Starting pitcher Bobby Madritsch spent most of the season rehabbing a strained capsule in his left shoulder, knowing a small tear in his labrum could become a problem.
It has.
The labrum was the cause of pain in the shoulder during recent throwing sessions and a magnetic resonance imaging exam Thursday showed he needs arthroscopic surgery. Madritsch says he’ll have the operation within two weeks in an attempt to be full strength by spring training.
Madritsch, who started just one game before he went on the disabled list in April, said it’s difficult to measure his frustration.
“The whole year, man. That’s probably the most frustrating thing,” he said. “I’ve worked the whole year for the one injury to heal up, but the labrum ended up getting a little worse. The hardest thing to deal with was the time I’ve been away from the team. Now, with surgery, it’s another blow.”
The typical recovery time from labrum surgery is 4-6 months, and Madritsch believes he’ll be at full strength when spring training begins in mid-February.
“My motivation is to be back with my team next year,” he said.
Thanks, Dan: One day after retiring catcher Dan Wilson played his last game and thanked his Mariners teammates, the players, coaches and manager Mike Hargrove thanked him back.
The Mariners held a team meeting after batting practice Saturday and presented Wilson with a bronze sculpture of home plate that contained his career statistics, mounted on a metal beam from Safeco Field.
They also gave Wilson and his wife, Annie, his-and-hers watches and four huge framed photo collages with dozens of pictures from his 12 years with the Mariners.
When someone asked if he had a wall at home big enough to fit the four frames, which are about five-feet wide each, Wilson smiled.
“I don’t know if I’ve got four walls that would fit one of them,” he said.
A most amazing day: Ten years ago today, the moment that play-by-play announcer Dave Niehaus thought might never happen, happened.
The Mariners beat the Anaheim Angels 9-1 on Oct. 2, 1995, in a one-game playoff that won their first division championship.
After 17 years broadcasting mostly uncompetitive baseball, Niehaus savored the moment.
“The image that comes back to me in that ballgame is Mark Langston sitting on top of home plate in complete, utter frustration, then finally with his head dropping down,” Niehaus said.
The Mariners scored four runs on the play when Luis Sojo hit a bases-loaded double into the bullpen near the right-field line at the Kingdome, then scored on a throwing error. Langston, the Angels’ pitcher, was covering the plate when Sojo scored.
In the broadcast booth, Niehaus basked in a moment he’d long dreamed of witnessing. In the final days of the regular season, it looked like the Mariners might frustrate him again.
They had clinched a tie for the division title in the first of a three-game series at Texas, but lost the final two games. The Angels, meanwhile, beat the A’s in their final two regular-season games to set up the one-game playoff at the Kingdome.
“We came home and wondered if we could win one more darned ballgame,” Niehaus said. “In retrospect it wasn’t as big as Game 5 of the ALDS (when the Mariners beat the Yankees on Edgar Martinez’s double), but at the time it was monumental.”
Of note: First baseman Richie Sexson, named the Mariners’ MVP on Friday by writers covering the team, is a finalist for AL comeback player of the year in Players Choice voting. … Friday’s victory left the Mariners with a 13-15 record in September, giving them more victories than any other month of the season. They went 12-12 in April. … When Eddie Guardado recorded his 36th save Friday, he became the second Mariner to have more than 35 saves in a season. Kazuhiro Sasaki recorded 35 three times. Four Mariners – Guardado, Sasaki, Mike Schooler and Jose Mesa – have saved at least 30 games.
Kirby Arnold, Herald writer
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