I’ve been looking through some old photo albums lately and found a bunch of old Mariners photos I figured I would share.  Most of the following photos are from “Camera Day” (the best promotional night ever) at the Kingdome.  The first set are from 1986, the second is from 1987, and the third is from 1990 or 1991 (my hunch is its 1991).

The picture quality of these photos is pretty shabby because I literally just took digital photos of actual printed photographs (my scanner is out of order right now).

During the 1986 season, I was ten years old and I was a huge Mariners fan.  And in this pre-Griffey era, there was no Mariner (an no ballplayer period) more important to me than the Mariners sure-handed short stop, Spike Owen.  This is the only picture I ever got with Spike.

Later this season, I was dealt a major blow when the Mariners dealt my all-time favorite player to the Boston Red Sox.  The Red Sox then moved on to the World Series and, for the first time ever, I watched the World Series and was pulling hard for Spike to win a championship.  Spike had a great post-season in ’86.  He hit .429 in the ALCS and .300 even in the World Series.

After 1986, Spike went on to have a solid career.  He wasn’t an all-star and he won’t be in the Hall of Fame, or even any team’s Hall of Fame, but he had a career of which he should be proud.  He had over 1,200 hits and was recognized as a quality short stop (although he never won a gold glove).

Interestingly, in the final at bat of his career, Spike hit a fly ball that Ken Griffey, Jr. caught for the first out of the ninth inning of the Mariners 1-game playoff against the Angels in 1995.  Two outs later, Spike’s career was finished and the Mariners had won their first A.L. West Championship and made the playoffs for the first time in team history.

How about some more 1986 Mariners.  Here I am with Al Cowens:

Of course, we had Phil Bradley and “Stormin” Gorman Thomas.

  

Phil Bradley was a quality Mariner.  Over five seasons, he hit .301 and was an all-star in 1985.  In ’86, Bradley hit .310.

Who remembers Steve Yeager and Ken Phelps?

  

I never realized this until right this second, but Yeager is apparently the reason that Spike Owen changed his number from 7 to 1 in 1986.  I became a big Spike Owen fan initially because we both played short stop and we both wore number 7.  I can tell you that M’s jersey I’m wearing in these pictures has a big number 7 on the back, and it was for Spike Owen, not Steve Yeager.

Of course, Ken Phelps is famous in Mariners history for two things he did involving other teams.  First, Phelps was famously traded to the Bronx for future Mariners Hall of Famer, Jay Buhner.  Second, as an Oakland Athletic, Phelps hit a homerun with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to break up Brian Holman’s bid for a perfect game.

Next up, Edwin Nunez and Dave “Hendu” Henderson:

  

Hendu was traded to the Red Sox along with Spike Owen.  While he only had one hit and batted .111 in the ALCS against the Angels, Dave’s only hit was huge.  With the Red Sox down to their potential final out of the series in the ninth inning of game five, Hendu delivered a two-run homerun off of Donnie Moore.  The game when into extra innings, in the 11th inning, Hendu delivered the game winning RBI with a sac fly (also off of Donnie Moore).  The Red Sox won the game, and then won games 6-7 to advance to the World Series.  In the series, Hendu hit .400 (10 for 25) with 2 homeruns.

Hendu can be heard from time-to-time broadcasting Mariners games and seems to be a great guy.

Next up, Billy Swift and Karl Best:

Our catcher in 1986 was the one and only, Bob Kearney.

In 1987, I wasn’t about to miss Camera Day.  Again, we were along the third base line.  This season, I decided to sport my green and gold Sno-King Youth Club baseball uniform.  Here I am with “Mr. Mariner,” Alvin Davis:

With Spike Owen gone, someone had to play short stop in 1987.  And the job was split between Rey Quinones and this guy, Domingo Ramos:

I don’t even remember the next guy, Bill Wilkinson:

We got some more Bob Kearney:

The 1987 Mariners catcher of the future, Dave Valle:

We weren’t the best team in 1987, but we did have a (future) Hall of Famer at the helm:  Dick Williams:

Ken Phelps was still hanging around in 1987:

I got my picture with a couple Mikes:  Mike Kingery (RF) and Mike Moore (P):

  

Next up, in the only picture of me holding a bat on a big league field, I posed with Mariners coach, Phil Roof:

Coming off of the bench, we had Rich Renteria:

Who could forget Scott Bankhead?

Once again, Phil Bradley put together a nice season hitting .297:

Our primary catcher in 1987 was this man:  Scott Bradley:

Another guy I don’t remember was Steve Sheilds:

Here I am with Mariners coach Ozzie Virgil:

And finally, it was Hendu’s replacement:  John “Johnny Moe” Moses:

That’s it for picture day in the 1980s.  But we still have some more pictures to share.

Here I am in the Mariners dugout during a Spring Training game in 1991 — I was the batboy for the game:

Here I am retrieving a bat (possibly Ken Griffey, Jr.‘s) as Jay Buhner strides to the plate:

By the way, Griffey went 3-3 with 3 singles, Randy Johnson got the win, and Cubs 2B Ryne Sandberg a solo homerun.

This experience was one of the coolest I’ve ever had in baseball.  Griffey was incredibly cool to me.  He was easily the most chatty with me in the dugout.  Harold Reynolds warmed up before the game using my first basemens glove.  Randy Johnson pitched at had to use Edgar Martinez’s bat.  At one point, The Big Unit bunted a pop up to the Cubs pitcher and never left the batters box.  The Cubs pitcher totally booted the ball and it rolled into foul territory over by the Cubs dugout.  But Randy was still in the batters box and was thrown out at first.  Finally, I went from really disliking M’s first baseman Pete O’Brien (I’m not sure why I had not liked him previously) to really liking him (because he was incredibly cool to me in the dugout).

After this game, I got my first and only picture with Ken Griffey, Jr.

Our last Camera Day was in 1990 or 1991.  We just took pictures of players as they stopped by to shake hands.  I’m not in any of the pictures.  I’m not sure if it was because it was too packed or if I felt like I was too old (I was 14 or 15) or if the players were just shaking hands and not posing for pictures.  Who knows?

Anyway, here are some of the pictures, starting with Alvin Davis and Ken Griffey, Sr.:

  

There was Harold Reynolds and Greg Briley:

  

In a couple years, I was never able to get a good picture of (or with) Harold Reynolds, which is really unfortunate because I regard him as one of the top players in Mariners history.  A great player and a great guy.

Ken Griffey, Jr. stopped by, but we got a really terrible picture that isn’t even worth posting.  

But we got decent shots of two future Mariners Hall of Famers:  Jay Buhner and Edgar Martinez (with Jay Buhner):

  

Finally, we got this shot of Dave Valle:

Next stop is Pittsburgh in 2004.  Colleen and I headed to Pittsburgh for the weekend to see the Mariners in their first and only appearance at PNC Park.  Colleen and I had been together almost five years at this point and were engaged, but because I had been in law school for three of those years and hours away from any Major League team with no son to travel around with she didn’t really fully know me as a baseball fan yet.  Primarily, she knew me as a guy who watched a ton of Mariners games on TV and occassionally took her to a game in Philadelphia or Baltimore.  This was her first real baseball roadtrip.

Here are some shots from Pittsburgh of the first and third winningest pitchers in Mariners history:  Jamie Moyer (first at 145 wins) and Freddy Garcia (third at 76 wins):

  

Here is another (poor quality but) interesting picture from our Pittsburgh trip:  Ichiro wearing (i) a brown glove and (ii) long pant legs:

Finally, this last picture of the entry is from Safeco Field.  I’m not sure what year it is from — probably 2003-04 — but it also shows Ichiro sporting long pants:

And there you go, some of my old, pre-Tim, mostly pre-digital Mariners pictures.