First things first.
What about the 2017 Ex-Mariner of the Year?
Sorry, Eric From Spokane, it’s not this guy…
Video: mlb.com
Playininthedirt has not forgotten. Playininthedirt has been tied up in a handwringing angsty bundle all winter.
Alert and dedicated (and who knows, maybe our only) reader Eric From Spokane threw down the gauntlet last September when, before the playoffs even started, he claimed former weak-hitting Mariner shortstop Chris Taylor would be the guy. Yeah the same guy who, a few weeks later, jumped all over the first pitch World Series pitch any Dodger saw, and drilled it right into the seats.
We witnessed that moment from a table at the Brown Lantern in Anacortes. Excellent beer and burgers. Awesome sports pictures and stuff all over the walls. The homer was welcome relief even though we were rooting for the Astros. Why? Because it took our attention away, just for a minute, from the nice lady at the bar with her butt crack showing. Seriously, the guy at the next table was about to walk up there with a quarter and — do we digress?
So Taylor looked like the man. Even though the Dodgers lost that series, Taylor finished 2017 with a 2-year batting average 40 points higher than his two seasons in Seattle. And he was the MVP of the NL Championship Series against the Cubs, batting .316 with 2 homers.
But ask yourself a question.
Who in the history of baseball — not just ex-Mariners, but anybody ever — sat on the bench but did not play for the World Series champs one year, then did exactly the same thing in the Japan Series the very next year?
A non-roster invitee to the postseason dugout, if you will. Twice. A man we gotta have sitting there with us, to keep us loose, to keep us focused, to make sure we win.
A man like no other.
We loved it a year ago, when 2016 ex-Mariner of the Year Mike Montgomery saved Game Seven for the Cubs and celebrated along with his fellow former M, Kawa, bouncing all over the infield in a rolling scrum of joy.
Lost in the ether as 2017’s season got underway, Kawa was released from the Cubs’ AAA team in DesMoines Iowa, and all we could say over here was that’s a blessing for Kawa, who the hell wants another season in freaking Iowa, even though Terrence Mann reminds us people go to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom…
So anyway, Kawa went home, not to grind away on his own personal Ross Eversoles, but to rejoin the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, the team where he batted .293 over 11 seasons before coming to Seattle to be with his buddy Ichiro.
He showed up to join the Hawks, and they sent him to the minors. And they brought him back up. And down. And up.
And through it all he kept bringing fun to the oh-so-serious Japanese league. He missed Toronto. And poutine.
And when the Hawks got to the Japan Series with Kawa cheering them on from the bench, guess what happened. A Japan Championship.
That’s big stuff. And much as we love Eric From Spokane over here, much as we’ve angsted all winter over this moment, it’s really not a tough call.
Way to go, Kawa.
Now let’s get on with the new season. A week from tonight!
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