PEORIA, Ariz. – Wear a pink shirt into the Mariners’ clubhouse and be prepared for ridicule.
Pitcher Ryan Feierabend boldly showed up with one last week and, after he changed into his baseball uniform, he found it displayed from the ceiling.
It was the work of team prankster J.J. Putz.
Ichiro Suzuki also wore pink the same day, showing up with a short-sleeved pink T-shirt, which topped off a unique ensemble that included denim jeans with camouflage patches, silver tennis shoes, a thin black long-sleeved shirt under the pink one, and a knit cap pulled over his eyes.
How did Ichiro’s shirt avoid a hanging like Feierabend’s?
“Ichiro, that’s style,” Putz said.
Asked if he was ever brave enough to wear a pink shirt during his early years as a pro, Putz said he was. Then he pointed to his locker, where he’d carefully hidden the pink shirt that he wore to the clubhouse that morning.
He apparently didn’t hide it well enough because less than a half-hour later, it was hanging from the ceiling, the work of an unknown teammate.
Johjima won’t go wire-to-wire: Catcher Kenji Johjima said his goal is to prepare himself to play all 162 games this season. To which manager Mike Hargrove said: not a chance.
“He hasn’t said anything to me about it this year, but we talked about that last year,” Hargrove said. “He wanted to catch them all. I’ve told him he’ll catch 130-plus games.”
Wear the message: The Mariners’ pitchers have heard plenty about throwing strikes and executing their pitches this season.
On Sunday, they were wearing those words.
All of the pitchers got a new T-shirt with the words “Pitch to Win!” on the back and “Work Fast. Work Ahead. Execute.” On the front.
The shirts were gifts from Hargrove and pitching coach Rafael Chaves, who called a T-shirt shop Saturday night.
Of note: Hargrove on volatile outfielder Jose Guillen and the inevitable explosion: “Sometimes you have a good player, and what makes him good is a passion that can erupt. You have to expect at some point during a season, you’ll see that side of him, that passion. When it happens, you don’t take it personally, because very rarely is it personal. If you try to bury a good player on your team, you better dig the hole big enough for you to crawl in next to him.” … Hargrove delivered his first on-field tirade of spring training when he chewed out some young baserunners during a drill. “If you want to make this team, if you want to stay on this team, you’d better pay attention,” Hargrove told them. … Long before Edgar Martinez spoke to the Mariners’ hitters at noon Sunday, he had private conversations with hitting coach Jeff Pentland and third baseman Adrian Beltre. … After Jose Vidro’s bat broke during batting practice and the barrel stuck into the ground near first base, it quickly became a target. Bench coach John McLaren urged Ichiro Suzuki to hit the barrel, and he nearly did it twice.
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