Whiten Finds A Home With M’S Outfielder Thrives Surrounded By Seattle’s Talent

As they jogged to their outfield spots during Tuesday night’s game against Boston, Mark Whiten and Ken Griffey Jr. were like kids, comparing at-bats. In mid-stride, it occurred to Whiten that he was one hit shy of completing the cycle, a baseball rarity.

“I said, ‘Now all I need is a triple,”’ he informed his teammate good-naturedly, “and Junior says, ‘Me, too.”’

Neither got another chance to bat as the Mariners held on for an 11-9 victory, but it mattered little to Whiten. He finds great comfort in knowing that, for the first time in his baseball career, he can do wondrous things at the plate and simply blend in with the crowd.

The muscular 6-foot-3, 235-pound Florida native has tried to carry teams before, even tied a couple of major-league records - for most home runs (4) and runs batted in (12) in a game in 1993 - and the experiences nearly destroyed him.

Since the end of June, Whiten has gone from being a man without a job to one enjoying his greatest month as a big-league player. Nearly washed up at age 29, the switch-hitter has become an important cog, and the key word is cog, in the Mariners’ bid for postseason play.

Settling in with his seventh major-league team in seven years, and third of the season, Whiten has hit safely in 16 of 18 games for the Mariners, who open a nine-game road trip in Cleveland Friday. He is batting .339 (21 of 62) with seven home runs and 17 RBIs with season totals of .260 (87 of 334), 17 homers and 55 RBIs, counting earlier stops in Philadelphia and Atlanta.

A career .245 hitter, he has fed off the furious wallop supplied by Seattle’s high-powered lineup and stepped up his game since being traded by the Braves on Aug. 14.

“I think I’m more relaxed here than anywhere I’ve been,” Whiten said. “Everywhere else, I was under a microscope, the guy with all the talent. When you’ve got guys around like (Edgar) Martinez, (Alex) Rodriguez and Griffey, it takes the pressure off … Without a doubt, it’s been the best stretch I’ve ever had.”

Said Mariners general manager Woody Woodward of his new outfield starter: “He complements Griffey and (Jay) Buhner perfectly.”

Two months ago, the opposite was circulated about Whiten in Philadelphia. He didn’t fit. On June 24, after hitting .236 in 60 games, he was given his release.

It was an unsettling development for a player once thought to have it all: bat power, a strong arm and exceptional footspeed.

“It was shocking to think a guy with his tools was actually released and had to go out and look for a job,” said Mariners pitcher Terry Mulholland, a Phillies teammate of Whiten’s at the time. “The baseball tools he has now are probably the same ones he had when he was 21 or 22.”

Whiten wasn’t playing regularly or effectively with the National League team and anticipated a trade. He got the word from Phils manager Jim Fregosi. After a momentary jolt, he took the news as well as could be expected.

“It was a surprise,” Whiten said. “He called me in and said, ‘I’m going to release you.’ I said, ‘I enjoyed playing for you,’ and said good-bye. That was it. I wasn’t mad at him.”

The year before, the Phillies acquired Whiten from Boston for third baseman Dave Hollins, ironically his Mariner teammate now. They expected him to carry the load offensively when headliners Lenny Dykstra and Darren Daulton went down with injuries. They grew impatient when he slunked along like the rest of the team and finally dumped him and his $800,000 yearly salary.

Whiten’s recent resurgence in Seattle has not gone unnoticed by his former employers. Pangs of remorse are detectable.

“Maybe we all counted on him too much,” Phillies general manager Lee Thomas said in a telephone interview. “It looks like he may have found a place where he can play. I think Mark is a nice complement to any club with good hitters surrounding him; I think that’s why he’s doing so well out there.

“I always felt Mark had all the ability in the world.”

Whiten had thought so, too. Trouble was, he saw his true calling as a football player for the longest time while growing up on the Florida panhandle. He didn’t try baseball until his senior year at Pensacola High School, and did so only to keep in shape for his first love.

He was a tight end and wide receiver. He took college recruiting visits to Clemson and Southern Mississippi. But when it came time for a scholarship offer, he was approached only by nearby Pensacola Junior College. For baseball.

“I didn’t play until I was 17 and I just kind of picked up on the game,” said Whiten, the son of an auto mechanic. “I’m still learning, even hitting. I think I learned that just three weeks ago.”

Those who saw him hit in the second game of a St. Louis-Cincinnati doubleheader on Sept. 7, 1993 - and there were only 2,000 in the stands when it ended - would beg to differ. He looked like he knew what he was doing that night.

Whiten stepped up and crushed four homers in a 15-2 win over the Reds, including a first-inning grand slam. Four fastballs. Each socked left-handed and measured at 408, 397, 388 and 441 feet.

He became the 12th player in baseball history to pull off that feat, putting his name alongside the luminous Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays and Gil Hodges in the record book.

Only one other player, St. Louis’ Jim Bottomley in 1924, had ever collected 12 RBIs in a game before. For nine innings, Whiten had the Midas touch.

“I’m proud of it,” he said. “It was like Michael Jordan getting 60 points in one night. But I can’t make a career on one night.”

Just as quickly, the magic disappeared. Whiten suffered a rib injury and he quit batting right-handed. He dropped from a career-high 25 homers and 99 RBIs in ‘93 to 14 and 53 the next year. Once thinking he might finish his career in St. Louis, he watched in dismay as the Cardinals unloaded him to Boston in a five-player deal before the ‘95 season.

That bothered him. So much that Whiten finally approached his former manager, Joe Torre, seeking an explanation, when he joined the M’s in New York last month.

“He said he just wanted a third baseman and he had a backlog of outfielders at the time,” Whiten said. “He said he wished he hadn’t done it because he got a third baseman (Scott Cooper) who couldn’t play.”

Whiten heard similar comments about himself as he started bouncing around the league. The stroke that launched four homers in one outing against the Reds had become far too predictable. He was now a notorious first-ball, fastball hitter who piled up endless strikeouts.

He also seemed laid-back and unenthusiastic while trying to pull out of the slide, particularly with the Phillies. Some think he got smothered by the weight of unreal expectations and withdrew.

“With players like Mark, you just need to let them play,” said Reggie Jefferson, a teammate of Whiten’s in Boston and Cleveland. “You start to project numbers for him and it’s unfair. Let him play a season, every day, then look at what he did.”

Said M’s hitting coach Lee Elia: “He has not missed a day. He’s a hard-nosed guy who goes about his work like a pro. He’s fit in with this ballclub.”

After his release, Whiten turned down an offer from the Mariners to sign with Atlanta. He had family there and wanted to play in front of them. But he spent only 36 games with the defending World Series champions, hitting .256. Seattle looks good to him now.

Woodward, the Mariners general manager, said there has been no discussion on whether the team next year will try to re-sign Whiten, who is a free agent. Not while there’s a pennant race going on.

Whiten, however, seems quite willing to stick with his new surroundings.

“I like it here,” he said. “I think it’s more a matter of them wanting me. I think they do. They showed that when they came after me a second time in Atlanta. You just have to wait and see. You can’t predict the future.”

Whiten, more than anyone, would know.