M's Bank On Powell Doing Right Thing
A few minutes after three o'clock yesterday, Alonzo Powell walked through the blue double doors, his doors of opportunity, and into the Seattle Mariners' clubhouse.
The news came to him late Monday night after Calgary's loss at Tucson. The Seattle Mariners were calling him back to the big leagues, not for the cup of coffee he got with the Montreal Expos in 1987. This time he was coming to take his place in right field. The job would be his to win or lose.
Powell was the second part of this week's Calgary cavalry charge, called up to help the anemic Mariner offense. Shortstop Rich Amaral heard the same call 24 hours earlier.
Manager Jim Lefebvre of the Mariners is pleading for power. For the time being, Pedro Guerrero is staying in St. Louis. This week, Alonzo Powell is Seattle's great right hope.
"We needed to get some production out of some players, and they haven't done it," Lefebvre said before last night's 6-5 loss to Kansas City. "So, we're going to our next choice.
"We committed ourselves to a few people, and it hasn't worked out. That doesn't mean we're giving up on them. It just means we're going to give this young kid a chance to go out and play.
"We've got Dave Valle hitting .151 and Jay Buhner hitting .200 and Pee Wee Briley hitting .211 and Tracy Jones hitting .222. You feel you've given them a chance. Now it's time to give somebody else a chance, and Alonzo will get his chance. I'm not bringing him up here to sit."
The right-handed power outage has been palpable. The Mariners have only 15 home runs from the right side. That paltry production is especially stinging when you see the statistics of some of the right-handed-hitting Mariner alumni.
Dave Henderson is having a Triple Crown season in Oakland - hitting .353 with 12 home runs and 39 runs batted in. Ivan Calderon has seven home runs and 30 RBI in Montreal. Kansas City's Danny Tartabull has five home runs and 24 RBI.
They are the ones who got away. If former owner George Argyros hadn't been so cheap, there wouldn't be this shortage of right might.
But that's history. Powell is the present and maybe the future.
"To be honest, he really made our team in spring training, but he was a victim of the numbers game," Lefebvre said. "Now, we've got to give him a chance. A legitimate chance to go out there and see what he can do."
A legitimate chance is all Powell, 26, wants. He was Montreal's Opening Day left fielder in 1987. He went 1 for 5 against Cincinnati's Tom Browning.
Twenty-five days later, after batting .195 in 14 games, he was back in the minor leagues. Until yesterday, he hadn't been back to the bigs.
When the Mariners left Las Vegas last month to start the season, Lefebvre told Powell to stay sharp. In the past, such promises turned into lies.
But Monday, Lefebvre kept his promise to Powell. At 4:30 p.m., in the quiet of early batting practice, Powell took his first swings in the Kingdome.
"You have two choices when you go down (to a minor-league team)," Powell said. "You can go down there and pout, or you can go down there and do well and prove that you belong in the major leagues.
"I really didn't have any idea they were going to call me. My job was to go down there and play hard, and if something happens, it happens. I'm not really the kind of guy who tries to wonder what's going on in Seattle. I just do my job."
Powell batted .376, drove in 35 runs and hit six home runs in 43 games at Calgary.
"What happened at Montreal? I don't know. You might be able to answer that better than me," Powell said. He moved up through the organization, from Class A ball to the big leagues, in one year. "I don't think I was ready then. I was only 22," he said.
"I went down to Triple A and my numbers were as good as anybody in baseball's (.299, 19 home runs, 74 RBI in 90 games), but I didn't get called up in September. The next spring they told me if I looked good in camp, I'd make the team. I led the camp in hitting, but I didn't make the team. It just seems like I've been in the wrong place at the wrong time the last few years."
This is his time. Right field belongs to Powell. If he hits, it will be his for a long time. If he misses, the search will continue.
"It's great to hear you're going to go out there and get a chance to play," Powell said. "This is what I've been waiting for, for a while. Now it's just a matter of going out and doing the job."
At 8 p.m., Powell met Kansas City's starting pitcher, Tom Gordon, the American League leader with a 1.38 earned-run average. There were no heroics for Powell in his first night in the major leagues in four years. He went 0 for 4, leaving three runners on base.
"How long will we go with him?" Lefebvre asked rhetorically. "I don't know. To say exactly how many days, or how many games, that's really tough to put a number on. Let's just say we're going to throw his butt out there and see what he can do."
Last week, the Mariners flirted with first place. This week, the incredible streaky team again flirts with disaster.
It needs help. It needs hitters. It needs home runs. Yesterday, the blue double doors opened for Alonzo Powell. The opportunity of a lifetime is his.
This season may depend on his success.
Steve Kelley's column usually is published Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the Sports section of The Times.