out there late in games. Norm Charlton was 3-8 with a 7+ ERA and was pretty much done for his career (and HE appeared in 71 games that season!). Bobby Ayala was surprisingly effective with a sub-4 ERA, but he was a timebomb waiting to happen (and not in a good way). We were throwing guys out there like Edwin Hurtado, Scott Sanders, Bob Wells, and Greg McCarthy … each limp dick worse than the last. I’m telling you, I would’ve sold my SOUL for a repeat of our 1995 bullpen performance. Saying nothing of what we would eventually accumulate at the turn of the century.
But, like I said, it didn’t really matter, because by the end of the season we were the best team in the AL West. With THAT offense? Oh yeah, you could’ve thrown six Steven A. Taylors out there and that team would’ve won 90 games. I would lament the fact that we didn’t have shit at the back-end of our rotation, trying out guys like Bob Wolcott (until he was finally shut down come August for being totally worthless), Omar Olivares (in another deal that totally and completely backfired for this team), and Scott Sanders (who we got from San Diego for Sterling Hitchcock – who we got with Russ Davis for Tino Martinez & Jeff Nelson … think that 1997 team could’ve used Jeff Nelson?). But, the truth of the matter is, the back end of our rotation isn’t why the 1997 Mariners ended up failing. It never got to that point.
Even though the Mariners had the 2nd best record among the division winners, we got stuck playing the Number 1 seed Baltimore Orioles. The Yankees, as it turned out, were 2 games worse than the Orioles, but they were the Wild Card and SHOULD have been the 4th seed. The Cleveland Indians were the other division winner, but they had the worst record of them all, and by all rights should’ve been playing the Orioles, but that’s neither here nor there. Leave it to Major League baseball to have a stupid rule that predetermines the playoff seeding (1997 would be the final year they did this, because DUH).
The Mariners won the division by beating the California Anaheim Angels on September 23rd, at a game – as chance would have it – that I attended. I still have the scorecard and everything. When Heathcliff Slocumb notched that final out, the Kingdome erupted like I’ve never heard it before. The Mariners, after a year in the wilderness, were going BACK to the playoffs. The Orioles, on the other hand, didn’t win their division until the 161st game of the season. I don’t know if it made a lick of difference, but at least THIS time the Mariners would be able to set up their rotation so Randy Johnson would go twice in a five-game series (as opposed to 1995 where he started Game 3 and had to come in during Game 5 in an emergency relief situation).
The first game would be critical. It was at home (the first two being at home before a theoretical three on the road), and our best guy was taking the mound. So, of course the Mariners went up against the buzzsaw that was Mike Mussina. He went seven strong innings, striking out 9 and giving up only 2 harmless runs. The Big Unit, meanwhile, was very un-Unit like. He got smacked around to the tune of 5 innings, 5 runs, 4 walks, and only 3 strikeouts. The Orioles scored 8 runs in the 5th and 6th innings, with Mike Timlin & Paul Spoljaric taking the brunt of the punishment in the latter of the two innings.
The Mariners offense didn’t show up whatsoever. 7 total hits – 3 of them solo home runs – spread out over 5 innings. Griffey was 0 for 4, Edgar was 1 for 4 … it was just a bad all-around effort as the Mariners lost 9-3.
With that turd behind us, Game 2 was now a Must Win. Jamie Moyer had been solid all season, Scott Erickson was nothing to write home about. So what happened? Of COURSE the Mariners lost, again 9-3! Moyer couldn’t even get through five innings, giving up 3 runs, and Bobby Ayala showed everyone why he was the most hated man in Seattle sports by getting drilled for the other 6 runs (in 1.1 innings).
And, once again, the Mariners’ offense was shut down. 9 hits, 7 left on base, 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position … just a BRUTAL stretch of games for the team with THE best offense in all of baseball. AT HOME!
Which makes it a God damned miracle that the Mariners won game 3 at all. At the time, I figured we were destined for a sweep. I thought, of the three, Jeff Fassero was the LEAST likely to pull a game out. But, he turned in quite the gutty performance: 136 pitches over 8 innings (because, seriously, would YOU trust that bullpen over a guy throwing that many pitches?), 1 earned run, 4 walks, but only 3 hits. He kept them off-balance all game. In fact, Lou left Fassero in there to start the 9th, but he walked a guy, which led to Heathcliff Slocumb coming in to make things interesting.
Fortunately for the M’s, they scored 2 in the top half of the 9th (thanks to back-to-back solo homers by Buhner and the red-hot Paul Sorrento) to pad their lead to 4-0. So, when the Orioles bashed Slocumb around for two runs (one of them belonging to Fassero), it wasn’t a big deal.
FINALLY, the bats came out. Granted, the Mariners only scored the 4 runs in their 4-2 victory, but they knocked Jimmy Key around for 8 hits in 4.2 innings. We could’ve had a lot more (again, we were poor with runners in scoring position, only 1 for 7), but I wasn’t about to complain. A win is a win, and THAT win meant that we’d see Randy Johnson again.
Mariners fans had opportunity to hope. Yeah, we were down 2-1 in the series, with two more to be played in Baltimore. But, we had The Big Unit on the hill again; you had to figure he’d bounce back from that poor effort in Game 1. AND, you had to figure this offense was primed for a huge game. We’d only scored 10 runs in the first three games; who’s to say we couldn’t score 10 in that fourth game alone?
Who’s to say? I believe Mike Mussina was to say. Once again, he shut us the fuck down, going 7 innings and giving up only 1 run. Randy went the complete game in defeat, but it was to no avail as the Mariners lost 3-1.
This game was a clunker any way you slice it. The Orioles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, the Mariners got one back on a solo Edgar Martinez home run, the Orioles added another run in the 6th, and that was that. The Mariners didn’t even get a hit after that 2nd inning! That’s how bad this potent offense was in this deciding game! The Orioles combined to give up 2 hits and 4 walks!
You get a big ol’ gold star if you knew that Rob Ducey was the other Mariner with a hit in that ballgame.
The Mariners as a team batted .218 with 11 runs scored and only 11 extra base hits. This is a team that batted .280 in the regular season with 597 extra base hits (an average of over three and a half per game).
You kinda knew that the pitching would be suspect. I don’t think anyone saw Randy Johnson’s Game 1 coming, but you figured with that bullpen, runs would NEED to be scored. And when they didn’t come, this team had no answers.
I hate thinking about the What If’s, but I’ll be damned if they’re not there. What If we played the Yankees instead of the Orioles? Some teams are just a BAD matchup for you, and the Orioles were that for us. The Yankees’ pitching wasn’t NEARLY as good as Baltimore’s that year. Plus, with that 1995 meltdown still dogging them, you had to wonder if maybe the Mariners were a bad matchup for THEM. Granted, had we beaten the Yankees, we would’ve ran headfirst into another great Indians team, but at least we could’ve scored some fucking runs on them!
The ultimate What If simply lies in the fact that the Mariners had such tremendous talent on that team. How do you have that many superstars (A-Rod, Griffey, Randy, Edgar) and lose in the first round in four games? How is that POSSIBLE? Three guaranteed Hall of Famers and another borderline! These mid-90s teams were like the 1920s Yankees for Seattle fans! Every major player on that team will always be remembered fondly. Every major player either has been or will be publicly celebrated as a hero. And we sunk faster than a block of cement being hurled into a lake.
That 1997 team was it. The ’98 Mariners – while still highly talented on offense – ended up third in the AL West. That was the same year they traded a disgruntled Randy Johnson because we wouldn’t give him the contract extension he so richly deserved. The ’99 Mariners were again insanely good on offense, but Jeff Fassero fell apart, John Halama was worthless, and some of the other young starters never matured into anything you could use on a Major League diamond. After that, they traded Griffey, Buhner was just about done, and they had officially built the team around a guy in A-Rod who would leave for Texas in another year.
1997 was the end of an era for this Mariners team. Granted, they would make it back to the playoffs in 2000, but they were hardly the same team. 1997 will always be remembered as a damn waste, and nothing more. A damn waste of raw, unrivalled ability, the likes of which we will never see on this team ever again.