Once upon a time, Dan Wilson was the second-best throwing catcher in the league after Pudge Rodriguez.
He caught Randy Johnson more than any other catcher did, working as the Big Unit's battery-mate for 742.2 innings across 109 games. The tall lefty had a 3.03 ERA and 11.9 K/9 with Wilson behind the dish, both significantly better than his career marks.
He caught Jamie Moyer more than any other catcher did, working as the soft-tossing southpaw's battery-mate for 1237.2 innings across 195 games. With Wilson catching, Father Time allowed a paltry .248 BAA and an OPS against that was 15% better than his career average. Dan Wilson helped Jamie Moyer become a first-time All-Star at 40 years old in 2003.
Wilson joined the Mariners in 1994 and was an All-Star himself in 1996, when he batted .285 with 18 homers and 83 RBI. He was teammates with some of the greatest players in Mariners history: Ken Griffey Jr., A-Rod, Edgar Martinez, and Jay Buhner.
He was the starting catcher for the 2001 squad that won a record 116 games in the regular season. He called a good game and remains one of the best defensive catchers of all time, so it only seemed fitting that he would eventually skipper the Mariners, MLB's only current franchise to have never appeared in a World Series.
This week, they did This Man dirty.
Shame on Jerry Dipoto.
If I don’t meet expectations at my job, I get fired.
The question should be what expectations is ownership setting that Jerry HAS met to keep his job for (checks a calendar) 11 years without reaching a World Series?
…answer…?
They don’t care about winning a World Series. They don’t care about winning anything.
They care about convincing you this team is exiciting and different than last year and getting you to spend your money on something that isn’t actually built to compete and throwing cheap thrills at the fans to distract them from that fact.
- Fireworks.
- Jimothy.
- Alumni events.
- More fireworks + DJ Pleno.
Like come on, 2.8M attendance this year and you’re gonna tell me the best we can do at 3/9 positions is some infinite platoon? For like 6 years in a row?
The expectation from the fans is a World Series victory not “winning records.”
Until fans start holding this franchise accountable for the failure, expect Jerry and ownership to continue the next 11 years as they’ve done the past 11 years.
This is what a high-caliber human looks like.
Alone on the dais on the worst day of his professional career. Yet, he remains graceful with nothing but kind things to say about his staff, his players, and #Mariners fans.
I suspect Dan did this of his own volition.
Acquiring Randy Arozarena is simply one of the best moves in the history of the Seattle Mariners.
Arguably the best left fielder in franchise history in just two and a half seasons, maybe this isn’t the end, but I don’t want to miss saying goodbye to Arozarena. Thank you, Randy.
Turned on the Mariners tonight at the start of the 6th inning and I think I’m good.
Might be time to start my nightly Hallmark Christmas Marathon 2 months early.
With Rick Rizzs retiring, I keep thinking about being a kid laying in bed listening to games on AM radio, or sneaking up late with my Dad trying to catch one more inning or one more quarter of our beloved Seattle teams.
The Sonics had Bob Blackburn and Kevin Calabro. The Seahawks had Pete Gross and Steve Raible. The Mariners had Dave Niehaus and Rick Rizzs. The Huskies had Bob Rondeau.
“Get out the rye bread and the mustard.” “Get on the magic carpet and fly.” “Holy catfish.” “It just continues…my oh my.” “Touchdown, Washington.”
Man…how lucky were we?
Those guys weren’t just calling games. They were the soundtrack of growing up around here.
Thank you, Rick. And thank you to all of them for conducting the soundtrack of my youth.