SEATTLE – I’m trying to come up with some ideas on how Mariner fans can celebrate the 10th anniversary of the team’s first playoff appearance.
Surely, everyone has some memorabilia stored in the attic from that fun year of ‘95, when the M’s reached the American League Championship Series.
How about if everyone brings their “Refuse to Lose” banners to the ballpark sometime next summer.
“Tell you what,” said a man with vivid memories of that ALCS. “My first thought when I left town was if I ever see another ‘Refuse to Lose’ sign, I would puke.”
On second thought, maybe we’d better scratch that idea. Don’t want to see the M’s new manager lose his lunch on the top step of the dugout.
“That’s indicative of the fans here, that they make the opposing team feel like that,” said Mike Hargrove, after being named the 11th field boss in the 28-year history of the club. “You have tremendous fans here, and that’s exciting.”
Flattery will get him somewhere in this city. But he’s still got to apologize for the Ichiro remark.
Yeah, someone remembered.
On a trip to Japan with a Major League All-Star team in ‘98, Hargrove was badgered with questions about how the Japanese all-star players measured up to their American counterparts.
Finally, someone asked him if Ichiro could play in the big leagues.
Fed up with the questioning, Hargrove tersely responded, “no.”
Guess what? Someone in Japan relived that moment in an e-mail to a Seattle sportswriter on the day Hargrove got his new job.
“Tell your friend in Tokyo to bury that,” Hargrove said with a laugh.
So what’s he think of his new right fielder?
“He’s one of the all-time best,” Hargrove said with sincerity. “I think he’s a keeper.”
How about the new manager? Is he a keeper?
Give him three years and we’ll find out.
Hiring Hargrove is a good start, though. Now all he needs is some players.
No predictions here about how he’ll do. I’ve learned my lesson.
He has experience as a big-league manager, which counts for something. And he took two Cleveland teams to the World Series, including the ‘95 club that beat the Mariners in six games in the ALCS.
He also managed a Baltimore team that lost 32 of its final 36 games in 2002 to finish with a 67-95 record.
“You lose 32 of your last 36 ballgames, it’ll make you question whether you want to be married,” Hargrove joked.
You lose 99 games after winning 93 the year before, it’ll get you a one-way ticket to Phoenix, as Hargrove’s predecessor, Bob Melvin, found out.
Now Bavasi and Hargrove have to begin cleaning up the rubble and finding some players to start the reconstruction.
Could Hargrove’s old shortstop from his Cleveland days be a player in the rebuilding?
Well, Omar Vizquel’s available.
“Would I like to have him?” Hargrove said, repeating a question. “I don’t know of a manager who wouldn’t like to have him.”
Vizquel at short, Jose Lopez at second, Bret Boone out the door … .? Could happen.
Hargrove is coming back in the managerial door after taking a year off to serve as an assistant to Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro.
He’s coming back because he missed it. Said he rediscovered his passion for managing in the year away from the dugout.
His passion took a dip in Baltimore where he had four straight losing seasons. It reached its nadir with that 32 of 36 skid. “The most un-fun time I ever had in baseball because if we scored eight runs, we’d get beat 9-8, if we scored two runs, we’d get beat 3-2,” he said. “We had meetings, I had players in my office, we did extra work, I had some creative coaches, but nothing we tried worked.”
Sort of how it went for the M’s this summer.
After he got fired by Baltimore a year ago, Hargrove said if he managed again, he’d like it be with a team that wasn’t rebuilding but had a chance to win.
Hmmmmm. I’d have sworn those embers were the remains of the ‘04 M’s.
Hope springs eternal, though, when ballclubs start flashing greenbacks, and the M’s have plenty to flash. It’s just a matter of getting the right players, which they didn’t do a very good job of last year.
What kind of lineup would Hargrove like to manage? “Three or four guys who can mash the ball and guys who can run,” he said, giving his “stock answer.”
“The American League is a big-inning league,” he continued. “Get two guys on base and hit the ball out of the park.”
The M’s can do that. If they swap lineups with the Red Sox.
Management would like fans to believe the M’s can get back to being contenders in a year or two, and maybe they can.
They’re going through a transition period, just as Cleveland was when Hargrove took over there. After some rocky years, he directed the Tribe to five consecutive American League Central Division titles and two pennants.
“I think I’m pretty good at what I do,” he said. “I don’t want to sound arrogant, but if it does, I apologize.”
No need for that.
It sounds kind of refreshing to tell you the truth.
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