Franchise Four: Picking the most important Mariners in team history

This decision would be easier if the number were five.

Not easy, mind you. But certainly easier, because picking the four most important Mariners in franchise history – which is what the MLB Network is asking – gets tricky. Someone eminently deserving is going to get left out.

Felix Hernandez? Ichiro? Randy Johnson?

All three can’t be on the list. At least not unless you’re going to leave Edgar Martinez off, which would constitute an even worse transgression. The result is a debate in which someone’s accomplishments end up being minimized or marginalized in some way, which is too bad. It’s also necessary, though, if you’re going to pick the right four guys as I tried to do below:

1. The Kid

Ken Griffey Jr. was our city’s first truly national superstar. A league MVP that Nike marketed as if he were a presidential candidate back in 1996. If anything, he was too good a fielder for his own good considering the injuries he suffered, but when your catches are given nicknames – like the Spiderman catch against the Rangers – well, that’s truly remarkable. He hit 417 home runs as a Mariner – 112 more than anyone else – and he has the three largest single-season home run totals in franchise history. The only quibble: His exits, first when he pushed his way to Cincinnati in a trade and then when he left midseason without so much as a phone call before he reached Montana. Those are minor when you consider his body of work, though, and the fact that his career started and ended here in Seattle, with the team he’ll represent in the Hall of Fame.

2. The constant

Edgar Martinez won two American League batting titles, was named an All-Star seven times and was so prolific as a designated hitter that the award for that position is now named after him. He also resonated with Seattle in a way that was difficult to describe but impossible to fake. He was consistent, hard working and often understated in a way that embodies our Northwest ideals. It’s only fitting that he was the driving force when the Mariners’ defeated the Yankees – the East Coast standard-bearer for arrogant accomplishment – in the 1995 Divisional Playoffs. He hit two home runs in Game 4, driving in a playoff-record seven runs that game, and all he did in Game 5 was make the most important hit in franchise history, doubling in the tying and go-ahead runs in the bottom of the 11th.

3. The King

Felix Hernandez doesn’t have the most wins in franchise history. At least not yet. He’s currently 19 behind Jamie Moyer. He doesn’t have the most strikeouts, either. He’s 200 behind Johnson as of April 14 despite having thrown more innings than Johnson. But Hernandez has been the single-most – and at times the only – enjoyable thing about the past decade of Mariners baseball. He has thrown the franchise’s only perfect game, has his own court every time he pitches and he has also chosen to extend his contract to stay with the Mariners. Twice. The importance of that can’t be understated because so many people around the game expected – even asked – him to leave the Mariners and pitch for a contender, and he chose to stay here. Now, he did it at a hefty price, but the reality is Hernandez was good enough to have gotten that money from a number of teams and maybe even more. He stayed here, though. And for a franchise that saw superstars walk away from the Mariners when they were good (Alex Rodriguez, Johnson and even Griffey), that means something.

4. The hit machine

That’s right: Ichiro is on the list. Actually, if this were a ranking of the top four, Ichiro would be third on my list. He was the best player on the best team in franchise history, one of only two Mariners ever named MVP. He holds the franchise record for the highest single-season average, set a Major League record for most hits in a season and has more hits as a Mariner than anyone else. Not only that, but he was a pioneer for Seattle, the first Japanese position player to come over and play every day, opening a door that had previously been closed. Anyone leaving him off the list is blaming him for the erosion of the team around him, a nucleus that was allowed to age and atrophy. He may have been focused on his individual hit total. He was also available every day, an incredible fielder and someone who was absolutely great to watch play the game.

The omission: Randy Johnson

He was the fifth man in a four-man group, someone who was probably the most fearsome pitcher in Mariners history. He won the AL Cy Young Award in 1995, the first Mariner to win the award, and set a franchise record for wins. He also threw a no-hitter. Two things kept him off the list: His best years were elsewhere as he won four straight NL Cy Young Awards with the Diamondbacks, the team he’ll represent in the Hall of Fame. His final season as a Mariner was bitter, too. In 1998, he was 9-10 with the Mariners before a deadline trade to the Astros, for whom he went 10-1, shaving a full 3 runs off his ERA after the deal. Anyone who watched that season knows the Mariners didn’t get Johnson’s best, which makes it tough – and in my mind impossible – to include him among the Franchise Four.

A footnote here about Alex Rodriguez because that’s what he is in Mariners history: A footnote. He can’t be included on the list for a number of reasons, starting with the fact Jay Buhner hit more home runs as a Mariner than Rodriguez. Rodriguez left town at his first opportunity, and while you can’t blame him for cashing that check from the Rangers, he shouldn’t be excused from it, either. He bolted for the money, which is fine, but he was never honest about it. He won an MVP with the Rangers then became a champion and later a pariah with the Yankees. What I’ll remember most about Rodriguez in Seattle isn’t any defining moment he had as a Mariner, but what happened when he came back the first time as a Ranger, a fan dangling fake money at the end of a fishing pole while Rodriguez was in the on-deck circle. We saw Rodriguez for what he was before the rest of the country caught on.

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