Rhodes promises the razzle dazzle won’t end

SEATTLE – Diamonds are clearly not Omar Vizquel’s best friend.

Not when they’re on a pitcher’s ears anyway.

Arthur Rhodes’ ears, to be specific.

Blinded by the light off Rhodes’ diamond-studded earrings, Vizquel asked the umpires to have the Mariner relief pitcher remove them during the ninth inning of Saturday’s Seattle-Cleveland game at Safeco Field.

It was like asking a Gabor sister to remove her jewels.

Such a tizzy-fit did Arthur Rhodes throw. But he complied, removing the earrings. Then he was removed from the game.

Thus was a lazy autumn-like day turned into a wild and crazy autumn-like playoff game.

For the record, the Mariners won the game 3-2 in 11 innings.

So much for that.

Much more intriguing, does Arthur Rhodes wear his earrings if he’s called upon to pitch today? Particularly if he comes in to face Omar Vizquel?

Darn tootin’, he does.

“I will have them in tomorrow,” Sir Arthur declared.

Maybe if the sun isn’t shining, there won’t be a problem. Or … heh, heh, heh … maybe there will be.

You don’t suppose Vizquel was trying to bait Rhodes, do you?

Nah, he wouldn’t do that.

Or would he?

Well, whether he was trying or not, it worked. Like a 95-mph Rhodes fastball blowing away a hitter.

It started out so innocently. Rhodes came in to relieve Kazuhiro Sasaki with two out, a man on in the ninth with the score tied at 2 and a 1-0 count on Vizquel.

As Rhodes warmed up, Vizquel said he picked up “blinding” glare off the pitcher’s earrings.

“It really stands out,” Little O said. “Today it was really big. I faced him a few times before. I faced him at night, I faced him during the day and it didn’t really bother me, but today it was like right there. You could see the earring more than anything else.”

So Vizquel alerted the home plate umpire, Ed Rapuano. And the arbiter alerted Rhodes that the decorations would have to go.

Which didn’t set well with Sir Arthur.

Hey, he’d worn them all last year and all this season and nobody complained. Now this “little midget” – as he labeled Vizquel – was calling him on it?

“(Umpire crew chief Tim) McClelland said you can’t have earrings or jewelry or nothing on the field,” Rhodes recalled. “I said, ‘Well, you should have told me that in April.’ “

The earrings ultimately came off. And both teams came off their benches when it looked as though Rhodes and Vizquel might have a little garden party right there in the middle of the diamond.

“I don’t know why he acted the way he acted,” Vizquel said with all the innocence of a choir boy. “I mean, I think it’s in the rules anyway that you aren’t supposed to wear any jewelry out there.”

Gee, you never see pitchers wearing necklaces or earrings on the mound, do you? Just this culprit Arthur Rhodes.

Well, Sir Arthur blew.

“I was mad,” he said. “I didn’t have to take ‘em out in Cleveland. What’s the difference? We’re in Seattle, it’s a nice day, the sun is out, everybody’s having a good time. It was a close ball game. Take my earrings out? That doesn’t make sense.”

Maybe Rhodes uttered the magic words when he said, “close ball game.”

Nobody likes to face Rhodes. The man throws wicked pitches.

Tie game. Fireballing lefty coming in. And suddenly, his jewelry is too bright.

Not saying Vizquel faked it. His sight very well could have been affected. It was a sunny day. And those earrings are big. And Rhodes does throw hard. And a split-second of blindness could be devastating.

But it does make you wonder, doesn’t it?

“The main thing of the game is winning,” Vizquel said. “It’s not like you want to get him in or out. You just want to win the game.”

Rhodes couldn’t understand why he got ejected. He had taken both earrings out. He recalled that all he said then was “let’s go.”

“I got on the mound,” he said, “and he (McClelland) threw me out.”

Maybe the ump was peeved because Rhodes handed the earrings to M’s pitching coach Bryan Price rather than to him. It’s not every day an ump gets to handle such expensive merchandise.

Why would Rhodes get so angry about having to remove the jewelry?

Cleveland second baseman Roberto Alomar wondered if it might be because Rhodes is superstitious. “Maybe they’re … good luck for him,” he said.

Maybe they are.

So does this mean that Vizquel won’t be exchanging Christmas cards with Rhodes this year?

Probably.

Maybe Omar will just send him some fake diamond earrings.