By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – From Anaheim to Safeco Field, all the Seattle Mariners can do is wait.
Players, coaches and team personnel remain in California, waiting for air space to reopen so they can fly home. Three of the team’s executives are somewhere in mid-America, returning in a rental car from baseball’s quarterly meetings in Milwaukee. At team headquarters, officials huddled to make plans for the resumption of the season without knowing when that will be.
The Mariners’ game Wednesday at Anaheim was called off for the second straight day, and tonight’s scheduled opener of a four-game home series against the Texas Rangers has been wiped out as well.
Commissioner Bud Selig is expected to announce today whether major league games will be played on Friday.
“The biggest thing for us is knowing when the season will resume,” said Randy Adamack, the Mariners’ vice president for communications. “When that’s done, we’ll be able to make some quick decisions. Otherwise, we’re just kind of grasping at air.”
Fans who planned to attend tonight’s game are asked to hold on to their tickets.
“As soon as we know when the schedule resumes and when games will be made up, we’ll get information out on it,” Adamack said. “We’ve had a lot of meetings and we’ve talked through the scenarios. What if we start Friday, what if we start Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday? I think we have a pretty good handle on what we’ll do and what we’ll be able to tell people as soon as we know.”
One of the biggest challenges is to get the Mariners and Rangers to their next venue.
The Rangers decided Wednesday they will board busses this morning in Oakland, not knowing if they will head for Seattle or back to Texas, depending on when the season resumes. The Rangers were to have played a three-game series against the A’s early this week.
The Mariners stayed at the team hotel in Anaheim on Wednesday waiting for air travel to resume.
“Because we have a charter, we don’t have quite the logistical problem of commercial flights,” said Rebecca Hale, the team’s director of public information. “But once they open airways, it may be that commercial planes have priority and charters might have to wait.”
The Mariners have not discussed taking busses back to Seattle, said baseball information director Tim Hevly.
Three Mariners executives – president Chuck Armstrong, chairman emeritus John Ellis and chief financial officer Kevin Mather – decided not to wait for air travel. When baseball’s quarterly meetings, scheduled to begin Tuesday in Milwaukee, were cancelled, they rented a car and decided to drive home.
When the games do resume, the Mariners say there will be an observance of the tragedy on the East Coast.
“We’ve started to talk about it and think about it,” Hale said. “I’m positive there will be some sort of appropriate tribute.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
