Larry Stone: Mariners have left their mark on Dwelling Run Derby — good and unhealthy | Baseball

SEATTLE — Mariners legend Ken Griffey Jr. is recognized as the man who perhaps more than anyone else has helped make the Home Run Derby a top event. Not only does he hold the records for most appearances (8) and most wins (3), but he also provided the folklore moment that made the derby a must-see spectacle when he scored from the warehouse Camden Yards beat behind right field in 1993.

But when it comes to mythical presences in the home run derby, the all-time champion could be another former Mariner founder — one who’s hit a total of 117 home runs over his 19-year career and, well, never actually competed in the derby .

I’m referring to Ichiro, the sultan of the slap, who mesmerized teammates and opponents alike with his daily display of strength in slap training. He hit home runs after home runs into right field pitches, a practice he says helped build his momentum for the night’s game. Throughout his career, baseball people swore that if Ichiro ever competed in the home run derby, this little one-hitter would dominate the giants.

“I would bet my entire year’s pay on him to win,” Mariners relief player JJ Putz told me during the 2007 All-Star game in San Francisco when Ichiro hit the only inside-the-park home run in the All-Star game. Story scored was named the game’s MVP. “You saw him hit 12 straight shots in batting practice. And not just when he scratched the wall, but seven or eight times in a row when he banged the hit It Here Café out of the windows. But he says he doesn’t want to disrespect the big power hitters.”

These big power hitters – with Julio Rodriguez as an encore – will converge on T-Mobile Park in less than two weeks for the 39th Home Run Derby, which has become as hyped as the All-Star Game itself – maybe even more more so.

“The Home Run Derby has in some ways perhaps taken on greater importance than the game itself,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said Friday. “The level of competition, there’s a certain strategy behind it, the biggest stars are out there. … Certainly they’ve been doing this for so many years, there’s a lot of history involved.”

And the Mariners have made their distinct mark on the Derby over the years, from Griffey’s escapades to Rodriguez’s breakthrough performance last year, who hit 81 total home runs at Dodger Stadium in an amazing display of strength. He didn’t win—Juan Soto beat Rodriguez in the final—but J-Rod became a household name among baseball fans

Looking back, back, back, back (to steal Chris Berman’s trademark at the derby), it wasn’t all glory for the Seattle thugs. In his very first Derby appearance in 1990, Griffey laid a goose egg at Wrigley Field: zero home runs, as hard as it is to imagine.

“The wind was pretty good (from right to left field),” Griffey, who was leading the competition, later told reporters. “I was a little nervous.”

Back then, players were given 10 “outs” — every swing that didn’t result in a home run. Once you reached 10, you were eliminated. That (and the fierce Wrigley Wind) explains why Ryne Sandberg won the 1990 Derby with just three homers. That’s a little taste of today’s world, where the shift to timed appearances instead of outs (and, some suspect, improved baseballs) saw home runs increase in 2015.

Bret Boone also scored a big fat zero in the 2003 derby in the White Sox’s US Cellular Field, much to his chagrin. He hit 35 home runs for the Mariners that year, but after teammate Ichiro ceremonially handed his bat with a bow, Boone failed to hit a single ten swing from his BP pitcher, former Marine player Dave Valle. In fact, Boone suffered utterly on his third cut.

“People look at you, you look at them. You have to go over to do an interview and you feel so stupid,” Boone said in retrospect this week 20 years later. “I can’t replace how it feels to be the player who actually shot to a clean sheet. I’ve only heard about every city I’ve been to in the second half of the season. I got annoyed by my teammates.”

Valle was popular as a derby pitcher – with left-handers, including this year’s winner Garret Anderson, who used Valle. So did Jason Giambi when he put on a spectacular show in 2001, the last time the game was played in Seattle. Right-hander Boone wanted to bring Mariners coach John McLaren to Chicago to pitch him, but McLaren had already booked a vacation. So Boone Valle alone asked about his reputation without ever getting along with him.

“Val threw a cutter, which comes into play for lefties. But the editor goes away for me,” Boone said. “So I made every pitch. I hit the doubles on the left field line. I think this is not the right game. It’s not a doubles derby. It’s definitely not a swing and miss derby.”

Boone, who two years earlier had put on a solid derby show with three home runs including an upper deck shot after receiving a standing ovation from the Safeco Field crowd, had a reciprocation ready for those who were grieving him.

“I said, ‘Listen, get invited to one before you have an opinion.'”

Ichiro was invited year after year, but he never accepted – except once. It was 2008 when the game was played at Yankee Stadium with its inviting right porch.

“That was the first time I was actually there,” Ichiro said through interpreter Allen Turner last week. “But before that, I kicked home plate in Oakland and hurt my finger. That’s why I didn’t take part in the end.”

When Ichiro’s near-derby moment was passed on to Boone, he immediately said, “I think he would have won it. He would have put on a show. We saw it every day in batting practice. If you had a pitcher who could put it.” Where he wanted, he was like a robot. He could meet her at will. So yeah, if Ichiro were there I’d definitely call him a favorite.”

I finally got the chance to ask Ichiro this question: Does he think he would have won?

“If it had been the rules from back then, I would have had a chance. But under today’s new rules, where you have to hit over 450 feet to get 30 seconds more, I wouldn’t have been good at it.”

Ichiro then casually mentioned that he once competed in a home run derby at the Peoria Sports Complex in 2002.

“Mike Cameron took me aside one day and said, ‘You have to come with me.’ Then he put me on a golf cart and we went to the field.”

As Ichiro recalled, he feuded with Padres catcher Wiki Gonzalez and hitter Pete Incaviglia, who was at the San Diego camp that spring as a non-squad player. A small article in the San Diego Union-Tribune I found online confirmed his memory – except that a third Padres player, Xavier Nady, also attended. The article also confirmed Ichiro’s proud statement that he won the derby.

“I still have a small trophy I won from that,” Ichiro said.

Just another artifact from the Mariners’ Home Run Derby pantheon.

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