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On the Diamond Thankfully, spacious Safeco nothing like the Kingdome
Updated: Friday October 13, 2000 7:31 PM
By David Vecsey, CNNSI.com SEATTLE -- You might think of the 2000 Seattle Mariners as merely squatters in the House that Junior Built, running amok in the playoffs while The Man -- like any true do-it-yourselfer -- takes on a new refurbishing project elsewhere. No, Ken Griffey Jr. isn't here to enjoy the lavish surroundings that were constructed in large part due to the magic spell he cast over tax-paying Northwesterners in the 1990s. But make no mistake, Safeco Field belongs to these 2000 Mariners, who have learned to drive doubles and triples into its spacious power alleys, to bury bunts on the cushy grass and to score precious runs and conserve leads ... which is very much unlike the old days. Or as Mariners Game 3 starter Aaron Sele put it: "Obviously it is a little more conducive to some decent pitching. At the Kingdome you had Astroturf and fences you drag-bunt home runs at." In the new place, drag bunts are reserved for Division Series-winning safety squeezes, as Carlos Guillen demonstrated last week against Chicago in Safeco's first-ever playoff game. Another example of how the Mariners have adapted their game to the surroundings. "You could score runs [at the Kingdome] very, very quickly," said Mariners manager Lou Piniella, who may have had to brush up on his how-to-manage manual. "The ball traveled well and you had the Astroturf. At the same time you had that short porch in right field where right-handed hit it almost like they do in Fenway Park -- left-handed wise in Boston. "There were a lot of high-scoring games, whereas in Safeco runs are important. If you can get the lead and add a run here, add a run there, they mean a heck of lot. In the Kingdome, one run didn't mean all that much." Which, for Piniella, meant earning his paycheck a little more each game. "We used all the components of our team all year," he said. "You put in much more time going over matchups over the course of the season. We don't have a set, set lineup like the Yankees do, for example.
Talk all you want about the technical aspects of this stadium, how it affects pitchers, how it affects hitters, how its dimensions do this or that. There is really only difference that really matters. It is beautiful. And when you are there, you feel like you are watching baseball the way it should be played. Not in some carpeted driving range of a warehouse like the Kingdome, whose concrete ramparts and vacuous atmosphere are so much better served having been blown to Kingdome Come. It may or may not be raining in the hours before Game 3. Sometimes it's hard to tell here. Regardless, it is a beautiful day for baseball. The retractable roof is closed, but the Seattle skyline still is visible through the mist beyond left field. The Seattlites in their fleece and leather are huddled in the stands, some under Eddie Bauer blankets, most with fingers wrapped around a steaming mug of Tully's. Do they miss the 65-degree predictability of the Kingdome? Ha. You mean the place that Yankees manager Joe Torre called "a monster" and Piniella called "an offensive nightmare"? After posting a league-best 47-34 home record this season, which also happened to be a franchise record, the Mariners must feel pretty good about being tied 1-1 with the Yankees with the next three games at Safeco. Of course, the Yanks aren't complaining, either. "We had such nightmares of the Kingdome whenever we went into there," said today's starter Andy Pettitte. "It was like a vacation to come to this ballpark and play."
Notes: Lou Pinella is going with eight right-handed hitters against lefty Andy Pettitte. First baseman John Olerud is the only left-hander in the M's lineup. ... This is the second time in ALCS history that a game has fallen on Friday the 13th. Things got pretty spooky for Jay Buhner on Oct. 13, 1995, when his eighth-inning error allowed the Cleveland Indians to tie the game. But Buhner made up for the mistake by blasting a three-run homer in the top of the 11th to give the Mariners a 5-2 victory. ... Despite a lovely serenade of "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by the Safeco faithful, Lou Piniella was more impressed by Chuck Mangione warming up on the trumpet behind the batting cage during BP. The Grammy Award-winning Mangione is playing the National Anthem. ... Olympic gold-medalist Megan Quann, a native of nearby Puyallup, is throwing out the first pitch.
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