SEATTLE – In back-to-back days this week Carl Everett, thankfully for the Mariners, lost it.
On Tuesday, following a 14-6 disaster against the Angels, the Mariners designated hitter marched into manager Mike Hargrove’s office, closed the door and let loose an obscenity-spiked screaming extravaganza that could be heard from Safeco Field to Dick’s Drive-In.
The following night, irked at a high strike called by plate umpire Phil Cuzzi, Everett grumbled to first-base coach Mike Goff about Cuzzi after grounding out weakly to first. Trouble was, he griped to Goff within earshot of first-base umpire Brian Knight, who, apparently, saw it appropriate to defend his buddy.
So Everett and Knight engaged in a heated discussion that had little to do with the North Korean missile tests. As Goff held him back, Everett spewed approximately the same unmentionables as he did at Hargrove the day before.
Knight had little choice but to toss him. Everett exited to the clubhouse, but not before a few thousand more parting shots from the dugout.
It was great theater. And it’s about time.
Besides getting a hitter with power from the left-hand side, this is the reason the Mariners signed Everett. Long a quirky personality and proud owner of a fuse approximately two centimeters in length, Everett has made a career of livening up a lethargic clubhouse.
Whether it’s his denial that men ever walked the moon or his expressed refusal to believe that dinosaurs existed, Everett is seldom boring. He’ll rage at umpires, teammates and managers. He plays the game with a Gibraltar-sized chip on his shoulder. Remember, Hargrove himself desperately wanted him.
“Our clubhouse was a very nice clubhouse for a while,” general manager Bill Bavasi said when Everett signed with the M’s in December. “We don’t expect it to be less nice. But it probably got a little more hectic, which is good.”
It is now. It just took a while.
Since Jay Buhner retired in 2001, the Mariners haven’t had an inspiring, luminary figure in the clubhouse – someone who could stir things up with a pointed barb or by turning over the buffet table.
Some weeks ago, Raul Ibanez, one of the quietest Mariners in history, tore into an umpire in disputing a called strike and was tossed from the game. Finally, one Mariner showed some passion. One showed he cared.
Ibanez, however, ruined it later by apologizing.
Everett apologizes for nothing.
When asked through his apparent press liaison whether he’d talk to the media about his spat with Hargrove, Everett said, “Tell ‘em it’s none of their damn business.”
When asked after Wednesday’s game to comment on his run-in with Knight, Everett said while sipping a Bud Light, “Ain’t (bleep) to talk about.”
In neither case did Everett detonate to appease the media. What good would that do? As he showed last season with the World Champion White Sox, Everett picks his spots when to go off. In the past, he was a distraction. Not now.
That’s the reason I have a hunch that this week’s blow-ups were calculated to light a fire under the team.
Certainly, the timing was right. Since coming off a highly successful road trip in which the M’s found themselves above the .500 mark and two games out of first in the AL West, they’ve won one game in their past six. They dropped two of three to the Rockies and just got swept by the Angels.
On Tuesday, Gil Meche objected to Hargrove’s pulling him in the fifth inning, after 87 pitches and with a 5-2 lead. He complained to the media after the game. The problem: He did it in the traditional Mariner way, in a voice so soft only a Cocker Spaniel could hear him.
The response by Hargrove, who avoids controversy as a scallop avoids oil spills: “There was nothing to smooth over.”
So all is well again, right? Wrong.
The Mariners are on a four-game losing streak. Just days ago, they were in a position to tie the Oakland A’s for first place in the division. Now, they’re in danger of letting the Angels catch them and throw them into the cellar.
Yes, it’s a long season, but a long season is made up of a lot of little seasons.
Maybe Everett has the right idea.
Inject a little passion.
Let some feathers fly.
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