SEATTLE — The 2001 All-Star Game in Seattle wasn't just baseball heaven; in many ways, it was baseball perfection.
The confluence of circumstances couldn't have been scripted any better: A record-setting team playing in a beautiful new stadium that was about to be showcased to the world with a whopping eight Mariners players on the American League squad. The weather all week was Chamber of Commerce beautiful, and the game itself featured an indelible moment when retiring legend Cal Ripken Jr. launched a third-inning home run.
"That All-Star Game was as electric in Seattle as I've ever seen," said Bret Boone, who started at second base for the AL. "We were leading baseball by a million games on a record pace. You couldn't write a more perfect scenario for a city."
Soon, the illusion of perfection was shattered irrevocably. Two months and one day after the spectacle at Safeco Field, the Sept. 11 attacks made baseball an afterthought. The Mariners set a record with 116 wins but couldn't get past the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. An exhilarating season had a somber ending.
"After we lost the final game, I remember sitting on that bus ride home, just looking at my teammates, and there were no words," Boone said. "It was like, 'Wait a minute. That isn't supposed to happen in our perfect year.' "
But in mid-July, it was nothing but endless possibility and soaring dreams for Seattle. When the Mariners reached the break with a 63-24 record and a 19-game lead over the A's, it wasn't surprising that four players were elected All-Star starters — Boone, designated hitter Edgar Martinez, first baseman John Olerud and an electrifying rookie from Japan named Ichiro, who got more votes than anyone.
"The All-Star Game can be awfully intimidating, being with all those great players," Olerud said. "So it was great having so many teammates. We were obviously having a great year, but I think the reason we had all those starters is that so many people from Japan were voting for us. All of Japan was watching the Mariners play that year because of Ichiro, so we definitely got some international help."
When the All-Star team was announced, the Mariners had two reserves on the squad, pitchers Freddy Garcia and Kazuhiro Sasaki. They were irked that AL manager Joe Torre had selected seven Yankees, and the Mariners, blowing away the baseball world, had just six.
That was rectified on the final weekend of the first half, when reliever Jeff Nelson was named to replace the injured Mariano Rivera, and outfielder Mike Cameron was an injury replacement for Greg Vaughn. It was a measure of the Mariners' dominance in 2001 that strong cases could also be made for pitchers Aaron Sele (9-1 when the team was announced), Jamie Moyer (9-3), and Arthur Rhodes (5-0, 1.96 in relief).
A year earlier, while with the Yankees, Nelson had lashed out publicly at Torre for leaving him off the All-Star squad, so he was gratified to be chosen by Torre. He got the word when Mariners pitching coach Bryan Price called down to the bullpen in the middle of a game at Dodger Stadium just two days before the break.
"The previous year I had said some stupid stuff about how I guess I'm not one of Joe's guys," Nelson said. "But we patched that up. Arthur and I each had a great first half and either one of us could have been there, and both of us probably should have. But when I got that call, it was incredible. Out of anything I've done in baseball, that was one of my best accomplishments — just to make an All-Star team and it happens to be in your home park. I mean, I didn't even have to change my locker or clean out my locker for somebody else."
But no one was more excited than Cameron, who had borne the burden of replacing Ken Griffey Jr. with grace. Cameron knew this was probably his best shot at an All-Star bid, and then it seemingly slipped away — until Seattle traveling secretary Ron Spellecy came down the tunnel at Dodger Stadium on the last day before the break bearing the good news.
"I kind of cried in the tunnel," Cameron recalled. "And then I proceeded to go out and hit a triple. It was like joy on both ends."
Witnessing Cameron's unabashed jubilation was something that Boone still savors.
"One of the coolest things still to this day was Cammy getting the nod late that he had made the team and how genuinely affected he was by it," Boone said. "He was like a little kid. He couldn't believe it. It was awesome."
Ichiro, still new to MLB, didn't know quite how special it was to have eight All-Stars from one team — plus manager Lou Piniella, who served as a coach on Torre's staff.
"At the time, I didn't know any better," Ichiro said through interpreter Allen Turner. "When I look back now — wow, what an awesome thing we had."
The All-Star experience was filled with indelible moments, from Randy Johnson playfully crashing the group photo of the eight Mariners All-Stars plus Piniella to Boone finding out he was hitting cleanup between Manny Ramirez and Juan Gonzalez.
"Joe came over to me and he said: 'Boonie, you earned this. You deserve to be hitting fourth on this team.'" Boone recalled. "And when you look at the numbers, I thought, 'Yeah, I do kind of deserve it.' "
The game itself began with a poignant gesture orchestrated by Alex Rodriguez, who in the top of the first inning yielded his shortstop position to Ripken, who had been voted the starting third baseman. That allowed Ripken, in his final All-Star Game, to set the record for most appearances at shortstop (15).
"That was very cool to watch, the respect Alex showed to Cal," Edgar Martinez said.
The bottom of the first featured an epic confrontation between Mariners past and present, with Ichiro getting an infield single off the Big Unit on a smash to first baseman Todd Helton that he beat out.
"For me, I felt like there was nothing greater than that," Ichiro said. "Facing obviously the best left-handed pitcher, facing the guy who was with the Mariners wearing No. 51 and then me getting that number and being able to face each other in the first at-bat in the All-Star Game. It just doesn't get any bigger or better than that. So for me, that was a huge moment. If it was somebody else, I wouldn't have been able to have that special experience.
"After I got on first, I was getting really scary glares from Randy. And so I remember being a little scared."
Ichiro was not so scared that he didn't promptly steal second base, though.
The game's signature moment was Ripken's homer on the first pitch he saw in the third inning on a grooved fastball from the Dodgers' Chan Ho Park. The debate has raged ever since: Did Chan Ho intentionally serve one up to Ripken as a gift to the retiring superstar?
"Probably," Nelson said. "He's that type of guy to say, 'OK, I'm gonna give you one to see if you can hit it out.' "
After the fifth inning, the game was stopped so that Commissioner Bud Selig could present a special award to Ripken and the also-retiring Tony Gwynn. Gwynn wasn't playing, but the game featured 11 future Hall of Famers, plus several more who are either on the cusp or, like Ichiro and Albert Pujols, will sail in when eligible.
The game's comic relief came when 73-year-old Tommy Lasorda, coaching third base in the sixth inning, tumbled head over heels trying to avoid a broken bat by Vladimir Guerrero.
"I'm not quite as agile as I used to be," Lasorda said afterward.
Meanwhile, the huge Mariners contingent took over. Garcia earned the victory with a scoreless third inning. Sasaki earned the save with a perfect ninth, after Nelson worked a scoreless seventh. At one point, from the fourth through the sixth, Torre had Boone, Cameron, Olerud and Martinez hitting 4-5-6-7. Cameron blasted a double in the sixth.
"I think I went to one of the best All-Star Games of the era," Cameron said. "It was just a joy — little-boy joy."
It was baseball perfection in Seattle — fleeting, but unforgettable for those who experienced it.
