Seattle’s Ancient Mariner Sees Young Team Playing in Limbo

It has been two weeks now since Newport Beach developer George Argyros made his move to buy the San Diego Padres, in effect telling the Seattle Mariners that they were geographically undesirable.

Argyros, the Mariners’ owner for the past six years, said the Padres’ purchase was appealing because it would allow him to be closer to his home and other business interests. If the purchase is approved, Argyros will have to sell the Mariners because baseball doesn’t permit owners to have interests in more than one franchise.

So where does all this leave the Mariners, a team so young that many of its players are still using their major league baseball learner’s permits?

What better man to ask than Ken Phelps, who, at 32, qualifies as the most ancient Mariner? The first baseman/designated hitter has spent his last four seasons on a team that doesn’t have another player with five full seasons of major league experience. Phelps has been around to see the Mariners finish seventh, sixth, fifth and seventh in the AL West. Just what direction is this team going now?

“It’s tough to really answer that right now,” Phelps said, “because the club’s kind of in limbo. Our owner . . . we don’t have an owner really. Until we get an owner, it would be hard to say where we’re headed.”

It should be pointed out here that Phelps hasn’t exactly been a company guy under the Argyros administration. He made some “play me or trade me” insinuations in 1985, when Chuck Cottier was manager and Phelps’ role was more limited than he would have liked.

And he wondered aloud whether Argyros had the team’s best interests at heart last December when the Mariners traded Danny Tartabull, one of last season’s top rookies, to the Kansas City Royals for pitchers Scott Bankhead and Steve Shields and outfielder Mike Kingery.

Phelps was hardly distraught when the Mariners got word that their owner was becoming their lame-duck owner, not long before an exhibition game against the Angels two weeks ago. He was, however, a little stunned.

“I think it caught everybody by surprise,” Phelps said. “There was a lot of talk (in the off-season) about signing a free agent or two, and that got everybody around the team excited. There was talk of (Tim) Raines, and some other good players who were out there. Then, we come to the ballpark in Palm Springs to play the Angels and find out that George had sold the club.

“Nobody knew anything until our radio guy, Dave Niehaus, said something in the dugout. I thought it was a joke. I found out later that it was the truth. So, instead of getting a couple of free agents, we’re getting a new owner.”

So Phelps, who set one career best with 64 RBIs last season and tied another with 24 home runs, is going about the business of being the closest thing to a veteran on a team that may soon have a “for sale” sign hanging on it. The ownership limbo has left a few questions unanswered for Phelps and his teammates, but he doesn’t blame Argyros for making a change in his rather hefty financial portfolio.

“He’s a businessman,” Phelps said. “You just go ahead and wish him well. He’s a smart man. He didn’t get to be as wealthy as he is by being stupid.”