Everybody Scores: An Interview With Rick Rizzs About the ’95 Mariners

March 14, 2009

Not long after spring training started, I spent a few minutes talking with Rick Rizzs about his memories of the ’95 Mariners from a broadcaster’s perspective, and we discussed a few elements of the season. Here’s how the interview went:

Arne: Was there any sense coming into the 1995 season of what the Mariners could do?

Rick: There was a great nucleus, Junior, Randy, Edgar, but nobody really knows what’s going to happen before the season starts.

Arne: Coming off the strike that stretched into the scheduled start of the season, were fans upset at baseball?

Rick: The fans were upset, they were frustrated, sure. There was anger. But people really just wanted to see baseball again. The strike had extended into April, and we had spring training for two weeks before the season started in late April. There had been replacement players scheduled to begin the season. Thank goodness it didn’t come to that. The Mariners would’ve lost more games early, they wouldn’t have been in position later in the season to make their run.

Arne: At what point in the season did it begin to feel like the Mariners could do something?

Rick: All the pieces of the puzzle came together: everybody stepped up and got the job done. After Junior broke his wrist on May 24, Diaz and Amaral made some great plays. Edgar hit about .400 while Junior was out. Blowers played a huge role; he had something like 98 RBIs that year. Tino of course.

If you remember, that was the first year of the wild card, and in July, people were thinking in terms of that. But then Buhner said “hey, forget the wild card, let’s win the division,” and the Mariners picked up Charlton on waivers from Philadelphia in July, they made some trades for Coleman and Benes and people got serious.

Arne: As the season went along, the Mariners played under the rumor that they were moving to Tampa. Was there a sense that they were really going to leave without something happening?

Rick: Yes, that was the season that saved baseball in the Northwest. I remember on the 19th of September the vote on the stadium funding took place. Texas had the Mariners beat but they made a comeback against Jeff Russell. Coming out of the park after the game we learned there were 500,000 votes, and it lost by 1,000. That was for the 1/10th of 1 percent sales tax on restaurants, bars, car rentals, the lottery. But then a task force and the legislature got together and put together a creative funding package just as the Yankees series was ending.

Arne: How about the Angels playoff?

Rick: You know it was the 3rd largest comeback in the history of baseball. The Mariners had tied up the division to end the season, coming into the playoff with the Angels. You had Randy Johnson and Mark Langston starting. The Mariners had traded away Langston for Randy in 1989, and now they were matched up against each other. Just a great game. In the bottom of the seventh, Blow was on third, Tino on second, and Cora on first, and I remember Vince Coleman had a great at-bat. He fouled off pitch after pitch, finally on the 11th or 12th pitch he hit a low line drive to right and Tim Salmon made a great catch. Then came Sojo, and “Here’s the pitch. Swing, and it’s a ground ball, and it gets on by Snow. Down the right field line into the bullpen. Here comes Blowers. Here comes Tino. Here comes Joey. The throw to the plate is cut off. The relay by Langston gets by Allanson. Cora scores! Here comes Sojo! Everybody scores!!!”

Arne: People don’t seem to remember the Indians series so well; I haven’t really had anyone write about it. The Mariners were up 2-1 on the Indians, then lost the last three games and the series was over. Why do you think they faltered?

Rick: Sure, there was that stirring game in game 3, Buhner going from hero to goat to hero, hitting the homer in the second, not getting that fly ball in the eighth inning, then winning the game with his home run in the 11th. You know, it had taken so much just getting into the playoff with the Angels, then coming back from 2-0 against the Yankees. Randy had pitched three innings in game 5. The Mariners had to use Wolcott, who hadn’t even been on the roster, to start game 1.

Coming into the Cleveland series, you thought this is going to be their year, they had the magic working. But they just ran out of gas, they’d left everything on the field against the Angels and Yankees. They tried to drum up the energy, but they’d used all their magic dust just to get there. The Indians had so much talent, Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, Omar, and of course Jim Thome at third, but also their pitching, Dennis Martinez, Orel Hershisher, Charles Nagy.

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A Conversation With Mariners Announcer Tom Hutyler: Ken Griffey Jr., the Indians Series, and the Kingdome

March 13, 2009

My conversation with Mariners public address announcer Tom Hutyler continued by comparing the ’95 and ’01 Mariners and talking about the Kingdome, his signature announcement of Ken Griffey Jr., and the 1995 ALCS. Here’s part two of our conversation (see part one here):

Arne: I know most people have fonder memories of the ’95 season than the ’01 season. Is it the same way for you?

Tom: Oh, yes. In 2001 it was not a new deal. The drama of what happened in 1995 wasn’t there. 2001 was a foregone conclusion from May or June onward. We had the All-Star game, and the Mariners had eight or nine players on the team. The only question was would they reach the 116-game record. Then 9/11 happened, and people knew it wasn’t so important how many wins they had. 1995 was so much more impactful, so unlikely, such a storybook ending. There was the fantastic finish, the underdog coming up from nowhere. Actually the most dramatic game after ’95, I’d say, was the game against the White Sox, Carlos Guillen’s bunt to win the game. That was the end of the 2000 playoffs against Chicago.

Arne: Was it sometimes a drag coming into the Kingdome in the summer?

Tom: Sure, it could be. In the summer, during the really lean years, you’d have 4,000 people on an August afternoon. I didn’t really need a microphone; I could have just leaned out the booth and shouted: everyone would have heard me. The sunny, warm days are few and far between here. People would say, “I should be out on a boat, in a park, somewhere outside,” enjoying the absolutely gorgeous weather. Sometimes I’d wish the same.

Arne: People tend to overlook the Indians series when they think about the ’95 season. Is there a particular memory you cherish from those games?

Tom: I was just going to say, Wolcott’s performance in game 1 was amazing. It’s too bad he could never recapture that performance. There was such promise for the future with him. Buhner’s performance that series was pretty remarkable. We thought the Mariners were going to go on to win the World Series. The series had a lot of emotional highs and lows. The Indians had a lot of talent. Looking up and down that lineup, you saw really good players, really good pitchers.

Arne: I noticed that even late in game 6 the Mariner were down just 1-0, and you thought maybe this will be like the Yankees comeback. I think the Mariners would have played game 7 at the Kingdome. So, with Griffey coming back to the team, are you anticipating announcing his name again?

Tom: That was the first name I introduced that became imitated by people. Scott Bradley, who was a catcher for a few years with the team, told me, “You know you’ve made it when that happens.” Out on the streets, people would stop me and ask me to do “Ken Griffey Junior.” I’ve had a lot of people ask about my response to him coming back to Seattle. So it’s kind of like a singer getting to do a hit song again, on a much smaller scale of course. I’m really looking forward to it. In 2007 I did, but it was different because he was with the visiting team. I think it’ll be really fun.

My son’s 18, he was 9 when Griffey left, and my daughter’s 27. He was a big part of their lives. So they’re happy he’s back, and it’ll be good. The only drawback is that issue about how you can’t go home again, you can’t replicate that feeling of however many years ago. He might hit a few of those high-arching homers, but the catches in center field aren’t going to happen again. But I think people are smart enough to know he’s not the same man now; they can’t expect the same things to happen, and maybe it’s enough just to have him back.

(go back and read part one)

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A Conversation With Mariners Announcer Tom Hutyler: Pronounciation, Acoustics, and the ’95 Season

March 13, 2009

Tom Hutyler has been the Mariners’ public address announcer since 1987: he’s the man who announces the players at Safeco, and he did the same at the Kingdome when the Mariners played there. I recently talked with him about the 1995 season and some of the technical aspects of announcing for the Mariners. Here’s part one of our conversation (see part two here):

Arne: With the strike having just ended, were the fans a little surly at the start of the 1995 season? Did they boo the players more often? Or maybe there just weren’t as many people at the games?

Tom: The fans were not really surly. There was a little bit of skepticism. Fans who were spending their money on baseball, they felt betrayed. For Joe Average there was that sense of “Why do I need to feel sorry for these millionaires?” There was an attitude against the team, a feeling of betrayal.

Arne: When did the fans first get really involved in the season? Was it when Griffey hit his homer in August against the Yankees?

Tom: Yes, that was the pivot point, when people started to think this could really happen. A lot of players in the background, people like Doug Strange, not your everyday players, they picked up the slack. And they turned to gold, those players who weren’t regulars. Then there were those trades for Coleman, Benes; they were really critical also.

Arne: In your approach to announcing the games, do you try to keep yourself detached from the action, to be more of a professional, and not so much of a fan?

Tom: You’ll notice, if you’ve been to Safeco, there’s a decidedly different way in which I announce the batters for the Mariners and the visitors. But I try to be professional, to respect the sanctity of baseball, and not treat the game as a sideshow. I want to be entertaining and clear. Having said that, when I announced the games in 1995 it was very difficult for us to maintain our decorum as broadcasters. We were very excited during the games. I don’t know if people noticed, but between pitches I’d be pacing around the booth, trying to settle myself down.

Arne: Was the job of announcing harder in the Kingdome because of the acoustics of being indoors; would you hear echoes?

Tom: Oh, there was a tremendous echo in the Kingdome. It was most difficult to get used to, a real distraction. When small crowds were at a game, you’d hear your voice bounce off the walls, and the echoes would be bouncing around as you said the player’s name. I’d say, “Number 24, Ken Griffey, Jr.,” and “four” would come back to me as I said “june-yuhr.” When the Kingdome was a shell and they were preparing to take it down, someone said my voice was still lingering in the corners.

I don’t know if it was because the Kingdome wasn’t acoustically sound, or if that’s just the nature of domes. Maybe there have been technological advances to resolve those things. But there were pockets in the Kingdome where people said they couldn’t hear me at all or it sounded like I was right next to them.

Arne: It seems there were two real sustained, memorable ovations in the ’95 season, and one was Randy Johnson coming into game 5 against the Yankees.

Tom: From the booth, we’d seen Randy warming up down in the bullpen, and as he started heading onto the field, we cued up “Welcome to the Jungle.” The fans were starting to cheer, and it was a question of how to time it, and getting the energy into announcing his name. As he was coming in you had the swelling of the crowd noise, and you try to capture that emotion in your voice.

Arne: And then there was that long ovation at the end of Indians series.

Tom: I just let it go, didn’t say anything, then finally said something quiet, like “It’s been a great ride, hasn’t it?” I remember the applause, it was really emotional. It almost spoke to the innocence of Seattle, not having gone through the playoffs or a championship game before. Everybody-all of the players-were touched by that ovation. It showed how appreciative fans were of the team. It was spontaneous, so you don’t bother it. I normally do a game recap, but there was no way to do that, no need for music or talking. People were celebrating, even grieving almost. When I’m watching a game on tv I sometimes get irritated by the announcers: there’s no need to tell us what we just saw as viewers. The senses get it.

Arne: How much contact do you have with the Mariners players and coaches?

Tom: Not as much as I used to. I have more outside responsibilities now: I work at KOMO. Before, there were some players I just naturally had more of a relationship with: David Valle, Mark Langston, Harold Reynolds, Alvin Davis. Griffey would sign bats for some charity auctions I did. But it hasn’t been as close over the last few years.

Arne: Do you get players asking you to change the way you pronounce their names or just the way you say their names?

Tom: You know, it’s something I’m surprised more announcers don’t do. They’ll assume a name is pronounced a certain way based on how they’ve heard others say it. The more professional way is to just ask the players “How do you pronounce your name?” It can be tricky with the names of Latino players especially. For Raul Ibanez, once I got his name down I’d say “Rauuuuull Ibanez,” stretching out the name.

The Yankees pitcher, Mike Mussina: I’d always heard his name pronounced “Muh-seen-a,” then one day I went in and asked him, and he said he pronounces it with an “e”-”Mess-seen-a.” For Ichiro, of course he has just the first name on his uniform, and people wonder why I say the full name, Ichiro Suzuki. Well, I asked him how he wanted me to do it, and he said “Ichiro Suzuki.” He wants that.

Players don’t tend to notice so much the way I say their names. The bigger thing with them is the music we play. Some will send up cds to the booth and say, “I want this played.”

There was one catcher a few years ago who, well don’t quote me on exactly who it was, but in the year when there were all those bad Mariners catchers. He’d call up to the booth between innings and say, “Why didn’t you play this? Why did you play that?” And you’d wonder, “Shouldn’t you be paying attention to the game and not the music? Isn’t this why you’re hitting .200?”

Different players like country, hip-hop, rock. One player wanted nothing for his at-bats: he didn’t like the distraction of the music.

(continue to part two)

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A Few Questions About the 1995 Mariners for Mike Pagliarulo

October 11, 2008

I recently had the chance to talk with Mike Pagliarulo, who’s probably better known as a Yankee third baseman in the mid-to-late ’80s than as a Texas Ranger, but he played for the Rangers in 1995, his last season in the majors. I took the opportunity to ask some questions about his impression of the 1995 Mariners as a player with Texas.

Arne: I wondered what you saw in the Mariners that year, and then in September as they made their comeback, whether there was a sense of them having changed from earlier in the season.

Mike: Yes, we had, in the final series there in Texas, we stopped the Mariners from winning the division, won the last two games against them. Johnny Oates, God bless his soul, he was our manager. The Mariners, they were a very well-balanced team, power from the right side, the left side, good pitching, ran the bases very well, they really knew how to play the game. They had dangerous hitters, could score a bunch of runs in a minute.

Arne: What was it like facing Randy Johnson, someone who, at 6-10, he’d be throwing the ball a half-foot higher up than most pitchers. Was it hard to change your eye level and pick up his pitches?

Mike: You have to change, make an adjustment according to the different pitchers, so you’ll see the ball better out of his hand. With a left-hander like Johnson, I’d try to hit everything off the left-field wall. You had to have a plan for the opposition.

Randy was very deceptive, with a lower arm slot, you fought to pick up the ball. There was always a battle going on, facing him. I’d come up, struggle to see how the ball’s moving, and all of a sudden I’d be saying hey, what the heck, what happened, I’m down 0-1, 0-2.

Arne: That year, you were playing against Lou Piniella, one of your former managers with the Yankees. Could you say something about his qualities as a manager?

Mike: He’s a super guy, just one of the greatest. He’s one of the most brilliant men at teaching hitting mechanics. It was fascinating to play for him with the Yankees. I was fortunate to get the chance to learn from him.

I added a final question about Ichiro. It’s off the 1995 topic, but Pagliarulo played in Japan in 1994, when Ichiro was just beginning to star in the Japan league, and has gone on to run a player evaluation company called Baseline Report that specializes in determining how Japanese players will do in the U.S.

Arne: I remember in 2001 a lot of people were expecting Ichiro to be a mediocre major-leaguer.

Mike: Not us.

Arne: And then he went on to win the MVP. What’s your opinion of why Ichiro was able to transfer over from Japan to the U.S. so smoothly? Is part of the reason simply that the very best baseball players are more able to adjust their skills to a different style of baseball?

Mike: There are certain characteristics about a Japanese player’s personality-the thinking is a little odd, or they’re disciplined, they’re a little weird, unique, their style’s a little different, they move their body a certain way, talking about the mechanics of hitting. All that helps the player adjust to playing here. In Japan the players tend to be low-key, the coaching makes everyone do things the same way, but in the U.S. pitchers have different motions, and you have to adjust to all of them.

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Interview With Bob Condotta

June 27, 2008

Bob Condotta is now the Seattle Times’ reporter on the University of Washington sports beat, covering men’s basketball and football. But back in ’95 he was covering the Mariners for the old Bellevue Journal-American, attending most of their games at the Kingdome, the final regular season series in Texas, and all of their playoff games. I wrote to him after seeing a posting that mentioned the ’95 Mariners during his relief appearance on Geoff Baker’s Mariners blog earlier this year. The eventual result was the following interview about the season.

Q: What were your feelings about the Mariners and major league baseball in general coming into the ’95 season, after the strike ended? And, did the Mariners’ comeback change your attitude?

A: I was a little less jaded back then and so happy to have a job reporting on sports in the Seattle area, which had always been my dream, that I didn’t really let the strike influence my feelings about anything all that much. I knew it would be an exciting and pivotal year for the Mariners as a franchise, and since I wanted the team to stay, I hoped it would turn out well. So once the strike ended and they were back playing ball, I quickly forgot about it and just focused on the season at hand.

I remember that there were a lot of mixed feelings at the Kingdome on Opening Night among fans — I think that’s the last Mariners’ opener that didn’t sell out — but I was just glad to have baseball back. I might not feel that way if the same thing happened now (the NBA is close to losing me forever over its handling of the Sonics’ situation) but I did back then. So that said, how the season evolved really didn’t bring me back to baseball since I came back pretty quickly anyway at that time.

Q: Which game do you see as the most remarkable/most memorable one of the Mariners’ regular season?

A: Like a lot of people who were there — and there really weren’t that many as the official attendance was 17,618 — I’d say the Aug. 24 game against the Yankees at home when Griffey hit a game-winning home run. Most view that game as the beginning of the streak that brought the team back and saved baseball in Seattle. My personal memory of it is that I almost missed the game. I was also assigned to do a Seahawks story that day so I was at their practice in the early afternoon and decided at the last minute to try to get to the Kingdome for the M’s game, as well — it was a 3:30 (or right around there) first pitch. I’ve seen hundreds of games since then and barely remember any of them.

But I have all kinds of vivid memories of that game (some of which I’m sure may be a little embellished with time) — Andy Benes getting hammered early and Piniella leaving him out there; Vince Coleman almost striking out with two outs in the ninth, then drawing a walk and stealing second and third; Cora hitting that little liner that Tony Fernandez misplayed; and then Griffey’s never-a-doubt home run. I won’t say I had any idea that day that what ended up happening would happen. But I did know that something was happening.

Q: Could you compare Edgar, Randy, and Junior. Which of the three was the best Mariner of ’95, and which do you have the most appreciation for now as a major leaguer, and as a Mariner?

A: I must confess that I covered mostly just home games in 1995 and then never was a regular Mariners beat writer again. The Journal-American covered only home games then (except we went on the road for the last series and the playoffs and a lot of spring training) so I never got close to any of the players the way the regular guys did. So I don’t necessarily have great personal insight into those guys that would be a lot different than the everyday fan.

Edgar was the consummate professional in every way, from the way he dealt with the media to the way he approached his at-bats. He always was respectful and tried to answer your questions. Johnson was incredibly dominant that season, but even then some of his prickly personality came out. I remember a game in July when he pitched well and the team won, but he didn’t get the win because Bobby Ayala blew the save (imagine that?) only to have the Mariners win it in the bottom of the ninth. Despite the team’s win, Johnson seemed unhappy afterward, talking about how frustrating it was to pitch like that yet get nothing for it — that had happened to him a few times that season. I’m one of those who thinks the way his Mariner career ended puts a pretty big smudge on his legacy. On the other hand, that season wouldn’t have happened without him, so he deserves a lot of gratitude, as well.

As for Griffey, everybody knows he missed much of that season and batted only .258 for the year. But I’d forgotten a little bit just how great he was in the playoffs that year. It seems like everybody always focuses on how incredible Edgar was. Yet Griffey hit .391 with five homers in the series against the Yankees, and .333 with another homer against the Indians. If he’d ever been on the right time, I have no doubt Griffey could have been a Mr. October, since that was the only time he ever really had that chance. Not sure I can pick a “best” of that season — take out any of them and the season doesn’t happen. And for overall contribution to the Mariners, I couldn’t pick between Griffey and Martinez. To me, they are the two most-defining players in franchise history, which is why it’s so fitting that they were the two key players in the defining moment in franchise history.

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