In 1987, George Argyros tried to buy the San Diego Padres while owning the Seattle Mariners. The shocking stunt broke every ownership rule, custom and norm in MLB. Even his close friend, Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, felt compelled to fine his pal, a California real estate developer who bought the club in 1981, $10,000 for calling the Padres manager, a violation of the rules against tampering with other teams.
Ueberroth also put the Mariners in trust for two months until the proposed deal inevitably fell apart, mostly because, in an observation by an anonymous source inside baseball that received wide circulation, National League owners said Argyros “wasn’t the kind of person they wanted around them.”
On the record, then-National League president Bart Giamatti called him “the James Watt of baseball,” a reference to a former U.S. secretary of the interior who had a reputation for doing foolish things in public. Giamatti was irked that Argyros, amid running the Mariners into their 10th of what would become a streak of 15 consecutive losing seasons, said publicly he wanted the Padres front office run by Dodgers Hall of Famer Steve Garvey. Without checking with Garvey.
So in 2021, here we are again, in the Circle of Eternal Mortification.
After a Rotary Club talk went public about the Mariners organization and its players that showed him to be ignorant, casually bigoted and oblivious, Kevin Mather “resigned” his presidency Monday. Mariners majority owner John Stanton issued a statement:
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) February 22, 2021
There was no surprise here; everyone who understands sports knew that Mather was done the minute the Feb. 5 speech to the Bellevue Rotary went public. The only point of interest to me in Stanton’s statement was this:
“We have a lot of work to do to make amends . . .”
As if 20 years without playoffs wasn’t enough, as if being MLB’s only team without a World Series appearance wasn’t enough, as if playing out a dreary, years-long “step back” strategy to gain competitive contention wasn’t enough, as if managing a franchise around a pandemic wasn’t enough, now the Mariners have a lot of work to do to make amends for Mather.
He’s the new Argyros/Watt caricature. The self-destructive Mariners are the team no one wants to be around. In today’s world, we should mask up in their presence.
I don’t think Mather’s comments will have material impact on the play of the 2021 Mariners. His clumsy denigrations will soon be forgotten by players, especially since they likely will never see Mather again. For them, it’s spring training, see-ball, hit-ball, etc.
In a Zoom conference with reporters Monday afternoon, Stanton said that after he was on 30 to 40 calls Sunday with fellow owners, baseball staff and Commissioner Rob Manfred, Mather made the decision easy by resigning.
“I didn’t have to make that decision,” he said. “I came in this morning, and Kevin resigned. I believe that that’s the right answer for the organization.
“It was for me, the accumulation of all of the comments. It wasn’t an individual comment, although there were certainly a number that were particularly unfortunate. It was the fact that the entire commentary reflected a number of views that were not consistent with the Mariners organization.”
What will linger from this stink is the fact that the Mariners knew how Mather spoke and thought, and indulged him. They had to — he was president since 2014, and for 25 years as a club executive.
In his talk, Mather certainly didn’t seem drunk or angry. He was very comfortable in dogging his own people.
His casually indifferent manner to Rotarians conveyed a filter-free obliviousness to how a CEO must conduct himself as second in command to Stanton, who joined ownership in 2001 when he bought out the minority shares of John McCaw, a former colleague at McCaw Cellular.
Clearly Stanton and Mather have known each other a long time, so it’s hard to believe Stanton was surprised at anything Mather said Feb. 5. Stanton has been a part of promoting Mather, and standing by him when the Mariners were rocked in 2018 by disclosure of a harassment scandal that went back to 2009-10. Settlements were paid to three female employees, and two other execs lost their jobs. Mather kept his job.
Apparently secure in his world, Mather proceeded to call two of his senior players overpaid (Kyle Seager) and boring (Marco Gonzales), mispronounced the names of two players (Jarred Kelenic and Luis Torrens), criticized two international players (Hisashi Iwakuma and Julio Rodriguez) for failing to grasp English fast enough to suit him, and admitted holding back prospects from playing in the 2020 stump season to avoid starting their service time clocks.
That public admission was jumped on by the players association as an ah-hah moment in its fraught relationship with owners, adding a log on the fire that may create a work stoppage in 2022 after the collective bargaining agreement expires in December.
The national release by MLBPA:
The Club’s video presentation is a highly disturbing yet critically important window into how Players are genuinely viewed by management. Not just because of what was said, but also because it represents an unfiltered look into Club thinking.
It is offensive, and it is not surprising that fans and others around the game are offended as well. Players remain committed to confronting these issues at the bargaining table and elsewhere.
So the blather of Mather is now a matter of national baseball contention. As it deserves to be. As does shame.
Incredibly, Mather turned an answer about upgrades to Seattle’s academy in the Dominican Republic into a put-down of its players.
Talking about the club’s $30 per diem for players, he said, “Surprise, surprise! They’d get in trouble because they wouldn’t know how to speak the language or make change or even buy dinner.”
Why would anyone in leadership of an international sports organization think to share publicly that cruel stereotype not of the players’ making? Unless, of course, he was a closet bigot.
I don’t think the Mariners lead MLB in scandals per square baseball yard, especially given the early George Steinbrenner years owning the Yankees. But they certainly lead in the ratio of scandals per championships won. At least, when Steinbrenner upended the table, he compensated fans with six World Series wins during his active stewardship.
The Mather firing comes on the same day that the Seattle Times reported a resolution was reached between the club and former high performance director Dr. Lorena Martin, who sued the Mariners in December 2018. She alleged she had been fired in retaliation for complaints to Stanton, Mather and another team owner about racial and gender discrimination.
The suit was moved to arbitration, per terms of her contract. No explanation for the resolution was provided by either side, and the Mariners maintained an investigation by MLB found no wrongdoing.
But her hire was ballyhooed by general manager Jerry Dipoto as a sign that the Mariners were on the cutting edge. It turned ugly for reasons not tied directly to baseball. Just as the harassment settlement against Mather, as well as his Rotary talk, were not directly involved in game outcomes.
The episodes were around baseball, but more directly part of the work culture supervised by Stanton, and embarrassing to baseball locally and nationally.
As were many in the Argyros era, they were all unforced errors, complicating an already difficult game to win, as the Mariners have proven.
Beset by historic baseball ineptitude, the Mariners are champions only of the unforced errors that require amends to be made, the errors that give fans, players and agents reasons to not want to be around the club.
As majority owner, and temporarily the CEO and president, it is all on Stanton to stop the free fall. He’s had his three strikes. And fergawdsakes, stay clear of the ruthless Bellevue Breakfast Rotary.
59 Comments
In addition to being a misogynist, Mather gave us all another glimpse into the mindset of the 1%. Among other things, Mather spoke with contempt of having to pay an interpreter a livable wage salary of $75K when Mather was undoubtedly making several times that amount which far exceeded his marginal value in terms of what he put into the organization versus what he took out. I really hope the MLB union uses his comments about holding a player back in order to keep the player from coming a year closer to free agency is used to bring an anti trust suit against MLB owners because I’m guessing the majority if not all of them have the same mindset as Mather when it comes to paying players but they aren’t as stupid as Mather by saying this out loud for all to hear. The genie’s out of the bottle now. Thanks Kev,
The service-time issue has been a hard one for the union, because of the narrow way it is written. It will certainly be up for negotiation in the next round of bargaining.
The lament about the translator’s salary was the acme of pettiness.
I know, right? $75K is a middle class wage. I remember when Gheorghe Mureșan was recruited by Coach Jim Lynam to play for the then Washington Bullets. Lynam told him he’d have to learn to speak at least some English to which Mureşan replied “Maybe you could learn to speak some Romanian?” Lynam was so impressed with the answer that he did. So just how many in the Mariners organization have made that kind of effort? Believe me it would go a long way if some did.
Ah yes the Lou and Pat days, those were good ol days indeed. Competitive teams, an entertaining product on the field, base throwing and dirt kicking by Sweet Lou. Gone but not forgotten. I can’t foresee anyway for this franchise to move forward with this current ownership regime. They’ve been exposed for what they are and what little regard they have for the players and the fans. They’re a product of the days gone by, minus the winning, what little of it there was.
Managers, players and GM’s come and go. But we the fans can’t fire the owners. I would suspect that Stanton and his posse are in it for the long haul. We the fans will have to continue to be fed bovine scatology year in and year out about how close the franchise is to turning the corner.
At least they’re consistent, and now since the curtain has been pulled back to reveal the Great Wizard. Everyone can see with their own eyes exactly how this Mickey Mouse franchise operates with no shame. Perhaps a slight ticket price hike and throw in a few extra bark in park nights for good measure, that might soothe the suckers, err. I mean the fans.
Two words…Theo Epstein
Let’s not forget that the current ownership group saved baseball in Seattle. They just don’t have the kind of priorities that the Yankees and Red Sox do. Could be worse. They could be lying cheaters like the Astros.
Theoretically they’re not the ownership that saved the M’s. That was Nintendo. As far as being worse than the Cheatsro’s. There’s two sides of the coin here. If you’re an Astros fan are you going to be a straight disavowed fan of the team? Perhaps you would be justified in doing that. But there’s no way on gods green earth that you can compare the Astros to the M’s as far being a competitive team year in and year out. Even without the cheating the Astros have the beat the M’s like a drum.
As far as the Yankees and Bosox having higher priorities than the M’s. It’s called winning, not just stuffing the corporate coffers. What of the Rays, the Nats, the A’s, the list could go on and on. You can be a small market team and compete…. “If” that’s what the ownership strives to do. There’s no justification of defending the ineptitude of this ownership, and in reality the prior one’s as well.
Bad baseball (Seattle) is better than no baseball (Portland)
The one positive about FB season being over is I now have my radio tuned into FM music, no longer to AM 710 or 950 listening to FB talk.
I tuned out the M’s years ago, as it’s same old, same old.
I still would like to hear from a qualified shrink what brain-type buys season tickets to M’s games. S&M personality? Abusive childhood? Spousal rejection? Or one having simply spent their largesse on everything imaginable and this was the final item?
There must be a plausible excuse, yet I know of none.
It’s usually a pleasant way to spend a sunny afternoon/evening during the world’s best summers. And if you’re under 25 or so, the ‘Pen in center is a hot pick-up spot. So I’m told. See you there.
The world’s best summers are January-December in Santa Barbara.
Yo. I second the emotion. Graduate: UCSB.
A Goleta boy! San Luis Obispo is a very close second.
My wife’s from San Luis!
The SLO life.
I’m over 25, so I’ll just have to observe….
Though my distaste for M’s baseball extends now to TWO decades, I did commit to one game each year to watch the King. I bought 3rd baseline seats in the first few rows just past the screen so that I could hear the snap of the ball hitting the catchers glove, and witness closeup the frustrating swipes, as one could only describe, opposing batters made at that pea sized ball.
As with Griffey in his later years, I was very discouraged Hernandez chose to not stay in condition to keep at the top of his sport. Instead of a HOF career his will be remembered as a “what if” career, pitching for a lousy club notwithstanding.
IMO he’ll get into the HOF. 6x All-Star, Cy Young Award, AL leader in wins and another time the ERA leader. Twice. Not only had a perfect game but also an immaculate inning. Might depend on who’s also being inducted but lesser pitchers have gone in.
Stanton is part of the problem.
Agreed.
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It all starts from the top. Maybe now Chris Larson will step forward and become CEO.
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Not just Stanton. Dipoto, Servais, and McKay all made racist and sexist statements according to Lorena Martin. Those alleged statements are remarkably similar to those made by Mather, questioning work ethic and language skills of minority players. All of these people should go, the front office needs a redo from top to bottom. Martin undoubtedly agreed to a confidentiality clause prohibiting her from disclosing the terms of her settlement, exactly contrary to her stated
desire in filing the lawsuit to bring these issues to the public light. Mather has done her work for her, but that doesn’t mean because he’s gone these issues are resolved.
I’m not ready to indict everyone, but only until transparency occurs, many fans will be as skeptical as you.
Aaaaaaaand, it’s strike 1000 or so. What compelled Mather to say anything outside the Bull Durham cliche carnival (“Y’know, I’m just happy to be here and hope to help the ballclub….I just want to give it my best shot and good Lord willing, things’ll work out….Gotta play ’em one day at a time, Y’know?”) is beyond me. Either a) he just feels comfortable being a bigot because nobody in his circles or in the rest of MLB is anything but; 1) he thinks everyone in Bellevue Rotary is equally bigoted (who knows?); i) he wanted out but didn’t have the cojones to resign; ά) he’s your basic domestic terrorist; or ꜳ) he’s sharp as a basketball. Can’t see how we’d keep players like Kelenic past the 6 years at this point. Maybe if there’s an inspired choice to replace him, Stanton, and the rest of the front office. And now they’re complaining about the neighborhood where the stadium was built? What gall.
I think he genuinely believes what he said. His apology included no denials, only that he was sorry.
To his credit he didn’t use the standard excuse that he drank too much.
We don’t know what was in the coffee mug.
To borrow one of Mr. Thiel’s more apt metaphors, “the rake has been stepped upon once again”… in a seemingly never ending desert of rakes that cannot be avoided.
The renaissance of Mariner baseball that was 1995-2001 seems like just yesterday, and yet so far away. Add to that the new game in town which is analytics, unless you’re the fan of any one of 6-8 teams in any given year, baseball will have no joy, no speculation, no late trade deadline additions to maybe put your team over the hump, in fact it will be the opposite; the team will try and pump the tires of one of the highly paid stars (and probably fan favorites) to maximize trade value at the deadline to one of the 6-8 contending teams.
I want so badly to be a Mariners fan, and to pass that joy of good baseball on to my son. At my age, I probably don’t have 45 more years to get that accomplished.
The Mariners, and the rest of baseball, are getting harder to like. Then wait until the work stoppage after the CBA expires.
Sports fans have short memories and are fickle. IF (before I perish from this earth) the M’s go 92-70, Kelenic hits .320 with 30 HR’s and Kikuchi beats the Yankees in a game 7, Mather et al will be long forgotten and Sodo Mojo will again reign.
It’s that way with entertainment, politics and other public-facing enterprises. Our thirst for scandal is endless, and forgettable.
“…the Mariners, beset by historic baseball ineptitude, are champs only of the unforced errors that require amends to be made…”
A moment of decision is upon us. Which path to take? The sorry, tired path of further contrition, apology and pointlessly repeated alcoholic promises to “do better” in the future? Or courageously seize the possibility of the moment? Cement down once and forever the team’s claim to be the worst baseball franchise in MLB history. Make it so clear and overwhelming that no other city or region will even think of disrespecting Seattle’s regal pre-eminence. These opportunities only come once in a generation. We must grab the moment by the throat and meet the challenge.
Our long time worthy competitors — the Expos cum Nationals — have fallen in battle, inexplicably winning the World Series one year after failing to retain the best pure hitter since Ted Williams. The Nets can’t really be blamed for their demise, but the end result remains the same. The M’s stand alone atop the mountain of futility, serenely surveying the clear-cut stumpage stretching out below. We have it within our power to make this dream permanent.
I can barely type, so soaked am I from the barrel of sarcasm you’ve dumped upon me.
I’ll take the “do better” path. Been down the other.
Displaying a certain degree of sunny optimism toward the beloved locals is of necessity built into your business plan.
That’s me, Mr. Sunshine. All the local teams will be thrilled to learn it.
Funny Art should mention 1987 as that also was the year longtime Dodgers executive Al Campanis was ousted after bungling an interview with Ted Koppel on Nightline. Compared to Koppel one might have thought the Bellevue Rotarians were lobbing softballs, but here we are.
I think I would rather face Mike Wallace in his prime than the murderer’s row of BelleRo.
If I remember correctly, Koppel actually asked Campanis something like, “I want to give you a chance to clarify…” and Campanis doubled down. It reveals something about their daily surroundings when they can’t even catch themselves.
Stanton: We must do better, what a crock of $h!t. This guy and Mather were breast fed by Nintendo and the previous nincompoops that were running the franchise before he decided to be the knight in shining armor riding to the rescue. He’s no different than the people he was raised by. Howard & Chucky and the other snake oil salesmen that ran the baseball executive committee. The apple falls not far from the tree.
The real question is, what now? Does Stanton and the Mariner franchise have any credibility left with the likes of say, other owners, Mariner players/union and lest we forget the politicians of King County and Seattle? Gonna be pretty tough to ask for anything from any of the beforehand individuals after bragging about how bucks up the franchise is. If he’s anything like his predecessors, he’ll just hunker down and weather the storm. Bad baseball is better than no baseball, says every past Mariner owner. This franchise has just about done everything in their powers to have every Mariner baseball fan despise them.
Your final sentence captures the biggest casualty in this sequence of events: Alienation of people who want to care.
Stanton had a real chance to break from the sordid past.
From everything I’ve read Stanton may be as much a part of the problem within the Seattle Mariners office culture as Mather. Stanton hasn’t been forthcoming or accountable and I don’t like how the resolution with Dr. Martin is in essence being swept under the rug. There comes a point you need to show example to your employees and your customer base.
Mather has put the organization in a hole. How deep is the question. Looking at the Mariners Front Office Directory I’m surprised that they don’t show a Human Resources Director. They are typically the ones who guide office culture unless that falls under the direction of Lisa Winsby who is listed as the VP of People & Culture. And even then it depends on how much the M’s board empowers her. I’m also a little surprised that Kevin Martinez wasn’t the one speaking to the rotary since he’s the VP of Marketing. He has more experience in publicly speaking on behalf of the Mariners and has yet to have a gaffe like what Mathers did. Tim Hevly the VP of Communications also would fall into this category and I’ll bet you in the future it will only be these two publicly speaking about anything other than baseball operations for the club.
I challenge the M’s board to go outside their comfort zone and hire either a woman or a person of color as the new Team President. I’m not terribly confident when the club passed on hiring Kim Ng in favor of Jack Zduriencik. But such a hire would speak volumes to their employees and their fan base. Of course I am also available and I’m as cheap as Kingbeer as well.
Going, going, gone! The problem of course is few within the industry so graciously exposed themselves (well, we’ve had some of that as well) for what they are. And this is in an entertainment medium where this behavior is under such scrutiny that it supposedly prevents all but the most arrogant and dimwitted engagement. Most of the rest of us work or function within an environment that may allow or even defend these types of comments where there are those that believe they elevate their status through the belittlement of others. For me, I’m still working on my English language skills and I was born here, no additional belittlement needed.
“All my life’s a circle, sunrise and sundown. The moon rolls through the night time, till the daybreak comes around. All my life’s a circle, and I can’t tell you why. The seasons spin around again. The years keep rollin’ by.” (Harry Chapin, Mariner clairvoyant)
The Circle of Eternal Mortification! Nice! If Dante were writing today, he would have given Mariners’ ownership a nice warm hot seat in Level Eight of Hell. The Frauds and Cheats, False Prophets and Liars.
Thanks to you, I envision Dante bobblehead night.
Ha…long-suffering fans from Day One 1977 get the Upper Hell — First Circle:
Mariners’ Limbo: Home to Virtuous Geezer Pagans and those unbaptized with a WS!
Still trying to decide which bolgia to place every owner going back to Danny Kaye, but it is definitely Lower Hell, close to Circle Eight. Horns, bifurcated tail…little flames shooting up around the ownership groups over the decades. I’d buy a ticket to get that Bobblehead.
You really nailed it, Art, in that Mather could not exist if the management culture around him did not indulge and join in his blather. He was the CEO for criminy sakes. Contrary to Stanton’s statement, Mather DOES represent the organization’s feelings about players, staff, and fans. They clearly have a management culture that is stuck in the past, where macho sports-guy talk gets you promoted. And hence they field a team that can’t compete in the modern world. The next guy needs to be less guy, if it’s a guy. Just sayin’.
When Stanton became Chairman after the much-unlamented Howard Lincoln left, I had high hopes. Stanton at least acted like he was interested in the game of baseball. He also said the goal of the organization was to bring a World Series championship to Seattle. Lincoln never said that. Well here we are close to 5 years later.. Art and others have shown that Stanton is just more of the same. He has allowed a clueless blowhard in Mather to not only survive for 25 years in the organization, but become the 2nd most powerful executive. It is painfully obvious now that Mather represented (past tense, thankfully) the values of Mariners upper management and ownership. Thankfully, I truly believe that Jerry Dipoto and Scott Servais are not infected with the hubris that Mather has so gracelessly exposed.
Oh I wouldn’t be to sure about Dipoto, I’m not saying that he’s a sleaze bag by no stretch. But you can better believe that he’s been screaming WTF since Mather exposed to the entire world how the M’s have manipulated the rookie players such as Kelenic and Rodriguez. You know the players that Dipoto is more than likely betting his future in baseball on.
You can bet the farm that Kelenic is going to climb the highest mountain and yell, play me now or I’m walking away as soon as I’m able and no amount of money, well I shouldn’t say “no” amount but obviously he’s gonna ask for the moon, the Space Needle and possibly a ferry or two to stick around.
Wouldn’t it be fun to be a fly on the wall in the Mariner war room right about now? Can you imagine the hand wringing and the gnashing of teeth on how to do damage control when there’s so many fires burning on the good ship Mariner. That would be worth every penny for the price of admission into that S show.
The fact that this comes from the top in such an indictment of company culture. Lots of people in the org don’t share his views, but are tar tarnished.
The wrong team moved. 1995 was not worth this. The only explanation I have for this franchise is that at some point after the Pilots moved, someone asked the monkey’s paw for a new baseball team in Seattle.
Some say that any team born of litigation, as were the Mariners, is fated to a misersble existence.
Yikes! Thought I was living back in Tejas or Louisiana again. This is how management employees would speak of their imports and the whole thing would NOT be unusual down there.
THEO EPSTEIN. Let me say that again…THEO EPSTEIN. Theo Epstein. Theo Epstein. And finally, THEO EPSTEIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From what I have read, Epstein wants a piece of ownership of any team hiring him. Very unlikely to happen here.
This debacle can be an opportunity…..Theo Epstein.
I’d be shocked if the M’s board got Theo to come here. They had an opportunity to bring in Dave Dombrowski and didn’t even try. Don’t know how the hands-on Epstein would impact Dipoto who the board likes as well. I’d like to see the M’s make a pitch for another executive from the Red Sox corporate tree, Boston Red Sox Vice President of Major and Minor League Operations Raquel Ferreira. She’s been with the Red Sox for 21 years so she’s familiar with MLB operations and been a part of a championship franchise. Plus she doesn’t have the ego Theo has so would at least try to work with Dipoto and Servais. Theo is probably waiting for an opening with a franchise in a major media market.
I wouldn’t be “shocked,” but he would be the coup of all coups. Theo won three World Series with the Red Sox (and another after he left) and one with the Cubs. This is the equivalent of consecutive conference men’s basketball championships for Cal Tech. Go with the proven commodity.