By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Lou Piniella would love to see an outpouring of patriotic emotion, and then the same competitiveness that drove his team the past 5 1/2months.
He knows it might not be that simple for the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night when they resume their season.
“I really don’t know what to expect,” Piniella said Sunday before the Mariners worked out at Safeco Field.
The weight of last week’s terrorist attacks remained squarely on Piniella’s shoulders, but so did an attitude that life must go on and baseball plays a role that can be vital in that process.
“I think we tend to lose sight of that,” Piniella said. “This is a pretty good reminder for everybody. Once the games start, the intensity will come back, the will to succeed. But still, I really don’t know what to expect. This has been unprecedented, at least in my lifetime.”
The Mariners practiced Sunday for the third time since the season was interrupted last Tuesday. During batting practice, pitchers Arthur Rhodes, Jeff Nelson, Kazuhiro Sasaki and Joel Pineiro threw briefly off the mound as they tried to regain their sharpness.
Pitchers, who tend to be at their best when they get regular work, could be the most vulnerable after a seven-day layoff. Freddy Garcia will start Tuesday’s game.
“It’s going to be like a pseudo spring training game,” said right-handed starter Aaron Sele. “Your competitive nature will kick in, but you probably won’t be as sharp. You’ll have to stay a little more mentally tough because physically you probably won’t be as sharp.”
Piniella is just as concerned at getting regular work for the position players. That wasn’t a problem before the interruption because, in an effort to rest the team, Piniella gave each regular at least one day off per week and rotated players like Jay Buhner, Stan Javier, Mark McLemore and Tom Lampkin.
“This negates having to rest them, but at the same time we’ve got to find a way to have our extras get at-bats,” Piniella said. “We’ve got to get Jay some at-bats, I’ve got to get (Pat) Borders in to catch in case we go to the postseason with three catchers. We’ve got to get our bullpen some work so they’ll be sharp.
“Over the next 18 games, there’s a lot of work to do to get back to where we were.”
The Mariners can clinch the American League West Division championship Tuesday if they beat the Anaheim Angels and the second-place Oakland A’s lose at Texas.
A week ago, that was the only business that seemed to matter. Now the Mariners realize how important baseball can be in the healing process of the country.
“Danny said it best: Working is patriotic,” Piniella said, repeating words he heard catcher Dan Wilson say. “In three words, that sums it up pretty well.
“It just so happens that we’re in the sports and entertainment business. We’ve got to go out and do our jobs the same way people at Microsoft and IBM and General Electric do theirs. We have to do the best we can, even though it’s difficult.”
The Mariners seemed to be a more normal group than the somber bunch that worked out Friday. They joked around the batting cage and clusters of players in the outfield produced occasional laughter.
There was no mistaking, however, where their hearts were.
They wore American flag stickers near the earflap of their batting helmets. Reserve infielder Ed Sprague, who won an Olympic gold medal in 1984 and whose wife won gold as a synchronized swimmer in ‘88, wore a T-shirt with the American flag printed across the chest.
They all worked out trying to achieve the single-mindedness they had a week ago.
“It will happen,” Piniella said of the intensity. “I don’t think you can push it, just allow it to happen. It will come naturally.
“Our thoughts are still going to be there. Our emotions are still going to be there. But at the same time, you’ve got to do the job that’s at hand and you’ve got to find the strength to do it.
“On our American currency it says ‘In God We Trust.’ In this situation here, in God we trust also. The quicker we restore normalcy, the better it will be for this country. Sports is part of the fiber of this country. It’s important that we start playing again.”
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