Opponent: Baltimore Orioles
When: 10:35 a.m.
Where: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore
TV: FSN(cable)
Radio: KIRO (710 AM)
Probable starting pitchers: Seattle right-hander Joel Pineiro (3-1, 2.35 ERA) vs. right-hander Rick Bauer (0-0, 0.00).
Oh, waitress: You have seen many sides of Ichiro Suzuki this season, but never the one his teammates well get a good, long look at after the game today.
There’s been Suzuki the All-Star. Suzuki the defensive whiz. Suzuki the batting wizard.
And today, for the bus ride to the airport, cross-country flight home, there will be Suzuki the Hooters waitress.
“Hey, he’s a rookie,” Jay Buhner said Saturday. “He’s going to be the rookie of the year.”
For years now, the Seattle Mariners veterans have picked one road game – usually an East Coast – to have a little fun with first-year major leaguers. During the game, all their clothes are removed from their lockers in the clubhouse.
What replaces them is usually an outfit you wouldn’t figure a man making a $225,000 minimum salary would have around the house.
“When they got me in 1992, they made me wear a pink kimono,” reliever Jeff Nelson said.
“That was my rookie year, too, and they made me wear a mini-skirt,” Bret Boone said. “I got even – I didn’t wear underwear. The whole flight home, I was flashing guys.”
Today, after the game, four Mariners rookies – three players and a coach – will find Hooters girls outfits hanging in their lockers.
Suzuki will be one, pitchers Ryan Franklin and Joel Pineiro will be two and three.
And the fourth?
Third base coach Dave Myers.
“Most teams do something like this,” Aaron Sele said. “In Boston one year, they made all the rookies wear superhero outfits and go through customs in Toronto that way.
“The year they got me, they had this hideous plaid sports coat and purple knickers and a really ugly shirt, and I had to wear that through customs.”
“If you fight it, it just gets worse,” Boone said. “All I remember is that Jeff Nelson was the ugliest rookie in his outfit.”
Record setter: Suzuki grabbed a share of another team record Saturday, and this one wasn’t merely for rookies. In his 133rd game, he banged out three hits – his 65th multiple-hit game of the season. That matched the team record set in 1996 by Alex Rodriguez. Suzuki has 23 three-hit games and five four-hit games this year.
Buhner to start: Jay Buhner looked so good in his first plate appearance of the season Saturday, drawing a walk, that manager Lou Piniella decided to start Buhner today. He’ll be in the lineup either as a left fielder or the designated hitter.
Short hops: Seattle finished the month of August with a 20-9 record, fashioned around a 3.30 staff earned run average and a .296 team batting average. … The Mariners need to win today to avoid losing their first road series of the season and first since Aug. 22-24, 2000. That was 27 road series ago, a major league record they’d like to extend. … Turns out Bret Boone’s 31 home runs doesn’t have him within one of the American League record for homers in a season by a second baseman – even though that record is 32. One of Boone’s home runs this season came as a pinch-hitter, so as a second baseman, he’s only hit 30 this year.
Larry LaRue
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