Houston, We Have Liftoff

"Yeah, right," Alou said.

The shrewd Hunsicker has improved the Astros without joining the top tier of payrolls; 12 of Houston's 25 players have come aboard in Hunsicker's 33 months on the job. His master plan was to make the Astros a World Series team in 2000, the year they are scheduled to open a retractable-roofed, 42,000-seat ballpark. But with Houston rolling to its best record ever through July (65-44), Hunsicker decided to strike now. Alou, Bagwell and Derek Bell are each on pace to drive in 100 runs, while the Astros, who have never scored 800 runs in a season, might crack 900. "I can't imagine having a better core of [every-day] players than we have now," Hunsicker says. "How many times does a middle-market team have an opportunity like this? I knew something was missing. Without a dominant Number 1 starter in the postseason, it's almost impossible to advance."

Johnson, who is in the last year of a four-year, $20 million contract, was available because the Mariners would not commit to another long-term deal. As formidable as Johnson has been in the 1990s, he turns 35 next month, has thrown a lot of pitches in crucial late-season games, missed almost all of the 1996 season with a back injury and was 9-10 with a 4.33 ERA in 23 starts with Seattle this year. He wants a multiyear deal worth at least $10 million a year.

In early July, Hunsicker asked Seattle general manager Woody Woodward about Johnson, but Woodward was hanging on to him as long as the Mariners had a shot at the wild card. It was not until July 27 that Woodward told Hunsicker that he was willing to talk to him about a deal involving Johnson.

Hunsicker briefed McLane, who was in Poland on business for his grocery-distribution firm. On July 29 the Toronto Blue Jays called to offer righthander Roger Clemens to the Astros, but their asking price was so high that Hunsicker quickly dismissed any possibility of a deal. McLane returned to Houston that night and met with Hunsicker the following morning. It made sense, they agreed, to take on Johnson's remaining salary of $2 million. "Just building a new stadium isn't enough to draw people," McLane said on Sunday.

Woodward asked for Scott Elarton, 22, a 6'7" righthander with a 95-mph fastball, and 23-year-old outfielder Richard Hidalgo, both of whom were on the major league roster. Over the next two days Hunsicker refused to give up either one of them in any deal, offering lesser prospects with no major league experience. When Hunsicker went home at 8:30 p.m. last Friday, he hadn't heard from Woodward for three hours.

"I assumed they were going with the Yankees or Cleveland," Hunsicker says. "The Mariners said all along they wouldn't make a trade without getting a starting pitcher to put in their rotation now. As long as other teams were willing to do that, I figured we had no chance."

At 11:10 p.m. Hunsicker called Woodward "just to satisfy my curiosity and make a last-ditch effort." Woodward said he would call back. The Mariners had spent eight months putting Johnson on and off the trading block. They had turned down deals that would have brought them Mariano Rivera from the Yankees, Chad Ogea from the Indians and Ismael Valdes from the Dodgers. But at 11:20 p.m. last Friday—40 minutes before the trading deadline—it had come to this: Woodward telephoned Hunsicker and indicated he was willing to talk about the Astros' second-tier prospects. Hunsicker offered him three minor leaguers, none of whom satisfied Seattle's demand for a big league pitcher.

Woodward again said he would call back. "I got nervous," Hunsicker says, "because at 11:45, I was still waiting around for him to call." Between calls to Hunsicker, Woodward was making one last fishing trip to the Yankees' talent pool. But New York refused to give up righthander Hideld Irabu and third base prospect Mike Lowell.

At 11:50 p.m. the phone rang in Hunsicker's house. "We have a deal," Woodward said. The Mariners agreed to take Carlos Guillen, a switch-hitting infielder with power; Freddy Garcia, a righthanded power pitcher; and a minor leaguer to be announced later. Garcia may be a dominant major league starter "in two to three years," Hunsicker says. Or maybe not. As far as trades go, Seattle is having a bad decade. While a lack of pitching depth has kept otherwise immensely talented Mariners teams out of the World Series, Seattle has traded pitchers Hampton, Shawn Estes, Dave Burba and now Johnson without having any players on their current roster to show for them.