Ex-Mariner of the Year: Early Leader

“You’ve got a great case there,” says my own Adult Son, which bears eerie similarity to the name our buddies at Lookout Landing pinned on Daniel Vogelbach even before he first filled the clubhouse doorway at Safeco Field.*

And boy could he fill a doorway. An even six feet, he weighed in at two-fifty and immediately endeared himself with his teammates when he reenacted Chris Farley’s Chippendale routine on Rookie Night.

Now THAT is a Large Adult Son.

But honeymoons, well, y’know. This went way beyond the honeymoon. After parts of five seasons and the spikes and the slumps and the promise and the letdown and the Ks and the BBs and 36 giant Vogelbombs and countless trips to Tacoma and finally an All-Star trip… and an ongoing fight for a snorkel below the Mendoza Line… Jerry had seen enough. He was out of minor-league options so in a single week in August he pinballed from Seattle to Toronto (well… ok… Buffalo, but that’s another story) to Milwaukee, home of the Seattle Pilots. Which is also another story.

And he proceeded to… absolutely…

…start nuking baseballs.

And he busted it up just enough to squeak the Brewers into the playoffs on the last day of the season.

There’s some devastating power in this picture. Mostly in the middle of the picture.

Tons of ex-Mariners populate these playoffs. Just on the Brewers, Vogey’s joined by Ben Gamel, Omar Narvaez, Ryon Healy, and David Freitas. But as the postseason gets underway, we got us an early leader. So says my Adult Son.

*”The Safe,” for those too young to remember, is now the Pink Palace at TMobile Park, Seattle’s favorite place for fifteen-dollar IPAs and roasted grasshoppers while we wait for that next bout of Playoff Fever.