Frankie G and Lights Out

I can’t describe to you how much I love Franklin Gutierrez. And I also really can’t describe why.

Years ago I decided I would have a favorite player on the Mariners who wasn’t the main star. It may have developed as a defense mechanism to be honest. When I was ten years old and Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a double off Dave Stewart in Oakland in his first major league at bat, I was in love. Platonically of course. Then Griffey broke all of our hearts when he requested – make that demanded – a trade to Cincinnati. It sucked. I hated him. So I started loving Mike Cameron. He hustled, played a ridiculous center field (and still does), swung at high fastballs and hit them sometimes. He had heart, charisma, and was never quite good enough to demand a trade.

I followed my love of Mike Cameron with a love of Yuniesky Betancourt (which amounted in many ways to a brief fling only to end when the woman you courted ended up eating way too much Jack In the Box Mini Sirloin Burgers and stopped working out), then Felix Hernandez.

I still love watching Felix pitch, but there is nothing like having a favorite player who impacts the game daily. Gutierrez does that – sometimes negatively, but most of the time positively. He is essentially Mike Cameron with less strikeouts. Frankie G makes ridiculous catches in centerfield and is starting to hit with more power. He still does things like grounding out with the bases loaded and one out as he did in the first inning yesterday. But then he goes out and....totally redeems himself! He made my night as I sat with my dad and watched him hit the game winning homer in the 8th inning yesterday.

The only thing better than that was when the ninth inning started. All of the scoreboards at Safeco Field went black. I turned to my father and said, “What the hell is going on?” The marketing folks at Safeco had done their job. They fooled me completely. Then the scoreboards starting flashing and the words “Lights Out” came on all of the boards as closer David Aardsma came into the game. It was awesome. I loved it so much that I sounded like a school kid when I told Dana as I got home. She just laughed at me. Pretty typical day.