Columnist Dean Juipe: Mariners top story of season

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, July 31, 2001 | 10:48 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

I don't know about you, but I've developed a fondness for the Seattle Mariners.

When the season opened they were just another team, one coming off a 91-71 season but one that had lost its best player -- Alex Rodriguez -- to free agency.

In the previous two years they had also lost their other two great players, Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson, because they couldn't afford to pay the going rate.

Aside from having a new stadium and being selected to host the 2001 All-Star game, there was nothing to suggest this year would be especially noteworthy for the Mariners. On opening day they were ranked as only the 16th most likely team to win the World Series, according to the numbers up in the Mandalay Bay sports book.

But Monday in that same sports book there were the M's at 5-2 to win it all, mirroring the number next to the New York Yankees. (The Chicago Cubs at 5-1, Minnesota Twins at 6-1, Atlanta Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks at 7-1, and the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox at 8-1 were the other betting favorites.)

It has been a magical four months for Seattle, currently 76-29 and a season-high 47 games over .500 with 57 games to go. While the Mariners are playing at a .724 clip, only the Yankees among baseball's other 29 teams are above the .600 mark.

With each passing week, the doubts pertaining to the Mariners have diminished. They have not, however, completely dissipated, particularly with the Yankees not only lurking but remaining a viable obstacle to any American League team with an eye on the World Series.

Seattle in the Series? It has gone from unthinkable to thought provoking.

From a storyteller's point of view, the Mariners would be a preferred choice over the Yankees, Braves or any other likely champion. Losing Griffey, Johnson and Rodriguez should have decimated the club, yet it has rebuilt with tremendous pitching, excellent defense and just enough run production to win, on the average, better than two out of every three games.

Its fan base has expanded to where it not only encapsulates Seattle, but much of impartial America and all of Japan. Acquiring reliever Kazuhiro Sasaki, who became the 2000 Rookie of the Year, and outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, who is certain to become this season's Rookie of the Year, has cemented a bond between Japan and the Pacific Northwest that has led to the Mariners being covered as a "home" team throughout the Orient.

One word comes to mind when describing the Mariners' fans these days: rabid.

They're excited not only about the team's ethnic diversity and new blood, but by its ascent to the top of the standings at a time when it could have been reeling from the losses of its best players. While losing Rodriguez, Griffey and Johnson was hardly "good riddance," it prompted the Seattle brass to find ways to compensate -- which it did by promoting from within and raiding Japan.

TV has been a little slow on the uptake as Seattle has made this unexpected move, yet the national networks are apt to catch up during the homestretch as the Mariners are a team the everyday fan wants to see -- just to make sure they're for real.