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Thursday, September 8, 2005
M's of 1980: The original bad boys
It's been a quarter-century since the Mariners lost 90 games in consecutive seasons. Remember the 1980 M's? We didn't think so.
As you may have heard, the Mariners are not a very good baseball team. They are in last place. They have the third-worst record in baseball over the past two years. During that time, they have been worse than the Tampa Bay Devil Rays -- by five games, as of Labor Day.
They will probably lose 90 games for the second consecutive season, a dubious feat the franchise has not "achieved" in a quarter-century. The last time it happened was 1980, when Seattle followed a 95-loss season with 103 more.
At that point, the Mariners were 11 years from their first winning season, and 15 from their first playoff berth. Maury Wills (lifetime record: 26-56) was the manager, Mario Mendoza the starting shortstop, and Larry Cox the catcher, complete with a Borders-esque .202 batting average.
The Kingdome roof was gray. The crowds were small. As Wayne Twitchell, a right-hander who finished his big-league career with the 1979 club, said: "It almost didn't feel like baseball."
Now, the standings say the Mariners of '04 and '05 are not much better, leaving Seattle fans in somewhat of a big-league quandary:
Laugh or cry?
On one level, most followers know the current Mariners are closer to contending than their bumbling forebears. Ted Cox started at third base in 1980 and hit two home runs. Tom Paciorek's 15 led the team. Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson represent an upgrade. For $114 million, they should.
Still, losses are losses, and over the past two seasons the Mariners have demonstrated a faculty for futility not seen in these parts since Willie Horton swung a .221 bat as the designated hitter.
"We were the Seattle Moroners," outfielder Joe Simpson said, "not the Mariners."
These were the anonymous years, before Dave Henderson, Gaylord Perry and Alvin Davis. Floyd Bannister, Mike Parrott, and Rick Honeycutt anchored the '79 rotation. The immortal Byron McLaughlin had 14 saves.
Naturally, Mendoza hit .198.
"Unique," Bobby Valentine said of the '79 season, his last as a big-league player. "That wasn't that terrible of a team, I guess."
He paused.
"Well, it was a good group of guys, at least."
Valentine's first glimpse of Seattle baseball came near the end of spring training that year. He'd been released by the Mets and, with hopes of playing one final season, arranged a tryout with the Indians in Tucson. He had a two-hour layover in Phoenix and used the time to drop in on his friend, Paciorek.
He walked into the Mariners clubhouse. Chaos. Bill Stein, the veteran infielder, was bleeding. Profusely. Apparently, he had sliced open his finger on the water cooler minutes before.
Suddenly, Seattle was without a third baseman. The visitor forgot the Indians, walked into Darrell Johnson's office and said, "I'm Bobby Valentine. I can play some third for you."
The Mariners scrambled for a jersey. They gave him one that had belonged to Tom House, a left-handed pitcher released earlier that day. Valentine was unknown to the PA announcer, but started and had three hits. Without a contract.
Simpson reported the same day, after refusing a minor league assignment with the Dodgers. He played the next day, and the day after that, before the team left for Seattle. No one told him to fly with the team. Then again, no one told him not to. In fact, he never had a conversation with anyone about whether he had made the team. He simply boarded the plane, showed up at the Kingdome, and played 120 games.
Valentine described that spring as "screwy and hilarious," two adjectives that continued to define Kingdome baseball during those two years. Johnson was fired midway through the 1980 season. His replacement was Wills, the five-time All-Star whose managerial career provided about as many knee-slapping absurdities as wins.
The Mariners rushed him into the job, hoping his reputation for speed would become the team's turf-scorching identity. Instead, the operation disintegrated. As Leon Roberts said: "If you have no coaching experience, no managerial experience, and your first big-league job is a managerial job, it's a tough go."
"Maury knew a lot about the game," said Wes Stock, the pitching coach and Allyn resident. "God, there wasn't much he didn't know. But he didn't deal with the personalities. They didn't communicate with Maury. Maury didn't communicate with them.
"He was a great player. He did great things in baseball. That doesn't mean you'll be a great manager."
The stories have become legend:
Wills was fined and suspended after Yankees manager Billy Martin caught him giving orders to redraw the batter's box to accommodate Paciorek.
On a cold September night in Milwaukee, he summoned a left-hander to the mound -- when, in fact, no one was warming in the bullpen.
He taught his players to execute rundowns to the advancing base, which he said would catch the opposition off-guard.
Perhaps the most infamous event came at baseball's 1981 winter meetings. Wills, who declined to be interviewed for this story, told writers that his new center fielder was capable of covering ground and had great desire to play the position.
Asked for a name, Wills replied, "Leon Roberts."
At that, a writer inquired if he had consulted with Eddie Robinson.
"Who's that?" Wills asked.
The Texas general manager, he was told.
Roberts, it turned out, had been traded to the Rangers in December.
"True story," Roberts confirmed.
No one, it seemed, could win in Seattle. Even Rick Honeycutt, who ultimately pitched in 10 postseason series and earned a World Series ring, contributed to the general delinquency. He was caught scuffing with a thumbtack in 1980 and suspended for 10 days.
"That was stupid," Honeycutt said. "I was really struggling. I would've taken a chainsaw to the mound if they had let me. It obviously didn't work. It was embarrassing for myself, for the ballclub.
"With everything we were going through, I probably added some fuel to the fire."
Really, though, what was to be stoked? The Mariners averaged 10,504 fans per home game during the two seasons, less than one-quarter the number that flocked to Safeco Field each night in 2001 and 2002.
Whether due to bad baseball or a bad ballpark, fans stayed away. Right-hander Rob Dressler did not blame them. He recalled driving over Lake Washington from his home in Redmond on sunny summer days, seeing sailboats along the way.
"It's hard to imagine someone giving up a Sunday afternoon to come inside, rather than enjoy this beautiful city," he said. "At the same time, we weren't playing well.
"So, it got quiet in there. You'd hear the ball rattling in the seats."
Now, of course, attendance is not a problem. Fans have continued clicking Safeco's turnstiles, despite the losing records. The team's payroll, meanwhile, is near $90 million.
Last season, the Mariners spent well over $1 million per win in player salaries. Dressler recalled how he nearly made a six-figure annual salary, but not quite.
"We didn't have the resources, the talent," Twitchell said. "I watch them every night on TV. They haven't found the right recipe. A few years ago, I thought they had it."
Valentine still follows the Mariners, both out of interest and convenience. As manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan's Pacific League, he can watch Seattle play every morning, since local stations carry all of Ichiro Suzuki's games.
"I'm disappointed," Valentine said. "I think it's great when Seattle can connect the country, be a good baseball team, have that late-night game mean something. When Ichiro came over and signed, I can honestly tell you, I remember telling my friends that I wished I was managing there.
"They found the end of the rainbow. Everything was falling into place. My friends there were ecstatic with the game of baseball. You could watch it on TV and sense the crowd, the excitement. It jumped through the screen. It was fabulous, that era there."
"That era there," those bygone days, now seem almost as distant as the forgettable months of Maury's Mariners, the likes of which Seattle fans would rather not see again.
"I'm praying every night," Twitchell said. "I'm a Mariners fan. You know what? They'll be competitive again."
THEN AND NOW
| 1980 | Category | 2005 |
| 59-103 | Record | 60-79 |
| .364 | Win Pct. | .435 |
| Kingdome | Stadium | Safeco Field |
| 10,453 | Avg. attendance | 34,732 |
| Darrell Johnson | Manager | Mike Hargrove |
| and Maury Wills | ||
| Lou Gorman | GM | Bill Bavasi |
| Dave Niehaus | Radio broadcaster | Dave Niehaus |
| .248 | Batting average | .254 |
| 4.38 | ERA | 4.42 |
| Tom Paciorek (15) | Most homers | Richie Sexson (33) |
| 12 | Longest losing streak | 7 |
| 6 | Longest win streak | 4 |
| 14 | Shutout losses | 5 |
| 7 | Shutout wins | 7 |
| 20 | Days over .500 | 4 |
| Rick Honeycutt | All-Star | Ichiro Suzuki |
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