Mariners’ Sexson wanted to succeed in Seattle — maybe too much so

So, what happened?

How did Richie Sexson get to this spot, which is to say nowhere, from having hit 119 home runs in one three-season stretch with the Brewers?

How did he morph from a savior in many local minds, an unquestioned power hitter whom the Mariners prized to the tune of a $50 million contract over four years to this: A 6-foot-8 rally-killer, a stiff mercilessly booed by fans from his own home state?

How did he get here, receiving his long-overdue release late Wednesday night from the M’s, who now are paying him in the neighborhood of $7 million not to play for them?

That’s baseball, some would say. But that doesn’t even start to cover it.

Fans here never fully embraced Sexson, even when he was doing relatively well in his first two seasons in Seattle. A slow starter, Sexson seemed to warm up with the weather well enough to finish 2005 with 39 homers and 121 RBI and 2006 with 34 homers and 107 RBI.

But the past two seasons, when Sexson’s hitting plunged deeper than the New York Stock Exchange, fans let him have it. The more Sexson struggled, the more fans booed. The more fans booed, the more Sexson struggled.

So what happened? Was it Safeco Field, which Alex Rodriguez loved so deeply he fled to the Texas Rangers? Was it Seattle’s cool spring air, which turns home runs into warning-track fly balls?

It’s easy to point to the contract and accuse Sexson of losing his hunger, his motivation. He got his, the reasoning goes. He’s set for life. Why should he bust his butt any longer? This is what players dream of since they were 8 years old. He made it.

It also would be wrong. When it all went south on Sexson, he was embarrassed by it. He was injured by it.

He wanted to succeed. Maybe he wanted it too much.

He cared what people thought of him. Shortly before he reported to the M’s in 2005, he was arrested for DUI. Area media reported it, much to Sexson’s consternation. Embarrassed by the coverage, Sexson took it out on the media for a time. He eventually got over it, but that part of his personality clearly revealed itself.

Sexson was sensitive to fans’ enormous expectations that came with the contract. They saw 48 homers in 2001 and 2003. They saw a guy the size of a Cadillac and dreamed. And cast big-time anticipation.

Sexson felt it all. Slumps extended themselves. Strikeouts mounted. Fans, already hacked off by their basement-dwelling team, picked him as the prime whipping boy.

His reaction was predictable. As the pressure mounted, down went Sexson’s production. So haywire was his head, he couldn’t hit a beach ball with a bass fiddle.

Never let it be said, though, that management didn’t give Sexson every opportunity to succeed. It did, even though the prime reason was a refusal to eat Sexson’s contract. Willie Bloomquist hits Mendoza as an everyday player, he gets a one-way ticket to Class AAA Tacoma. But Sexson gets chance after chance after chance.

The chances, seemingly unlimited, finally ran out.

So desperate were the M’s to get something — anything — out of Sexson, they tinkered with his stance. They opened up his stance at the plate, moving his left foot toward third base. It only turned Sexson into a singles hitter, and not many singles at that.

New manager Jim Riggleman decided to start Sexson only against left-handers and then find ways to use him in limited spots against righties.

From savior to platoon player.

Riggleman might as well have asked him to join the Ice Capades.

The last straw came Wednesday, when Sexson moped around upon learning he would spend the night on the bench. Even though he was hitting .211 and had hit just two home runs since late May, Sexson apparently still saw himself as a regular in the lineup. That’s how screwed-up his head became.

Riggleman, fed up, disagreed.

At 33, Sexson shouldn’t be washed up. Contending teams looking for power should pick him up, hoping a change of scenery is all he needs.

Maybe it is.

He clearly didn’t take to the Pacific Northwest. And vice versa.

Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. For Sleeper[`]s blog, “Dangling Participles,” go to www.heraldnet.com/danglingparticiples.