SEATTLE — Mariners legend Ken Griffey Jr. is regarded as the man who, perhaps more than anyone, helped make the Home Run Derby a marquee event. He not only holds the record for the most appearances (8) and the most wins (3), but also provided the folklore moment that elevated The Derby into the realm of must-see spectacle when he clanked one off the warehouse beyond right field at Camden Yards in 1993.
But when it comes to mythical presences in the Home Run Derby, the all-time champion might be another foundational ex-Mariner — one who hit a grand total of 117 homers in his 19-year career and well, never actually competed in The Derby.
I'm referring to Ichiro, the Sultan of Slap, who used to mesmerize teammates and foes alike with his daily power display in batting practice. He would launch home run after home run into the right-field seats, an exercise he said helped hone his swing for that night's game. For the entirety of his career, baseball people swore that if Ichiro ever took part in the Home Run Derby, this diminutive singles-hitter would dominate the behemoths.
"I would put my whole year's salary on it that he would win," Mariners reliever JJ Putz told me during the 2007 All-Star Game in San Francisco, when Ichiro hit the only inside-the-park homer in All-Star history and was named the game's MVP. "You've seen him in batting practice hit 12 out in a row. And not just wall scrapers, but peppering the Hit It Here Cafe off the windows seven, eight times in a row. But he says he doesn't want to disrespect the big power hitters."
Those big power hitters — with Julio Rodriguez back for an encore appearance — will convene at T-Mobile Park in less than two weeks for the 39th Home Run Derby, which has become as hyped an event as the All-Star Game itself — maybe more so.
"The Home Run Derby has, in a certain sense, maybe taken over bigger than the game itself," Mariners manager Scott Servais said Friday. "The competition level, there's some strategy to it, the biggest stars are out there. ... Certainly now they've been doing it for so many years, it's got a lot of history tied to it."
And the Mariners have put their distinct imprint on The Derby over the years, from Griffey's antics to last year's breakout performance by Rodriguez, who slammed a total of 81 homers at Dodger Stadium in an astonishing power display. He didn't win — Juan Soto edged Rodriguez in the finals — but J-Rod emerged as a household name among baseball fans
Looking back, back, back, back (to steal Chris Berman's trademark Derby call), it hasn't been all dinger glory for Seattle sluggers. In his very first Derby appearance, in 1990, Griffey laid a goose egg at Wrigley Field: Zero homers, hard as that is to fathom.
"The wind was blowing pretty good (across from right to left field)," Griffey, who led off the competition, told reporters afterward. "I was a little nervous."
In those days, players were given 10 "outs" — any swing that didn't result in a home run. Once you reached 10, you were eliminated; that (and the fierce Wrigley wind) explains how Ryne Sandberg won the 1990 Derby with a mere three home runs. That's an appetizer in today's world, with homers ramped up by the 2015 switch to timed appearances rather than outs (and, some suspect, by enhanced baseballs).
Bret Boone also put up a big, fat zero in 2003 in The Derby at the White Sox's U.S. Cellular Field, much to his everlasting chagrin. He hit 35 homers that year for the Mariners but after having his bat ceremoniously delivered to him with a bow by teammate Ichiro, Boone couldn't hit a single one in 10 swings off his BP pitcher, ex-Mariner Dave Valle. In fact, Boone even whiffed completely on his third cut.
"People are looking at you, you're looking at them. You've got to go over to do an interview and you feel so stupid," Boone said this week, looking back 20 years later. "I can't replace how it feels being the player that actually hit zero. Every city I went to the second half of the season, that's all I heard about. I got ragged on by my teammates."
Valle was beloved as a Derby pitcher — by left-handed hitters, including that 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 in Seattle. The right-handed Boone had wanted to bring Mariners coach John McLaren to Chicago to pitch to him, but McLaren had already booked a vacation. So Boone asked Valle on reputation alone, without ever having hit off him.
"Val threw a cutter that comes in to left-handers. But the cutter goes away for me," Boone said. "So I was pulling off every pitch. I was hitting doubles down the left-field line. I'm thinking, this is not the game. It's not Doubles Derby. It certainly isn't Swing-and-Miss Derby."
Boone, who had put on a solid Derby show two years earlier with three homers, including an upper-deck shot, after getting a standing ovation from the Safeco Field crowd, had a ready rejoinder for those who gave him grief.
"I said, 'Listen, try getting 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 held at Yankee Stadium with its inviting right-field porch.
"That was the first time that I actually was going to be in it," Ichiro said last week through interpreter Allen Turner. "But prior to that, I got stepped on at home plate in Oakland and messed up my finger. So that's why I didn't end up participating."
When Ichiro's near-Derby moment was relayed to Boone, he said instantly, "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 that could put it where he wanted, he was like a robot. He could hit them at will. So yeah, if Ichiro were to enter it, I would hands down put him as the favorite."
I finally got a chance to put that question to Ichiro: Does he think he would have won?
"If it were the rules back in the day, I think I had a chance. But the new rules now, where you have to hit it over 450 feet to get an extra 30 seconds, I wouldn't have been good at that."
Then Ichiro casually mentioned that he did compete once in a Home Run Derby, in 2002 at the Peoria Sports Complex.
"Mike Cameron pulled me aside one day and said, "You've got to come with me.' Then he put me on a golf cart and we went to the field."
As Ichiro remembered it, he competed against Padres catcher Wiki Gonzalez and slugger Pete Incaviglia, who was in the San Diego camp that spring as a nonroster player. A small article in the San Diego Union-Tribune I found online confirmed his memory — except a third Padres player, Xavier Nady, also competed. The article also confirmed Ichiro's proud statement that he won The Derby.
"I still have a little trophy that I won from that," Ichiro said.
Just another artifact from the Mariners' Home Run Derby pantheon.
