Mariners Hot Stove podcast: Fairly stories, Gordon update and a look at the Rangers
Feb 8, 2018, 1:56 PM | Updated: 7:47 pm
Felix Hernandez has been the Mariners' Opening Day starter each season since 2009. (AP)
(AP)
The penultimate Hot Stove of the 2017-2018 offseason aired Wednesday night on 710 ESPN Seattle and if you missed it, well you are in good company as I did too. Lucky for us, we have a podcast.
What will be the challenges of Dee Gordon’s transition to CF?
While I was enjoying “Hamilton” at the Paramount Aaron Goldsmith, Gary Hill and Dan Wilson hosted two hours of baseball talk that was highlighted by a two segment visit from Ron Fairly who has finally put pen to paper to share some incredible behind the scenes stories from over 50 years in the game.
Listen to the Mariners Hot Stove show: Hour 1 | Hour 2
“I wanted to have something someone could get a laugh out of,” Fairly said of his first book, “Fairly at Bat.”
“It is things that you would never read about in accounts of a game the following day. Things that were said on the field, in the dugout or when the game was over that people might get a chuckle out of.”
In my experience, no conversation with Fairly was without a chuckle, and Wednesday night was no different as Red shared stories about Dave Niehaus, Lou Piniella, Ted Williams among others. He also spoke about the time Stan Musial asked him for hitting advice and gave a good lesson on Musial’s hitting philosophy and took us inside the 1973 NL All Star Clubhouse which included Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Willie Stargell, Hank Aaron, Joe Morgan, Tom Seaver and Johnny Bench.
In addition to the visit with Fairly the show included a good discussion with valuable insight from Wilson on Felix Hernandez moving forward, a terrific Gary Hill piece on Truck Day, an update on Dee Gordon’s transition to center field from Chris Prieto who has made two visit’s to Florida to work with him, and a look at the 2018 Rangers and how they plan to use a 6-man rotation from beat writer Evan Grant.
