Mariners Classics: Forgotten reason Carlos Guillen missed 2001 ALDS

With baseball season delayed for the foreseeable future, 710 ESPN Seattle is broadcasting classic Mariners games throughout the spring. At 7 p.m. tonight we wrap up the 2001 American League Division Series with the top-seeded Mariners taking on the Cleveland Indians. Here’s Shannon Drayer’s preview of the airing of Game 5.

ALDS Game 5: Oct. 15, 2001

After falling behind 2-1 in the series, the Mariners were able to force a Game 5 by coming from behind to beat the Indians 6-2 at Jacobs Field in Game 4. The win earned the M’s return trip to Seattle for the chance to advance to the ALCS. While the situation looked somewhat grim days earlier, Freddy Garcia delivered in Game 4 and 20-game winner Jamie Moyer was scheduled to make the start in a Game 5 that could extend the postseason.

There are all sorts of theories about why the Mariners, who had won a record-tying 116 games in the regular season, failed to make it to the 2001 World Series. One thing that is often overlooked is the health of the team in October. While they had remained relatively injury-free for most of the season, dings and dents began to pile up. Third baseman David Bell suffered an oblique strain in one of the post 9/11 workouts. Edgar Martinez came up with a groin strain during the Division Series. All of this paled in comparison to what was going on with the shortstop, however.

Classic Mariners games continue on 710 ESPN Seattle in May

If you have been following along you may have noticed that Mark McLemore was the shortstop for the Mariners in the ALDS. This should have caught you as strange because it was. McLemore was indeed the premier everyday utility player in the league, but he was also 36 years old and had not played shortstop since 1990. Why was he there? The answer lies in one of the most forgotten stories of the 2001 season.

McLemore was at short because on Sept. 28 Carlos Guillen had been diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. I will never forget the day the stunning news was announced. The immediate thought? I had never heard of anyone coming down with tuberculosis. How could this happen? It was surmised that while he tested negative for TB in spring training, Guillen most likely picked it up while at home in Venezuela and had been playing with the disease for a long time.

We would learn that Guillen knew something was wrong for some time. While he could get through a game for the most part not looking terribly worse for wear, we would later hear that in August he would have terrifying, sweat-soaked sleepless nights and would sometimes cough up blood. He told a teammate but made him promise not to tell anyone as he wanted to keep playing. One late September night when he could not stop coughing up blood, he checked himself into the hospital and the diagnosis soon followed.

The entire club and staff had to be tested and a number of tests came back positive. For them a nine-month round of medication had to be taken but thankfully nobody ever ever showed symptoms.

When Mariners manager Lou Piniella talked about Guillen that day and again in later years, tears would come to his eyes. The thought of a player pushing himself to this extreme, too much. For me as a reporter, the entire episode, along with learning  that Franklin Gutierrez had been playing through ankylosing spondilitis, serves as a reminder to never forget that players can be going through things we can’t imagine and that can impact performance.

While Guillen’s numbers were in the ballpark of what he had done to date in his young career, there were times when it appeared he was slipping. Well, there was a reason for that and motivation was not one of them. When many were quick to label Gutierrez as “glass” and “soft” because of his injuries, it turned out that diagnosis by fans could not have been further from the truth. To attempt to tough out TB and AS is off the charts tough, both mentally and physically. Lesson should be learned.

LINEUPS!

Indians

Kenny Lofton, CF
Omar Vizquel, SS
Roberto Alomar, 2B
Juan Gonzalez, RF
Ellis Burks, DH
Jim Thome, 1B
Travis Fryman, 3B
Marty Cordova, LF
Einar Diaz, C

Chuck Finley, P

Mariners

Ichiro, RF
Stan Javier, LF
Bret Boone, 2B
Edgar Martinez, DH
John Olerud, 1B
Mike Cameron, CF
Dan Wilson, C
David Bell, 3B
Mark McLemore, SS

Jamie Moyer, P

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