One thing Justin Leone has learned in life, no matter how some moments seem unforgettable, they can somehow be forgotten.
So when the 27-year-old infielder was brought to the majors by the Seattle Mariners arriving in the sixth inning of their game Thursday he decided he wasn’t going to let anything that happened to him slip away.
“I’m writing it all down,” Leone said Friday. “I don’t want to forget anything.”
For instance?
“Last night I was sitting on the bed at a Ritz Carlton hotel, and the maid called to see if I wanted my sheets changed,” he said. “I hadn’t even touched them yet.”
Not that the rooms on the road with the Tacoma Rainiers were bad, Leone said, but there was another huge difference.
“No roommate, one bed a big one,” he said. “I liked that a lot.”
The simplest things he’s noticed, he’s put on paper, aware that first impressions can be overwhelmed.
“I’m in the dugout sitting alongside Edgar (Martinez) and (Bret) Boone, guys I learned a lot from in spring training,” Leone said. “Now I’ve taken batting practice on a field where Mark McGwire and Albert Pujols played.”
The transition in Seattle was made a bit easier because former Tacoma teammates like Travis Blackley, Hiram Bocachica and Matt Thornton are in the same clubhouse.
“You hear things in Tacoma, that changes are coming, that the opportunities may be there, but I never expected it this quickly,” Leone said. “I thought maybe the end of the year.”
Bob Melvin said Leone’s versatility might serve him.
“He’s comfortable playing third base, shortstop and left field,” Melvin said. “That gives us options.
Larry LaRue, The News Tribune
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