By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – For the first time he can remember, Jay Buhner isn’t spending his winter sweating through the rehab from an injury or conditioning his body for the long baseball season to come.
This, at long last, is a retirement year for Buhner, the popular former Seattle Mariners outfielder who announced last month that his career is done after 18 pro seasons.
Miss it?
Buhner says he hasn’t had time to miss it.
“I’m being a dad and visiting family,” he said. “I’m snowmobiling and doing some reckless and crazy things I wasn’t able to do, contract-wise, before. At this stage, I don’t miss it.”
Time with his family, his former teammates and community service projects for the Mariners, plus commentary on several radio broadcasts this year, Buhner said his calendar already is full.
That includes April 2, when the Mariners will observe “Jay Buhner Night” at Safeco Field.
“I’m honored and I’m flattered,” Buhner said. “I’m already nervous about it.”
There are no plans to retire Buhner’s No. 19, and he doesn’t want it.
“There are too many people ahead of me who need to have their numbers retired,” Buhner said. He wasn’t bashful about who should be the first.
“Junior,” he said of close friend Ken Griffey Jr. “I still keep praying and keep my fingers crossed that some way, somehow he’ll be back here in Seattle in a Mariners uniform.”
Just a ballplayer: Relief pitcher Jeff Nelson said he felt fairly unimportant on Wednesday as he prepared for his portion of the Olympic torch relay through Seattle.
“The best part of it was sitting in the van (before the run) and listening to all the stories about how they (the torch carriers) were nominated. I’m nothing. I’m just a baseball player. There were people who survived cancer and kids who’ve had serious operations. There was the pilot who got shot down over Bosnia and survived.
“The only thing I might have survived was New York.”
Nelson, a former Yankee, kept the torch from his leg of the run and will display it at his home.
“It’ll go up in my den next to everything else,” he said. “Hopefully, there will be a World Series trophy from Seattle there with it someday.”
Name from the past: The Mariners’ search for a fifth starter has focused primarily on John Halama and Ryan Franklin. Don’t be surprised if Ken Cloude becomes a candidate as well.
Cloude, who pitched with meager results for the Mariners in 1997, ‘98 and ‘99, has missed the past two years because of elbow surgery and a torn Achilles’ tendon. He’s finally healthy and began throwing off a mound on Thursday at the team’s training facility in Peoria, Ariz.
M’s trainer Rick Griffin said Cloude should be at full strength when spring training begins next month.
FanFest weekend: Several players and team officials will appear Saturday and Sunday at the Mariners’ fourth annual FanFest at the Stadium Exhibition Center, just north of Safeco Field. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days.
Scheduled for Saturday are pitchers Paul Abbott and Shigetoshi Hasegawa, infielder Alex Arias, infielder-outfielder Charles Gipson, former Mariner Dave Valle, team CEO Howard Lincoln and president Chuck Armstrong.
On Sunday, Abbott, Arias, Gipson and Armstrong will be joined by second baseman Bret Boone, third baseman Jeff Cirillo, pitchers Jamie Moyer and Jeff Nelson, catcher Dan Wilson and retired outfielder Jay Buhner.
The players and officials will appear on the main stage and answer questions and sign autographs.
The FanFest also will include several interactive exhibits. Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for kids 6-14. Tickets can be purchased at the door or at Ticketmaster (206-622-4487).
Free tours of Safeco Field also will be held, starting every half hour at the team store in the ballpark.
See the Sox: The Everett AquaSox, the Class A short-season affiliate of the Mariners, will occupy a portion of the FanFest with a speed pitch booth, information on tickets and promotions this year and opportunities for tickets and merchandise through drawings.
A hot ticket: The Mariners, who had sold 19,700 season tickets by opening night last year, already have sold 21,404, team president Chuck Armstrong said.
“And we haven’t yet started our ad campaign,” he said.
The totals include full season tickets and packages (such as the 16-game offer) that equal a season ticket.
The team expects to sell more season tickets this weekend when fans can visit Safeco Field and pick their seat locations. Account executives will be available from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:30-7:30 p.m. today, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
In addition, single-game tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Safeco Field ticket windows (on the Atlantic Street and Royal Brougham sides of the park), at the Mariners team stores at Alderwood Mall, Bellevue Square and Southcenter Mall, and through Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com or 206-622-4487).
A hotter broadcast draw: Armstrong said the Mariners’ telecasts last year on Fox Sports Net averaged 250,000 households in the Puget Sound region and about 45,000 in Portland. More than 600,000 listened to the KIRO radio broadcasts and, combined with other stations on the regional radio network in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia, the audience surpassed an average of 1 million.
Ramsay has surgery: Former Mariners pitcher Rob Ramsay underwent 10 hours of surgery Wednesday in San Francisco to remove a brain tumor. Mariners officials, who spoke with Ramsay’s family, said the surgery went well but the results of test on the tumor, to determine if it’s cancerous, won’t be known for a few days.
The family said cards may be sent to Ramsay at: UCSF Medical Center, 505 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94143.
Ramsay was signed off waivers by the San Diego Padres in November.
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