Short Hops: Could Captain Jack go down with Ms sinking ship?
Short hops, quick pops and backhand stops: • One year ago, the Seattle Mariners were triumphantly carrying Ken Griffey Jr. off the field on their shoulders, the finishing flourish of a bounce-back summer that carried with it a star-in-the-making, first-year general manager and the optimism that, after years of being cast adrift in Puget Sound, the compass was corrected and the deck was stacked in their favor. One year ago. Or was it one century ago? It’s been a long season for Franklin Gutierrez and all the Mariners in Seattle. (Getty Images) As this crash-and-burn summer mercifully lurches toward the finish line, the flowers are dead and the fish stink. This side of Cy Young candidate Felix Hernandez, the Mariners are waist-deep in humiliation both on and off the field. Even with Hernandez’s magic, the Mariners, for the second time in three seasons, own the worst record in the AL. Even the lowly Baltimore Orioles have zoomed past them. The Mariners are not scoring runs at a record rat
