Minor League Baseball a Personal Paradise for AquaSox Trainer
June 14, 2006 - Northwest League (NWL1)
Everett AquaSox News Release
Imagine a bus called the Yellow Banana.
Imagine a bus without amenities.
No restroom. No air conditioning. No heat.
Imagine this bus filled with young, sweating, male bodies sweltering in simmering summer heat as it slowly makes its way across the arid vastness of Eastern Washington.
Imagine this bus so stuffed that when players want to stretch out and sleep they not only fill up all the seats, but they flop in the aisle and in the overhead luggage rack, as well.
Not a pretty picture, is it?
Now switch locations.
Imagine this bus chugging up one of those steep east-west hills in downtown Seattle.
As the bus lumbers to the top of the hill, the light turns from green to red.
And the bus comes to a stop.
The driver puts his foot on the brake.
And the brake begins to squeal.
The light changes.
The driver guns the engine and ... nothing happens.
The bus doesn't budge.
He guns it again.
Nothing.
There is a construction sight right next to the bus, and the steelworkers and carpenters have stopped work and are now staring at this large, ugly, yellow-striped, immovable object that is beginning to tie up traffic behind it on this steep incline.
All the while the brakes are squealing like a stuck pig.
The construction workers can't help but notice that the lettering on the side of the bus indicates that this is the mode of transportation for the Bellingham Mariners, the Class A Northwest League affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.
This is sometime in the 1980s and the Seattle Mariners are having a lousy year.
And so, not about to pass up an opportunity to voice their displeasure with anyone connected with the Major League M's, the workers begin to jeer the young rookie-league players on the bus.
Who are now getting off the bus to see if that will allow the driver to crest the hill.
It doesn't.
What to do? The police have arrived by now, and they begin to try and untie the traffic jam, having the cars backed up behind the bus ... back down the hill.
Oh, what a mess.
Then the bus begins its backward descent.
Safely back down on First Ave., the bus is reloaded, the driver heads west toward the Sound, down another not-nearly-as-steep hill, but ... wait.
Another red light. He tries the air brakes and ... nothing happens.
"His foot is to the floor,'' recalls Spyder Webb, the Bellingham team trainer seated right behind the driver.
As they're about to plow right on through the intersection, the light changes to green.
As he looks back on it now, some 20 years later, Webb muses, "I think God felt sorry for us.''
Especially for the poor driver. "I swear he never took his hands off the steering wheel until we got to 128th St. south of Everett,'' Webb laughs. "It was like they had melted into the wheel.''
Webb can regale listeners for hours about tales from the Northwest League. After all, he's been working it for more than half his life. Now beginning his 28th season as a trainer for the M's NWL affiliate _ first at Bellingham and for the last 10 years at Everett _ Webb will tend to AquaSox aches and pains during the three-month regular season that begins with a June 19 home game at Everett Memorial Stadium and ends on the road Sept.6.
If the weather is hot when the Sox start home, they'll stay cool in the comfortable confines of a bus that has all the amenities that were missing in the Yellow Banana. Restroom. Air conditioning. Heat. Ample leg room. Even a TV set.
Webb remembers a time when the Bellingham M's would dress in sweatshirts and jackets when they left home but by the time they hit Ellensburg would have stripped down to shorts and T-shirts.
Oh, for the good old days, eh, Spyder?
"No thank you,'' he responds.
The baby M's used to play a NWL game in the Kingdome, prior to an M's game, and one night they were waiting to get on the bus for the trip back to Everett when Reggie Jackson, then still playing, came out and got in a taxi.
The taxi started up the street toward FX McRory's, then suddenly turned around and came back and stopped where the players were.
"This you alls bus?'' the slugging outfielder asked.
"Mind if I check it out?''
After spending a few minutes inside the bus, Jackson walked over to the players and remarked, "And those owners wonder why we try and get back at 'em on free agency.''
Life has gotten considerably better for the young players starting out in the NWL and hoping to someday wear the uniform of the big-league M's. It has also gotten better for the support staff, the manager, the coaches and the trainer.
Webb came into the league in 1979, two years after he made his pro baseball debut as a trainer for an Atlanta Braves farm team.
The Braves gave him $500 a month and $5 a day meal money on the road. When he went to work for the Bellingham club, he got $700 a month and $10 a day for meals.
"I thought I was in hog heaven,'' he said. "I thought the Mariners were the greatest thing ever.''
He still does.
"It's been a blast,'' said the native of Florence, S.C. "I've been around tremendous coaches and managers and great kids. It's been a very rewarding experience.''
Along the way, he's has the good fortune to see young players in the beginning stage of their professional careers, guys such as Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Raul Ibanez, Willie Bloomquist, Joel Pineiro and Rene Rivera.
He was at Everett Memorial Stadium the night Griffey made his pro debut _ hitting a home run over the left-field fence in his first at-bat.
Webb says he'd be the last person to predict whether a player will make it to the big leagues ... with perhaps one exception. "You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to see that this kid was going to be a great player,'' he said.
Griffey never forgot the so-called little people when he got to the big leagues. "Anytime I went down to our clubhouse (in Seattle), he made you feel good,'' Webb said. "He'd hug you and want to know how you were doing. Not everyone did that.''
If Webb had been in the prognosticating business, he might have scratched Martinez from the will-make-it list after that first year in Bellingham. "He hit a buck eighty-three,'' Webb said, "and I thought he was just another guy.''
One opinion Webb has formed over the years about the young players who come into the NWL: They're still team-oriented, rather than worrying so much about individual statistics.
That'll come as they move up. If they move up. Many will. Some will be out of baseball by season's end.
Webb? He'll return to his hometown of Florence, where he has been the long-time athletic trainer for Francis Marion University, an NCAA Division II school.
A highlight for him this year was seeing Francis Marion advance for the first time to the D-II World Series in Montgomery, Ala., where it won one game and lost two, finishing sixth in the national ratings.
And if you're curious about his name: Spyder.
He was on the junior varsity football team in high school when the varsity coach came over to work with them one day. "The coach didn't know my last name, so he yelled, 'Spyder, come here,' '' Webb said. "I went to school the next day and everybody walking down the hallway said, 'Hi, Spyder.' I didn't have a choice in the matter.''
His real name? You'll have to ask him that.
Northwest League Stories from June 14, 2006
- Player, Coach and Manager - Everett AquaSox
- Minor League Baseball a Personal Paradise for AquaSox Trainer - Everett AquaSox
- Surprise / Honor your Father this Sunday - Salem-Keizer Volcanoes
- Boise Hawks prepare for Media Day - Boise Hawks
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
