Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mailbag Revisit With J.D.

Episode Date: December 22, 2020

Jason Hernandez is back once again and answers some questions asked by listeners that were featured in the previous mailbag. These questions happen to fall right into J.D.'s wheelhouse. He talks about which famous games he's been to -- and there are quite a number of them -- and also gives his opinions on the Mariners' uniforms and baseball jerseys at large. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you, J.M. This is Locked-on Mariners, and I am D.C. Lundberg. We are part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, or T-L-O-P-N-O-P-Lopin. Brought to you by Built Bar. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to this program using whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any program. here on the Locked-on podcast network.

Follow us on Twitter at L-O-U-U-N-S-Skourner. Follow me on Twitter at D-C-U-N-D-L-D-B-E-R-G, if you are scoring at home. Oh, boy. Yeah, okay. With me, once again, is Jason Hernandez of not only Locked-on Anaheim Ducks, but his brand-new hockey trivia show,

What the Puck. Jason, how you doing? Fantastic. I'm doing just wonderful here on the Locked-on podcast network. where I talk about the Anaheim Ducks. Oh, yeah, quack, quack, baby. Are we going to use our golf commentator voices for the whole show, or are we going to get back to normal soon?

I'm going in PR. Oh, are you? Yeah. All right then. Yeah, I'm on my tiny desk right now. So speaking of tiny desks, there's a little cubby right on the side of this tiny desk that you can drop some mail in. And in fact, there actually is some.

something in that tiny mailbox, isn't there? Hey, it's fan mail. We've got some fan mail in this tiny box. So I think that's what we're going to do today, right? We're going to do some of it. It's going to be kind of a prelude to our next mailbag extravaganza with John Miller, which is probably going to go two episodes again because I got a lot of emails. There were two emails specifically that I wanted JD to address on the show that he didn't

get a chance to because he wasn't available to record. One of them was from our regular e-D., emailer, Aiden Soans, basically asking me, and we don't have Clive here, he's off doing something. I don't know, I don't know what the hell he's doing. And frankly, I don't care. But Aidan asked us the most famous ball game that I'd been to and what minor league stadiums I had been to. John and I already answered the question on the air. Jason, I know you've been to a couple of famous ball games that I'd like you to talk about those games, please. Oh, there's more than a few famous ball games. May I read the email?

Yes, sir. So this is from Aidan Ceynes from East Hampton, Connecticut, who writes, What was the most famous baseball game you have been to? For me, it was Game 4 of this past World Series, you lucky dog you. Also, what is your second favorite baseball team and least favorite team? Finally, what minor league ballparks have you been to? I've only been to Duncan Donuts Park, Hartford, Dodd Stadium, Norwich, the Sea Unicorns, I know awful name,

and New Britain Stadium, Altholm of the Connecticut Rock Cats. I got to say, I kind of like the name. see unicorns. I love minor league team names. They're so, they're so out there. Trash pandas, baby. Trash pandas. All right. So back to my normal voice. My normal voice.

So for my money, I think the most famous, well, there's an infamous game that I've been to, and that would be the time where Frankie Rodriguez, at the time the closer of the Angels, where he received the ball, and as he was receiving the ball, he dropped it on the mound,

and a run came in, one of the more infamous walk-offs, the walk-off error, bulk, whatever that was. When you said Frankie Rodriguez, I thought you were going somewhere else, because you're talking about Francisco Rodriguez. I thought you were going to talk about the time the Mariners were in Los Angeles, and Frankie Rodriguez was pitching for the Mariners,

different Frankie Rodriguez, and buzzed Mark Grzolano. a couple of times. And then there was a pretty good brawl, which ensued. That's where I thought you were going. I was going to say, you were at that game? But no, you're talking about something else. No, but there's a couple of famous games there.

My favorite one was Dennis Martinez's perfect game, 1991 against the Dodgers. Yes, the one and only time that I rooted against my home team. But this was a special moment. How often do you see a perfect game? you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than attending a perfect game. Not a no-hitter, not a no-hitter, a perfecto.

Perfect. Which I know that Mariners fans are familiar with as I can be seen here wearing a specific jersey that I just picked up. Oh, look at this. This has my last name on it. Yes, it does. My last name happens to be Hernandez. So it's like they made this jersey just for me.

I'm kidding. It's, of course, arguably, the best pitcher in Mariners history. Definitely the best pitching performance in Mariners history that one single game. I would say that. Oh, I do want to talk about this with you, actually. We'll get to this in a little bit. Sure.

A discussion about this. And this is just kind of an email, kind of hodgepodge, wherever this goes-type episode, ladies and gentlemen. So my famous ones are Dennis Martinez's perfect game. There was obviously the very emotional no-hitter that took place in Angel Stadium

last season on the heels of Tyler Skag's passing. Yes, and that is one of the only times I've rooted against the Mariners, ladies and gentlemen. I will admit that on the air when the combined, was it a no-hitter or a perfect game, I'm sorry? And was it combined no-hitter. Combined no-hitter.

So when it was getting down to it, and remember, gang, that game was over in the bottom of the first inning. When Mike Trout hit his first inning home run against Mike Leak, the game was over, and I was really hoping that the Angels were going to do something special. I was kind of hoping that they would just win the game. game for Tyler Skaggs, but as the game went on and on and on, and the mayors did not get a hit, did not get a hit, did not get a hit. I was really hoping that the angels were going

to complete the no-hitter. I was nervous. I was nervous through that game. You know this because you were messaged or you messaged me once and I didn't want you to message me anymore because you know how I am. I'm superstitious. Every baseball person is superstitious. Whether they once would admit it or not. Every baseball person is superstitious, yes. Yes. If you're listening out there, and you're a baseball fan, you're superstitious. Don't lie to yourself, Spokes. Don't do it. But really, I'm not one of those guys that says the words no hitter during a no hitter. I'm not going to say that. And DC knows the phrase that I use. What phrase do I use when I message that it's happening? He'll know when I say it. I use the phrase something special. Yeah. Yeah. And she knows it.

So when he saw me text that or message him that, he knew that he needed to shut up the rest of the game because I didn't want to hear it. Yep. Because I was already nervous enough as it was. And I did not utter it. I just told like the fans, like people around me like, hey, something special's going on.

Like, okay, bagels. Like, and most of the fans around me knew what I meant. Yeah. I could tell that some of the fans were just as nervous, and they knew I was super-sitches. They know I'm just not one of those hoity-to-oity-de-a-basel fans. No, I'm a real fan. I want to see a no-hitter happen.

Oh, yeah. But I did cry at the end of the game. That was the only time I cried at a game. Not because of the home run by Mike Trout, not because of the no-hitter, but because of what happened afterwards when all the players pointed up, and then they all took off their jerseys

because every player had 45 skaggs on it, and they laid out the jersey, or all the jerseys, on the mound, and they all just kind of stood there heads down in silence and probably said a silent prayer right there. Yeah, I did lose it right there. That was the moment for me where I let it all out. Watching it at home, I did cry as well. I got to be honest.

Imagine being there. Oh, my God. I could not imagine being there. I cried after the pregame ceremony also. Yeah. When his widow threw out the first pitch. And what a first pitch that was, too. That was a strike.

Yeah. That was a bullet. The other kind of famous game at Angel Stadium that I liked was Albert Poohol's 600th home run. I was present for that game as well. So I've seen a bit of history. What else? Went to the 50th anniversary game at Oakland. Yes.

That was a fun time. One of my favorite games in Oakland. Oh, let's see. Got to see number 17. go into the rafters at Coors Field, which is the only retired number that the Rockies have right now. Right. A little bit of trivia for y'all.

What are their famous ones? I mean, those alone are pretty famous. I mean, that beats the hell out of what I got. The most famous one that I've been to is an infamous one, and that's Raphael-Paul-Meyer's 3,000th hit. But I was at Griffey's 24 being retired. I was at Edgar Martinez's number 11 being retired, and I went to all three. games. The Mariners did Ken Griffey Jr. weekend and Edgar Martinez weekend, both a Friday,

Saturday and Sunday. And I was at both of them. Griffey was after he had been inducted into the Hall of Fame and Edgar's was the year before. I was not at the weekend where they celebrated Edgar going into the Hall of Fame. His number had already been retired, but it wasn't his number retirement. Hey, that's still pretty good. I was at both of those. Those still pretty good. I was at the last game in the Kingdom, which was a lot of fun. Ken Griffey Jr. hit the last. That's historical. That's historic. John. Ken Griffey Jr. hit the last. home run in the kingdom and it actually was rather close to where I was. It was about maybe two rows behind me and a dozen or so people to my right.

It was very, very... If we were going to go that route. I was at the last night game ever at the Merck, Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, and the first games at Pickle Park. So there you go. There we go. And I realized I did not answer a part of this question on the original episode. my second favorite team and least favorite team.

I did say, I talked about my least favorite teams. My second favorite team, and I think I've mentioned this on the show before, too. That's the Baltimore Orioles because I grew up an Orioles fan. I grew up a Calariffian Jr. fan. And I still have, you know, a place in my heart for the Orioles. But, you know, I might be having to start in the root for the Rockies here pretty soon because the Spokane's now with Colorado Rockies affiliate. So my answers have changed over the years.

The Mariners are definitely a favorite team of mine. I do like the Mariners. They do a great job as far as social media, as far as that goes, changing the ballpark name, kind of whatever. They don't have very good teams. You know who's won me over big time? And I actually got an email from their team president this week. I think I do know who it is, but I will let you say it to the viewers. Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Their fan outreach is great. They're fantastic. Yes. Dave Kavall is such a stand-up guy. Yeah, Oakland's won me over. I'll admit it with the free game, with all the social media stuff, with the way they respond to it. Yeah, Oakland's up there.

Least favorite team is not the same team anymore. It is no longer the Giants. I wonder who it is. Hold on. Hold on. Is it an Apple Watch buzzing that I hear? No, but let's change it up and talk about built. Let's do that, yes.

You've been to a ton of minor league stadium, so we can spend two episodes talking about that, so we won't even bother. But before we move on, time for the trivia corner, we're doing another hall pass today, ladies and gentlemen. And this is a pitcher who enjoyed a 21-year major league career in the 70s, 80s, and 90s possesses a 240 and 236 record, did not pitch. pitched on a lot of bad teams. Career ERA of 366, career whip of 1.270. He accumulated 2,773 strikeouts against 1,255 walks. He is an ERA champion. He has one ERA title, also led the league in shutouts once, led the league in strikeouts once, and also led the league in whip once. Strikeouts per nine led the league in that category once, led the league in strikeout to walk ratio twice. He is a, he placed fourth and third in the Sy Young Award voting and he is a three

time all-star. He also placed twice in the MVP voting. Is this man a Hall of Famer or should this man be a Hall of Famer in your opinion out there in podcast land? We'll tell you who it is after this word from Bilt Bar, the greatest protein bars in the history of greatest protein bars. They taste as close to a candy bar as a great protein bar can get. High-in-protein, low-in-sugar, calories, and carbohydrate. The nut-free flavors are all made in a nut-free facility, ladies and gentlemen, and they are gluten-free to boot. They come in 18 terrific flavors, in addition to the limited-edition flavors,

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and if you use promo code unlocked, that doesn't work. So try promo code locked on instead and that'll get you 20% off of your order. Built bar, I'm loving it. Yeah. The hall.

pass, ladies and gentlemen, the statistics that I just mentioned, would you put this man in the Hall of Fame? Jason, I will ask that very question to you. Is he an American League or a National League? Primarily an American League. In fact, he only spent one half season in the National League. It's a pretty minuscule whip. What team or teams did he play for? Well, he had really two primary teams where he spent a great deal of time. One of them was the Angels, the other one was the type. Okay. As soon he said, Angel, like, oh, wait, okay.

Ooh, should he be a Hall of Famer? This has been talked about with me and a former colleague on this very network. It has. Oh, man. He's right there. He's close. He's really close. He is super close, which is why I'm going to say he's right there.

He's right on the fringe. He's right on the fringe. Yeah, I kind of think that's where he is, too. but yeah can I see who it is I will in a second because I will say that I think that I would put him over the edge the 240 wins he pitched on some bad bad teams

yeah he did so that hinders his one loss record he was basically a 500 pitcher but go look at his other statistics if he played on a good team if he were a Yankee he might have 300 wins who knows Jason we've chewed up a lot of time on this who is this

Frank Tanana this is indeed Frank Tenana ladies and Johnna gentleman, a man that I never saw pitch, but looking at those numbers, my gosh, he had a much better Major League career than I think most people realize. No kidding. Yes, indeed. If you out there in podcastland have a question or a comment, please submit it to Lockedon

Mariners at gmail.com. Clive Braithwaite, the 4th, will read it on the air, and I will reply to it. Questions or comments on any subject are welcome and encouraged. Locked on Mariners at GMA.com. Once again, is that address. Please keep it appropriate. This is a family show. We will be back shortly.

Welcome to the second half of Locked-on Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. All right, yep, thanks, Joey Martin. We are back here on Locked-on Mariners. If you're a fan of the NBA, listen up. The Locked-on NBA podcast is getting you ready for the start of the regular season with a special week of Team Preview podcasts all this week. Plus, waiver-wire editions from Locked-on Fantasy Basketball

and rookies to watch from Draft Guru Chad Ford. subscribe to Lockedon NBA podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. And returning to this podcast, kind of a preview to the next email episode, and, you know, in addition to the previous email episodes here with Jason Hernandez of what the puck here on the Locked On podcast network. It's beginning to look a lot like basketball as my Lakers put a banner up. Hey, how about that? Yeah, definitely check out the NBA shows as my Los Angeles.

Angeles Lakers, celebrate their 17th NBA championship, and they go on for number 18. I think they're going to do it. I think they're going to break the record for most titles in the NBA with 18. Take that Boston Celtics. Do you remember which market you're speaking to here? Yeah, but at least it's not the Portland Trailblazers. Yeah. Yeah.

See? See? I just cured up your fan base there. Who would you rather have win the title? The Blazers, Paul, or the Lakers? Yeah. I think the Seattle fans, they are no fans of the J.L. Blazers. The Lakers won it for Kobe, okay?

They won it for Kobe. Yes. So there's that. I mean, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know anything about basketball. I don't follow basketball. We got to get back to the show because we're running behind time. We have one more. There's another email.

There's another email that I wanted you to address. from the last show that you'll get a chance to address on this show. This is from Tyler and Lindwood, and it involves jerseys, which is... Yeah, I want to address... This is J.D.'s Wheelhouse. This is J.D.'s. And I want to address something that you said on the last podcast. Oh, dear.

I wanted to listen to this part, and I'm going to kind of call out a little bit. Here's the email. I really want the Mariners to get new uniforms. Uniforms that are radically different than what we're used to, not just a minor update like what happened recently. The Mariners have had basically the same jersey over the course of my entire life and love of the Mariners. I'm 24, by the way.

Baseball jerseys are boring. Usually just a solid color with the team name or city across the chest. Would you like to see the M's take on new uniforms? And if so, what would you want them to look like? Or would you rather see them stick with what they've got? Thanks, Tyler from Linwood. Okay, so, D.C. you want the uniforms to largely stay the same.

In fact, you're okay with these. I will say, I do like the Navy jerseys. I don't know why you would want to change. Okay, I like the Navy. I'm wearing the Navy jersey right now. I don't want them to go away. I would add another road jersey. I like the blue jerseys are nice and classy.

I would add another road jersey. I do not want those to go away. So I liked and did not like what you said about that. part because I think there is a better way to do it. And this is more of my hockey background coming in. First off, the Seattle Navy jersey, I think, is a classic. You've got the Seattle script with the compass on the S. You have this kind of neat font on this jersey.

It's different than their typical jerseys. Instead of just the regular block font, you have this kind of fancy font with the silver letters. And it's, I'm going to go deep into Jersey Talk here, because I think that's what some of the jersey heads really want. They want the deep talk. On this particular jersey, the Navy one, you have the silver kind of shimmering silver numbers with the triple tackle twill.

So you have teal, then navy, then silver, which I think is fantastic. Then you kind of have the stylization of the sans-serif lettering on the back instead of just the regular block lettering. So the Navy jersey, I think, should be here to stay because it is different. Now, here's what I would do, Tyler. I do want the Mariners to somewhat get new uniforms.

There's a caveat here, okay? They've had the same jersey for a long time. I made this argument that the Rangers should have made a drastic change, and they didn't, and I'm highly disappointed that Texas didn't, because they moved to a new ballpark. They should have gotten in New Jersey, or a completely New Jersey set. there are some teams that should never change their jerseys,

the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Red Sox, among others. The Astros are one of those teams that has to change because they can't seem to find a good identity with a jersey set. The jersey they have now, that's going to be associated with cheating. Which is too bad because I like that look. I hate that look now. I'll admit it. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, totally, totally.

I'm with you on that. but, you know, looking at it just objectively, it's classic, it's clean, and it's a shame that it's now associated with this cheating scandal. And as far as the Mariners, the main white home jersey, just the classic jersey, I think that one should always stick around because it's associated with some pretty damn good mariners' memories. Those were the jerseys they were wearing when the double was hit. Those were the jerseys they were wearing when Ken Griffey Jr. had that sweet swing into the right field bleachers during Little Big League, a classic baseball film.

Also featuring Dave Magazine. Yeah. Those were the jerseys they were wearing when Ichiro got that iconic record-breaking hit. There are some fantastic memories in that particular jersey. so at least that home jersey should stay. The road jersey I could see changing. Maybe an alternate, like the alternate teal, I could see changing. That's fine.

But here's what I would do to have an alternate. I know DC you're not a fan of the cream color. That's fine, I guess. And I know I'm in the minority on that, and I'm okay with that. Yeah, I are. But there's a way they could do better as far as Major League Baseball in their jerseys in general. So you know how they have their players weekend where they had either white on white or black on black or those god awful colors? No, they could do this so much better.

Take a page from the freaking NHL, okay? Look what the National Hockey League just did to excite most of the fan base. They came out with a program called Retro Reverse, where they would take elements of an old jersey from a team, put either older. or newer colors on it and completely change the jersey. That I think would work in MLB because there's enough of those classic jerseys or they could change it. I'll give an example. The Dodgers.

They could possibly change that gray jersey to maybe an all-blue jersey with maybe not red numbering, but maybe a blue jersey with white numbering and red scripts that says Dodgers. Maybe change it up. That's the whole purpose of the retro reverse program. The Montreal Canadians, they've always had either a white jersey or a red jersey. And every time they've tried to throw back, they've thrown it back to Barber pole stripes or something weird. No, Montreal for the first time, they have a blue jersey. So that's weird in itself.

The L.A. Kings, they had a foreign blue and gold jersey mixed in with their black and white jersey. So that's kind of the purpose of the reverse retro. And I'll take another example that's kind of familiar to you all. The Vancouver Canucks. They did their weird gradient jersey in a different color way. So here's, and I did think about this question a lot. A lot. I bet you did.

Here's what the Mariners could do. They could take that classic jersey and completely reverse the colors. So why not have an all royal blue jersey in the classic lettering? Bring that back. Not in gray. You know what? I'd go with that. The other part of the problem that I have with the cream jerseys

is that they don't have a name on them. And the Mariners are not a team that can get away with that, I don't think. That may be true. But I'm just saying, why not adopt something that the NHL did that created a ton of buzz? MLB can take a page from this. If I may give some more examples that some fans might go, hmm, that might not be a bad idea.

the San Diego Padres Instead of having an all-brown jersey From the 80s How about an all-orange jersey That would just be interesting Maybe some would say it's ugly But it's interesting

Or let's go really reverse retro To really screw things up Why not Completely reverse the colors Of the Yankees jersey Oh Reverse Man I see

I don't know if I would change anything about those Yankees jerseys. I always pissed off when they put the corporate logo on the front of the Yankees jersey. Which is a small thing, but man, to me, that's changing the jersey. And with the Yankees, I just don't know, man. It'd be just for a weekend.

Okay. Now, if it's just for one weekend, then yes. I thought you were talking about it. Yeah, just for a weekend. I thought you were... That's what hockey's doing. It's just for a few games. Why not have this reverse retro idea for a few games?

I honestly, and like, now that I said, it out loud, that might look kind of badass. I think they should do it. I think they should do it. Dark Navy Yankees jersey with white pinstripes. Just imagine it. You're thinking about it. Yeah. I know the stuff there are thinking about it.

They are, yeah. It looks slick. Yeah, it might. So that's my idea on a new take on new uniforms that the Mariners could have. All right. And we're going, and I've already given my opinion on this on the last show, John and I actually spend a lot of

I'm talking about it. We're going to touch on one question for our next mailbag. I am not going to answer it, but Jason is going to be, since he is not going to be available. And this comes to us from Daniel in Republic, Washington. And he asks, who is your favorite classic rock band or artist? Jason, take it away. This is a great question. Hold it right there.

This episode is already way over time. And the following conversation was another eight minutes. So we're going to stop here for the day and save that for the next mailbag episode, which probably will be coming up pretty soon. John Miller is going to join me for that, and it's most likely going to be another multi-parter since I got quite a few emails. In the meantime, please remember to download, rate and subscribe to this program. Look for us on any podcasting app that you can think of. Follow us on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. Follow J.D. on Twitter at Stimpy J.D.

And also follow Locked on Anaheim Ducks. You have to look up locked on Anaheim ducks in your podcasting up, otherwise you'll get the organ ducks. Seattle fans, I'm sure you don't want that. Anyways, also follow me on Twitter. That's DC underscore Lundberg. Thank you for listening, ladies and gentlemen, join us next time. This is Joey Martin, speaking for Locked on Mariners, part of the Locked On Podcast Network.