Sheriff pays a visit, wishes he was back

By Kirby Arnold

Herald Writer

PEORIA, Ariz. – The left-handed pitcher who the Seattle Mariners sorely need in the bullpen finally walked through the door on Wednesday. He brought the experience of a major league veteran, the knowledge of a clubhouse leader and the strut of a man confident in his ability.

Unfortunately, he also carried the scar of a man who’s a year away from pitching again.

Norm Charlton arrived at the Mariners’ training camp Wednesday, ready to resume the rehab on his shoulder and eager to be with his teammates again.

Charlton, an integral part of the Mariners’ success last year as the second left-hander in the bullpen, had rotator cuff surgery in January and will miss the season. He has spent the last month rehabbing in Seattle and will remain with the Mariners for the rest of spring training.

“It’s nice to be back,” Charlton said. “You miss being in the locker room with a bunch of guys.”

Charlton said he has every intention of pitching again but knows, at age 39, time isn’t doing him any favors. Still, this injury was easier to accept than others in his career.

“It really wasn’t that tough,” he said. “It was a little disappointing after the year I had last year. I was looking forward to pitching here this year, but that’s part of this game. I wasn’t nearly as upset as when I did my elbow (Tommy John surgery in 1993).

“When I did my elbow, I was young and I still had the majority of my career in front of me. Now, the majority of my career is behind me. It’s one of those things that happens. It’s not like I didn’t do things to keep it from happening. I’d done my exercises and I pitched. I got a certain number of throws and I had to fix it.”

The goal now is to prove that there are more throws left in that arm.

“I’ve got to keep tricking them,” he said.

Piniella still gone: Manager Lou Piniella remained in Florida with his ill father on Wednesday and it wasn’t certain when he will return.

Bench coach John McLaren, who has taken over the team while the manager is gone, said 83-year-old Louis Piniella was improving Wednesday after being admitted to a Tampa hospital Monday with double pneumonia.

Edgar’s bat leads M’s victory: Edgar Martinez finally is getting at-bats and his hitting stroke is showing it.

Martinez pounded two home runs Wednesday in the Mariners’ 9-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs. He finished 3-for-4 with four RBI, raising his average 54 points to .238.

Martinez has played in five straight games and is hitting .333 in that time. He missed several games during the first two weeks, partly because the designated hitter wasn’t used against National League opponents and partly because he had a sore leg.

“I feel better at the plate now and I’m taking better swings,” he said. “Playing a few games in a row helps a lot.”

Ichiro’s skid: Ichiro Suzuki went 0-for-4 Wednesday to continue a three-day hitless streak and send Japanese reporters scurrying for reasons why.

They asked McLaren for his observation of Suzuki’s 0-for-11 streak and got this answer:

“My observation is this: Batting champion. One of the best in baseball.”

Injury report: With one swing, Mike Cameron felt good all over.

Cameron, in his first game after sitting for more than a week with back spasms, hit a home run Wednesday in his first at-bat since March 11.

He said the swing felt great and the back was fine. But that was Wednesday.

“Tomorrow’s the day I’ll know,” Cameron said. “I’m feeling pretty decent. I’m not quite there yet, because I still feel a twinge or two here and there.”

He certainly didn’t have a twinge in his swing Wednesday. Cameron homered in his first at-bat off Cubs starter Juan Cruz and finished 2-for-3 with two RBI.

“You never know what you’re going to come up with (after sitting so long),” Cameron said. “That guy throws pretty good, but I saw the ball decent and I put a good swing on it.”

Two other injured Mariners, catcher Ben Davis and infielder/outfielder Desi Relaford, continued to make progress.

Davis hasn’t played since March 13 because of a strained oblique muscle. He took batting practice Wednesday morning and threw.

“We’ll just keep doing that for a couple of days,” trainer Rick Griffin said.

Relaford, out more than a week because of a sore hamstring, got eight at-bats as a designated hitter in the minor league camp. Relaford is scheduled to rejoin the major league club for tonight’s game against Oakland, but it’s not certain if he’ll play in the field.

“We’ll see how he runs before we decide,” Griffin said.

Roster cuts: The Mariners trimmed four players from their major league roster by optioning right-handed pitchers Wascar Serrano and Greg Wooten to Class AAA Tacoma and left-handed pitcher Matt Thornton to Class AA San Antonio, and re-assigning catcher Scott Maynard to the minor league camp.

There are 34 left in the major league camp. The M’s must get to 25 by opening day.

Lame excuse or valid complaint? One of the most common laments among pitchers at spring training in Arizona is that curveballs don’t have their usual break because of the dry air.

“I don’t buy it because I think a good one is going to break,” Mariners starter Paul Abbott said. “But I do think the ball is so slick here that you have a heck of a time gripping it, and that makes it hard to be consistent with the breaking ball. That’s why they don’t break. I don’t buy that it’s because of the air.”

How can the baseball be slick in Arizona when it’s the same ball used the rest of the year?

“It’s so dry down here. Look at my hands,” Abbott said, showing the dried-out palm of his pitching hand. “I’m constantly putting lotion on them. Sometimes I’ll grab a ball and I can’t get a good grip on it.”

Today in camp: Mariners vs. Athletics at Phoenix, 6:05 p.m. (PST) on KIRO radio (710 AM). Left-hander John Halama will pitch for the Mariners against right-hander Erik Hiljus. Right-hander Justin Kaye and left-hander Matt Jarvis also are scheduled to pitch for the Mariners.

Right-hander Freddy Garcia, who will be the Mariners’ opening-day starter, will pitch six innings in a minor league game.