What a silly, precisely Spring Training baseball game. In celebration of the Mariners’ six-run seventh inning, we’re going to play six degrees of Kevin Bacon but with a Mariners twist (duh). I bandied about six degrees of Jerry Dipoto (yawn), six degrees of Jack Zduriencik (grim and boring) and six degrees of Alex Mayer (compelling, but not enough publicly available information). Ultimately, I settled on six degrees of Diego Seguí, because that seemed challenging but also a nice tie-in to the Mariners 50th celebration this season (the only player to have played for both the Mariners and the Pilots). A few additional parameters for my own sanity:
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The connections must be through individual players, not just teams or geographic entities.
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The connections can be statistical though, not just teammates.
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When possible, try not to take the easy road.
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Not every Mariner who played in tonight’s game needs to be included.
Randy Dobnak: First MLB strikeout was Roberto Pérez in 2019; Pérez didn’t allow a passed ball in 118 games at catcher – only three catchers played more games without a passed ball: Bill Dickey, Johnny Bench and Al Todd; Johnny Bench helped lead the Cincinnati Reds to the 1975 World Series title thanks, in part, to securing a crucial Game 5 win, wherein Bench scored on a Dave Concepción sacrifice fly given up by Diego Seguí.
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Randy Arozarena: Was traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Tampa Bay Rays alongside José Martínez; Martínez was the 2016 Serie del Caribe MVP; the Dominican League hosted the tournament that year and dedicated it to Hall of Famer Juan Marichal, who threw out the first pitch; Marichal was teammates on the 1974 Red Sox with Diego Seguí.
Mitch Garver: Played for the University of New Mexico alongside D.J. Peterson, where the two shared Mountain West Conference Player of the Year honors in 2012; when Peterson was hit in the face by a pitch while playing for the Clinton LumberKings in 2013, Alvin Davis, then a roving minor league instructor for the Mariners, accompanied him to the hospital; Davis, of course, was the 1984 Rookie of the Year, where he played alongside such luminaries as Larry Milbourne; Milbourne, whom the Mariners traded for twice, despite him being objectively quite bad at baseball, played on the 1977 Mariners with Diego Seguí.
Brock Rodden: Helped the 2023 Modesto Nuts, led by manager Zach Vincej, to the California League Championship; Vincej played just one game for the Seattle Mariners in 2018, when he went 2 for 4 at third base while Kyle Seager was on the paternity list for the birth of his third child; Seager made his big league debut for the Mariners in 2011, where he was coached by hitting coach Chris Chambliss; Chambliss, famously a Yankee, was scouted heavily – and drafted unsuccessfully twice over – by Cincinnati Reds scout Al Zarilla; Zarilla was in Tucson, Arizona in 1958 where he scouted and successfully convinced the Athletics to sign Diego Seguí.
Box Office Bonanza
The game was not televised (to my knowledge), but I understand some of you may be interested in the actual baseball game played tonight, not just my newest method of entertaining myself. Here are the key notes best I can discern:
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Good job Garver, Arozarena and Rodden on having two hits apiece tonight! You won the baseball game, and also the honor of being featured in this weird recap.
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Bad job Cal Raleigh for contributing 4 of the team’s 15 strikeouts (good thing it doesn’t matter, and that he also hit a very far double).
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Okay job, pitchers! Dobnak got the start (and the bonus weird recap glory) and allowed four hits over 3.2 innings, with no walks and two Ks. Jason Ruffcorn and Reese Lumpkin (absolutely and for sure a real human person (can you tell I haven’t watched much Spring Training?)) turned in scoreless innings, and Dane Dunning gave up a double, threw a wild pitch and allowed the runner to score on a clunky groundout, but otherwise remained solid over three innings. They get only an “okay” from me, because though a six hit, four run, one walk, seven strikeouts game is objectively solid, it is also quite boring when none of it matters. Sorry.
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