The Mariners truly are star-studded

Sporting News, The, June 25, 2001

Great story, these Mariners, and it's being told and retold, how they lost all their superstars and yet keep winning more often than anyone since the 1912 New York Giants started 54-12. That includes the Yankees of 1998, who won 114 regular-season games with very few true best-of-the-best players.

Great story. But not entirely fair.

Suggesting that the Mariners are superstar-less does a disservice to Edgar Martinez, Ichiro Suzuki and Kazuhiro Sasaki. You can't tell me those guys aren't superstars. It does a disservice to Bret Boone, too, who is having a superstar season. Entering the week, Boone was leading the American League in RBIs. The last second baseman to lead either league in RBIs was Rogers Hornsby in 1925.

So while it's fine to commend Seattle for winning without Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez, it's misleading to compare them with the '98 Yankees, who won all those games without a single All-Star starter except pitcher David Wells.

Compared with those Yankees, these Mariners are positively loaded. Ichiro, Edgar and Boone by all rights ought to be starting in the All-Star Game on July 10. All-Star manager Joe Torre easily could justify naming four Seattle pitchers to the team: Sasaki, starters Aaron Sale and Jamie Moyer and setup man Jeff Nelson, who is holding opposing hitters to an unbelievable .097 betting average.

They're a great team, these Mariners. One of the reasons is that they still have superstars playing for them.

From the Buck & Bob Bureau: We pay one-time homage this week to Jeff Torborg, the third ex-catcher, ex-throat to step into a manager's job this season. He met Martinez in an interleague showdown in Montreal last weekend and split the first two games. The only thing that keeps me from including the Expos' three-week-old skip in our weekly standings is his previous managing experience. (That, and the fact that his first name doesn't start with "B" and thus would ruin our alliterative entree into this section.) Brenly and Martinez are still rookies. The standings:

              W      L     Pct.        GB

Brenly       41     27     .603        --
Martinez     32     35     .478     8 1/2

TSN's Power Poll

Rk.         Team           W-L

 1.   Seattle             52-14
 2.   Chicago Cubs        40-25
 3.   Arizona             41-27
 4.   Cleveland           40-25
 5.   Boston              39-27
 6.   Minnesota           41-25
 7.   N.Y. Yankees        38-28
 8.   Philadelphia        39-27
 9.   Atlanta             36-30
10.   Los Angeles         37-31
11.   San Francisco       36-32
12.   Colorado            35-32
13.   Florida             33-33
14.   St. Louis           35-32
15.   Houston             33-32
16.   Chicago White Sox   30-34
17.   Oakland             32-34
18.   Anaheim             32-34
19.   Milwaukee           32-33
20.   Toronto             32-35
21.   Baltimore           30-36
22.   Kansas City         27-40
23.   Detroit             28-36
24.   San Diego           30-38
25.   N.Y. Mets           29-39
26.   Cincinnati          25-41
27.   Montreal            26-42
28.   Texas               23-43
29.   Pittsburgh          22-43
30.   Tampa Bay           21-46

Through last Saturday's games. TSN's
Power Poll is determined by TSN editors.

RELATED ARTICLE: The seventh-inning stretch

1. Orix Blue Wave. The team used to have a superstar (Ichiro); now it has a foreigner (ex-Padre George Arias). The Wave shot to first place. Think they let Arias have just "George" on his jersey?

2. Kevin Brown. His return was slowed by a tingling sensation in his hand. Gary Sheffield's return was slowed by a tingling sensation between his ears.

3. University of Miami. Wait, wait ... good baseball in Florida?

4. The Phillles. Larry Bowa is on pace to break the N.L. single-season profanity record.

5. Wrigley Field. It's summer and the wind's blowing out, which is a relief in the dugout when Don Baylor has Mexican for lunch.

6. Ruben Sierra. Great story, but every time you see him, don't you still think, "goofball," and have a good chuckle?

7. Mind games. Something about these three phrases gives me the same queasy feeling: "Shaquille O'Neal steps to the free-throw line," "ground ball to Knoblauch ... "and "Rick Ankiel goes into the windup ..." --Sean Deveney