Valentine’s Day Special: Mariners Players We Love

Mariners Players That We Love

In the Valentine’s Day spirit, we together as a staff at Sodo Mojo have each put together a combination of our favorite all-time Mariner and our favorite current Mariner. We all have our favorites who we have that certain affinity for, and it’s no different for us. So, without any love lost, here are some of the Mariners that we just adore.

Jake’s All-Time Favorite Mariners Player

I would like to give a quick shoutout to Charlie Furbush, who on numerous occasions would walk up and have full-on conversations with me and my little brother during games in the bullpen, and even remembered my name when I said hello to him before a game at Camden Yards a while back. But my favorite Mariner of all-time is without a doubt Félix Hernández.

I would replicate his twisting motion in little league as a boy. I would tilt my hat ever so slightly to my left, just like Félix. I wore his blue and white twisted rope necklace around my neck 24/7. I also have a few truly special memories of King Félix. Before a game in 2014, he was hanging out with Fernando Rodney and Jesús Sucre in the outfield.

I was relentlessly calling out his name like any 11-year-old kid. He stopped what he was doing to come over and say hello. I took off my shirt, as I was wearing my Félix jersey, and handed that to him along with a baseball. Thankfully, an older gentleman let me borrow his sharpie and Félix signed my jersey and my ball. Both are still on display in my room at home.

Another memory of Félix I have is his post-game interview after his perfect game. My family was lucky enough to purchase tickets prior to August 15th, 2012, so I was blessed enough to witness history in its entirety. We made our way over to the mob of fans by the M’s dugout. I don’t recall much of what he said that day, but I do recall how Félix made the interview about the fans and talked about how it was for us, the people of Seattle.

That’s why I loved Félix. He could’ve forced his way out of the situation he was in any time during his 15-year career in Seattle, as he was the best pitcher in the American League and wasn’t sniffing the playoffs. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he left. But he didn’t. He stayed loyal to the organization that took a chance on a 16-year-old kid from Venezuela. He wasn’t just the king, he was our king.

Jake’s Favorite Mariners Player Right Now

This one was a lot easier for me to decide. My favorite current Mariner is undoubtedly Kyle Seager. As a little leaguer, I loved to copy his laid-back two-handed stance, only from the right side. I played third base growing up, and watching Kyle win that Gold Glove with his signature bare-handed do-or-die play on the occasional slow roller gave me a tremendous sense of pride and confidence playing third base myself.

What is there not to love about Kyle’s sidearm slings, his moonshot home runs, and his beautiful left-handed follow through. My affection for him continues to rise as he climbs the all-time Mariner leaderboards. Seager even had his very own awesome commercial spot. It will be a really sad day when he plays his final game in a Mariner uniform, but he has given me memories that will last a lifetime.

Ryota’s All-Time Favorite Mariners Players

As a Japanese-American, I had a deep connection with Ichiro. Seeing someone on TV that looked like me meant a lot to me growing up. He is undoubtedly my favorite Mariners player ever, and I even have a big poster of him still hanging in my room.

Not only was Ichiro fun to watch, I even mimicked the way he played. I definitely incorporated his hitting approach into my game. I prided myself on making good contact, rather than hitting for power. I remember when I was a kid, I would practice robbing home runs on my couch just like Ichiro. To say the least, I wanted to be like Ichiro.

If it weren’t for Ichiro, I don’t know if I would still be a lifelong Mariners fan, because it has been a rough stretch of time. Even bigger than that, I might not have even been a baseball fan and played baseball up until college.

Ryota’s Favorite Mariners Right Now

My favorite current Mariners player continues to impress me, and I think my respect for him grows after every year. This guy is Marco Gonzales.

I don’t really know how to explain it, but something about the way he goes about his business is extremely admirable. Marco reminds me a lot of Russell Wilson of the Seahawks. Marco is very calm, collected, smart, a great leader, and talented.

Gonzales continues to improve year after year and based on the trend, he might be on track to make the All-Star team next year and potentially win a Cy Young in the near future. He also has a great story. His path to the big leagues hasn’t been all that easy. Gonzales was a highly touted prospect and then he had to get surgery, and many questioned whether he could come back.

The Mariners gave him a chance, and that leap of faith paid off. I have a lot of respect for Marco and he is my favorite player right now. But also, a quick shoutout to my second favorite player, Kyle Lewis.

Lee’s All-Time Favorite Mariners Player

Five years ago I was at Mariners spring training but it was only at the time when pitchers and catchers were reporting. I was standing on a sidewalk watching the pitchers walk to the individual fields but inside the building where the Mariners hold their team meetings, I could hear a constant “thwack thwack thwack” sound, very repetitive and always the same sound.

Someone walked by me and said, “I bet it’s Edgar.” I walked over to the building and there was a smallish batting cage and there stood Edgar Martinez, hitting coach for Seattle at the time, just having fun taking some swings.

Martinez was as much of a hitting freak as Ken Griffey Jr., just with less power. But Martinez had an uncommon eye for following the ball to bat and hitting is why he is in the Hall of Fame. Watching him hit was a joy to watch when he played, plus he is simply a good dude.

Lee’s Favorite Mariners Player Right Now

Justus Sheffield is my favorite Mariner for a lot of reasons. One (this might sound odd) is that he has to work on his craft to be really good. He doesn’t dial up 97 MPH fastballs one after another but he has to use his changeup and curve to get hitters to have weak swings. While Sheffield still has tons of talent and still has to prove himself long-term, Sheffield will always be a bit of a grinder, just like most of the rest of us in our daily lives.

Also, Sheffield is fun to listen to when he does interviews. He clearly still has a lot of his youthful love for the game and hopefully will hold on to this. He is going to be fun to watch in Seattle for a long time.

Chris’ All-Time Favorite Mariners Player

It came down to two people for me. It was either going to be Randy Johnson (My dad was constantly asked if he was Randy Johnson in the ’90s, since they both were 6’11”, lanky, stern-looking, and had long hair) and Jay Buhner.

I’m gonna have to go with Buhner here though. Heck, I had a buzzcut for years because of him. What elementary schooler wouldn’t want to look like The Bone. We lived about two hours away, so I never got an official cut on the promotional days, but I still rocked the look for a long time.

Part of the reason that he was my favorite was that, like him, I also had a cannon for an arm. It was fun to be the little bald kid running around in the outfield and chucking the ball around, just like Buhner. I couldn’t hit like him, but he was still my favorite guy. I’ve always liked the non-favorites. The Ravens compared to the Steelers, the Braves to the Yankees, whoever is playing the Lakers, etc. Buhner wasn’t the top guy on the team, but he was always my favorite.

Chris’ Favorite Mariners Player Right Now

Man, it is a tough time right now for picking your favorite player on the Seattle Mariners. The easy answer is Kyle Seager. That’s not who I am going to go with though.

My favorite guy on the team currently would have to be Mitch Haniger. Yup, I’m choosing another right-fielder that the team acquired in a trade. The similarities pretty much stop there between Haniger and Buhner, although Haniger has had his fair share of showing off his arm strength.

Maybe it’s because I can’t grow the long locks like Haniger has (I’m more in the Seager department there). I just love the way he plays. He always wants to be out there, even if it is to his detriment sometimes. He’s a guy that plays the right way, works hard, and produces. It’s someone I would like my son to pick as his favorite player and goes down as my choice for my current favorite Seattle Mariner.