The 2009 season didn’t end with a playoff berth – or even a serious pursuit of a playoff berth.
You would hardly have known that after the Seattle Mariners’ end-of-season celebration that followed Sunday’s 4-3 win over Texas at Safeco Field.
Most of the crowd (32,260) stuck around after David Aardsma struck out Ian Kinsler to preserve Felix Hernandez’s career-high 19th win as the team celebrated on the field. Players started to duck into the dugout one at a time, but as a group the team stayed on the field, and the stragglers returned.
Ultimately, manager Don Wakamatsu told the players that a victory lap around the edges of the field to shake hands with the fans was in order. Hernandez, who had started undressing after his 6 2/3 innings were finished, threw his clothes back on and joined in as the players walked the periphery, throwing batting gloves, armbands and caps into the stands.
And as the group turned for home near the left-field corner, rookie Matt Tuiasosopo and midseason pickup Ryan Langerhans picked up 39-year-old designated hitter Ken Griffey Jr. and carried him the rest of the way. Griffey, who could be back but who also could retire, had tears streaming down his face. He’d been given standing ovations five times during the game, but this was a different level of emotion.
Seeing that Griffey was being carried, pitcher Carlos Silva picked up right fielder Ichiro Suzuki, put him on his shoulders and carried him as Griffey and Ichiro were given the royal treatment.
Once the team was in the clubhouse, DH Mike Sweeney got on his hands and knees to crawl through a mass of media to smash a paper plate full of soft frozen ice cream into the face of Wakamatsu. Then the manager and his coaches were treated to a beer shower as the emotions from 162 games poured out.
The Mariners went 85-77, a 24-game improvement from 2008, but still good only for third place. Imagine the level of celebration had a playoff spot been on the line.
Ichiro and Griffey both described the season and its ending as one of a kind.
“It was the most emotional roller coaster I’ve ever been on,” Griffey said. “You never know if it’s going to be your last time. It was a little awkward (being carried off). It’s one way that the guys showed their appreciation. It was a little weird, but I can’t thank the guys enough.”
Griffey’s contract with the Mariners is up. Will he come back if the Mariners want him to (and they seem to)?
“Yeah. I’ll go home and talk to the family,” Griffey said, “and figure out what’s best for all of us.”
As for Ichiro, he said he’d never been through anything like the post-Game 162 finale.
“Not only not on another team in another season could I not imagine it, but I don’t think anybody expected it to end up like that,” Ichiro said. “When (the walk-around) first started, I thought that maybe it would be too much.
“But by the end, to have Junior involved the way he was was good. Walking from left field, I was thinking to myself that I will never forget this view.”
Silva jokingly said he was upset that Ichiro told him he thought he weighed too much to be carried. Silva just laughed and carried him.
“I’m beginning to get a little fat myself,” the 170-pound right fielder said, smiling broadly.
Ichiro has three more years on his contract, so the Mariners know he’ll be around. The situation is much more uncertain for Griffey, who picked Seattle over Atlanta in March and who now can’t seem to imagine playing anywhere else. He spent the first decade of his career in Seattle, and although his numbers (.214, 19 homers, 57 RBIs) are far from his usual norms, the fans never forgot the player they called “The Kid.” He got standing ovations in each of his four plate appearances Sunday, and after an eight-inning single that saw him replaced by pinch runner Michael Saunders, the crowd called Griffey out of the dugout for another Standing O.
How would Griffey do without baseball, which he has played every summer of his life dating back to his early teens?
“I’d still come back,” he said. “I’d just show up on the road. I’ll just show up in the clubhouse and get a uniform. I’ve never thought of it. I’ve played baseball all my life. What comes next, I have no idea. I’m just glad I got to be here.”
He said that his offensive numbers and the trouble he has with his knees notwithstanding, he doesn’t believe he has tapped out.
“I feel that playing-wise, yeah, I (have a lot left in the tank,” he said. “With knowledge of the game and with helping younger kids out, yeah. Those are things you can’t replace, to help out other guys who are going through what you’ve been through.”
The Mariners’ general manager, Jack Zduriencik, will have meetings with Wakamatsu, the coaching staff and members of the front office starting Monday to sketch out preliminary ideas about what comes next. But if it’s anything like last year, anything could happen.
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