By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
It’s getting so all those unwritten rules need to be written down somewhere.
Be careful how you flip your bat after a home run, because a pitcher may take exception (see Aaron Sele vs. Ryan Klesko).
Don’t bunt for a base hit if the opposing pitcher has a no-hitter (see Curt Schilling’s Christmas card list. Ben Davis isn’t on it).
Don’t steal a base with a 10-run lead, because that’s rubbing it in (Rickey Henderson, the Brewers will never forget).
And now for one of those rules that is unwritten in stone, if you buy Buck Martinez’s definition: No buddying up to the opposition.
When Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez passed through the Blue Jays’ clubhouse the other day during a rain delay, the uproar from the Toronto manager was heard ‘round the major leagues.
Buck Martinez was livid that an opposing player would show up in uniform in his clubhouse, and that none of the Toronto players did anything to usher him out.
Considering player-to-player relationships sometimes seem like a love fest before and during ballgames, you’d think a guy visiting the other clubhouse would seem harmless. Buck Martinez makes it look like the back room at a WWF show.
There is etiquette to this game.
When the division rival Oakland A’s came to Seattle this weekend, there was plenty of chit-chat and handshakes around the batting cage. All season long, players will greet each other in the outfield as they jog before the game, and there has hardly been an infielder who didn’t talk with a baserunner during pitching changes.
“We allow our guys to say hello and we would prefer that we keep a little bit of a distance,” Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. “I think there’s more fraternizing today. With more free agency and more players moving around, a lot of times you’re saying hello to your ex-teammate.”
Mariner center fielder Mike Cameron understands. Few players gab more than Cameron, but there’s a line he won’t cross.
“I don’t talk to the pitchers,” Cameron said. “I didn’t even talk to J.B. (ex-White Sox teammate James Baldwin) when he was over there.”
Mariners first base coach John Moses bristles when he sees players getting chummy beyond a quick hello around the cage, and he says the clubhouse should be off limits to opponents.
“I don’t think they should be doing it. Those are the guys you’re trying to beat. Friendships can wait until after the game,” said Moses, who isn’t exactly an old-school guy since his career spanned from 1982-92, but says times still have changed. “You have a lot of friends on other teams and you might not see them in spring training, so you’re anxious to see them when you play them.
“But for me, that’s it. Then it’s time to beat the guy on the other side.”
Some early thoughts on an impressive first week of Mariners baseball:
When the Mariners came from three runs behind to beat the Sox in the ninth inning Wednesday, their on-field celebration was as raucous as if they’d won something much bigger than one of 162 games.
“That,” designated hitter Edgar Martinez said, “was a real good sign.”
Yeah, he had only two hits going into Saturday and looked at times like was pressing. But his seventh-inning single on Friday drove in two runs, his first hit as a Mariner on Wednesday was part of the game-winning rally to beat the White Sox, and he has dropped two sacrifice bunts that led to Mariners runs in the first week.
All that, and Cirillo played flawless defense.
“He has played well,” Piniella said. “He moved some runners, he played well defensively at third base and (Friday) night he got a big two-out base hit for us.”
Pineiro gives the relief staff the power in the sixth and seventh innings that the Mariners had with Jose Paniagua, with one important difference. He will prove to be a more reliable pitcher than Paniagua, whose self-control both mentally and within the strike zone were nowhere near what Pineiro can offer.
It happened in the seventh inning when, as “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” filled the stadium, Buhner sat with his wife and kids and sang along. Major league dads rarely get that pleasure.
“I’m not worried about Ichiro,” Piniella said.
The most wide-eyed Mariner is rookie Luis Ugueto, the Rule V draft pick who hasn’t played above the Class A level.
His first day as a big-leaguer was so important that he grabbed the lineup card off the clubhouse wall and asked every Mariner starter to sign it, even though he didn’t play in the game.
“What has he learned so far?” Piniella said. “He’s learned that the money is a heck of a lot better here than it is in the minor leagues, that’s for sure.”
The latest attempt at giving the hitters a better background to see the baseball at Safeco Field hasn’t made much difference. The Mariners planted a row of tall trees behind the center field fence, hoping they would reduce the glare during sunny afternoon games.
“I’m not going to say anything about it,” Edgar Martinez said. “I don’t feel like it’s a great improvement. Maybe when they grow and cover the whole wall it will be better.”
Unless those trees grow so tall they blanket the sun, the problem probably will never go away.
Jay Buhner’s nickname – Bone – has nothing to do with the shiny bald head that Mariners fans have come to love.
“It came from my high school coach in 1983,” Buhner said. “I lost a ball in the lights and it hit me right between the eyes. It didn’t knock me down or anything. I picked up the ball up and threw it back in, and he said only a true bonehead could do something like that.”
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