The ultimate sports treasure I own is a baseball-nothing more, nothing less. As a kid growing up in Seattle in the mid 90’s, my options for favorite superstar athletes were plentiful. Shawn Kemp, Edgar Martinez, Gary Payton, Ken Griffey Jr., Corey Dillon, Randy Johnson, Ryan Leaf, Detlef Schrempf, Jay Buhner, the list keeps going. However, the one athlete I admired the most was Tino Martinez, 1B for the Seattle Mariners.
The Quintessential Clutch Athlete
“Tino,” as he was simply called by Mariners fans, was the type of athlete that was overshadowed by a roster of fellow superstars, yet could rise to the level of superstardom at a moment’s notice it seemed. As a result, that day he happened to be signing autographs at Seafirst Bank in Auburn, WA, there were plenty of fans clamoring about, or so I was told. See, I was not even there, but my fellow Mariners fanatic friend’s mom worked there. So it was to my great surprise that she brought an autographed baseball to me the next summer morning, to Sunday School class no less. It is still in my personal top 5 of random things people have done for me.
Growing Sentimental Value
Later that fall of 1995, baseball fever took Seattle and the state of Washington by storm, like nothing had before, or has since. “Refuse to Lose” signs overtook the city and the Kingdome like wild fire. BASEBALL games, not football games, were sold out every night from mid September on as the Mariners fought tooth and nail to bring the Emerald City their first American League West Division Championship, and subsequently, their first appearance in the MLB playoffs. “Tino” was right in the middle of it all. In a key game in the last home stand of the season against the Oakland Athletics, Tino hit a dramatic homerun in the bottom of the ninth to bring the Mariners another game of the California Angels, who had been ahead of the Mariners by 13 and a half games as recent as August 15th. In the eventual tiebreaking, one game playoff game between the two teams at the end of the season, Tino flew down the 1B line to snag a foul ball on the first pitch of the game, setting the tone for the Mariners demolition of the Angels behind a dominating performance by Randy Johnson.
The Baseball Lives On
Even though Tino would land in New York after the 1995 season, the hated Yankees were not even enough for me or the rest of Seattle to lose the memories of “The Tino,” as eventually became known in the playoffs, along with the “The Edgar,” for Mariners DH Edgar Martinez. His clutch hitting and steady hand at 1B stands as symbol of how baseball became a big event in Seattle. His and the play of the Mariners eventually resulted in the building of the state of the art Safeco Field, and the saving of baseball in the Northwest. The Baseball? Well, that is a symbol to- not only of the rise of baseball in Seattle, but of a simpler time. A couple months where a city, athlete, and a 12 year old boy all seemed to be working in synchronization with this timeless game those like me hold so dear.