Okay, promised I would post a little more about Richie. The Richie I got to know and surprisingly, very surprisingly, like. Will explain that a bit later.

I am a little ticked off at some of the things I read the day after Richie was let go. Some writers who do not cover the team on a daily basis wrote that he had been shirking his post game responsibilities in talking to the media. This is simply not true. While he may not have been sitting at his locker after games, none of his teammates were so why hold that against him? He did however often appear in the clubhouse at the appropriate times specifically to talk to us. Sometimes he would come out and catch us by surprise. “You guys need me?” he would ask as he stopped in the middle of the clubhouse and waited for us to gather around him. This is huge for the team because we the media often just need a quote or two and then we can get out of there and let them get on with their business. Richie came out after some of his most miserable performances and talked. The conversation would often end with a “Did you get what you need?”

He was also accused of making excuses, something I never heard him do. I heard many a teammate say that Richie had to deal with things that none of them had to, but I never heard a single complaint out of him. He didn’t blame anyone but himself for his struggles and worked harder this spring than I have ever seen him work. This includes the day his son was hospitalized with pneumonia. While the child was sleeping Richie snuck away very early in the morning, grabbed the trainer and said “lets go do some drills, I’ve got to do something,” before heading back to the hospital.

Now I am in no way saying that Jim Riggleman was wrong when he said the body language indicated that bench time was going to be a problem. As I said in my previous post, this is expected from an everyday player. You don’t want him to be happy with sitting. It was the team’s decision to get him out in case he became a distraction to either the team or his manager. I understand that. It also gives him a good chance to start over somewhere else. This could be good for Richie who just seemed to land on the wrong foot the minute he put a Mariners uniform on.

When the Mariners first signed Richie I talked to several people who had covered him in Milwaukee and Arizona. They said he was a great guy, great clubhouse guy, great practical joker. The first time I saw him in person was when his agents paraded him through the crowded lobby of the hotel at the winter meetings in Anaheim. First thing that struck me was just how huge he was. The next thing I noticed was how uncomfortable he seemed in the spotlight. He kind of put his head down and scrunched down a little as he hurried through the throng of reporters and team officials. It was a posture I would see often in the three plus years he was here. It wasn’t quite a guy who was uncomfortable with being 6’8 (I don’t think he is) more of a “don’t bother, it’s just me,” feeling I got.

I didn’t speak to him much in spring training. Found him hard to approach. He had a dry, cutting sense of humor and would often make fun of questions, not in a nice way. I didn’t quite get it because everyone had said he was a great guy. I didn’t see it. It got to the point where even if I wasn’t interviewing him he would actually interject with some sort of mean sarcasm when I was trying to interview someone else. He was rapidly falling to the bottom of my list of athletes I have had to deal with.

That first year I just avoided having to talk to him as much as I could. The next year, some of the struggles began. He was streaky, never got off to a good start. Didn’t want to talk to the media. He and Adrian would hang out in the food room and getting either of them to talk that year was like pulling teeth. It was upsetting to me because I gave them the utmost respect the jobs they had to do. I would never do anything that would interfere with their jobs. They were interfering with my job big time however. If I could not get the interviews it would not be unreasonable for my employers to find someone who could. It was very frustrating.

In addition to causing me problems, by my observation I believe that his struggles and his dry cutting sense of humor that year (2006) did have a negative effect on the team. When he struggled it was like there was a dark rain cloud over the clubhouse and he was not pleasant to be around. For me, it got worse and worse. I completely gave up trying to interview him but this didn’t stop him from making biting comments to me. One day late in the season I had finally had enough and did something I have never done before. It was pre game in the Tampa Bay visitor’s clubhouse. Richie was sitting at a table doing a crossword puzzle and I was on the other side of the room. He looked up asked took a shot, not a cute shot mind you a mean one, at my height. Normally I have no problem with that but this guy had caused me enough problems, never given me anything, he had no right in my mind to make fun teasingly or not of me. I yelled something at him that cannot be printed because my mother reads this blog. I have never heard a clubhouse get quiet so fast before. I decided then and there he was the worst athlete I have ever covered. Not just in baseball, every sport.

A couple of days later I was in line at the Starbucks in the lobby of our hotel. Richie got in line behind me and after a minute or two said, “Oh so you are not talking to me?” with a laugh. I didn’t say anything. When we got back to Seattle a couple of days before the end of the season I was standing on the top step of the dugout when I felt a hand on my shoulder. “So you are just never going to talk to me again?” “Richie, I wish I didn’t have to.” I said. Those were the last words I said to him in 2006. I was a little surprised that he seemed a bit disturbed about this. Everything I had seen from him those first two years indicated that he wouldn’t.

I spent the off season praying that the team would trade him and when he was still there when spring training rolled around I decided that I would be adult about this and see if a new season meant a new start. The day he reported Richie stood in the middle of the clubhouse and answered all the questions we had. He seemed almost pleasant. After the interview he asked how I was doing, how the off season was. Who is this guy I thought?

This was the guy we got for the rest of the time he was here. The old Richie never returned. It occurred to me that what we were seeing now was the old Richie. This was the Richie we had heard about. Something happened when he got to Seattle. Was it the contract? Playing so close to home? Increased media scrutiny? Influence of teammates? Who knows. All I know is that as I got to know Richie better he very quickly went from worst on my list to first for a very simple reason. He treated us like we were people all the time. Sounds easy enough, but the thing he did that very few do is he never looked through us.

What do I mean by this? Well in a clubhouse the beat reporter is there so much they can turn into wallpaper. It is not uncommon to walk by three players in the clubhouse and have none even look at you. Some will look right through you. Not Richie. When he walks by there is a “Hi Shannon” or “Hi Hick” or whoever is there. Quite often there is a shoulder pat that accompanies the greeting. It is just so human and borderline warm for a clubhouse. I appreciated this. I am not sure others even noticed, but it told me a lot about what kind of person Richie is.

Something else also tells me about what kind of person he is. A lot of teammates have commented that Richie had to go through things none of them did. It wasn’t just the hometown thing or the boos. In 2006 Richie was faced with something far more serious, though he rarely talked about it. That year his wife Kerry went through a very difficult pregnancy with twins. She had to be hospitalized more than once. For a good part of the second half of that year Richie went from ballpark to hospital and back to ballpark every day. When the twins were born it was touch and go with one weighing just 3 pounds 7 ounces. It was both heartbreaking and gut wrenching. A teammate later told me that Richie would see his wife in the hospital, see the tiny babies that could fit in his massive hands and blame himself. He would blame himself because there was nothing he could do. He was healthy and his little family was not. Can you imagine? I hope not.

Everything he was going through that summer he did not share with us the media. He certainly never used it as an excuse. Everyone is doing just fine now, he has an absolutely beautiful family, but for the better part of 2006 Richie was dealing with some pretty serious stuff.

In comparison, what Richie is going through now is nothing. He will land on his feet and has a secure future with a beautiful family to look forward to when his playing days are over. He handled the situation here as best he could. I never saw him get very angry about it, just put his head down and dealt with it. In the past month there were times he did not come out to talk to the media. I think it was because he was in an awkward position. It was bad enough that he was struggling but he didn’t know what the team was going to do with him. Sometimes it is a no win situation for a player to talk to the media. When Richie talked openly and honestly about what it felt like to get booed last year a lot of people jumped all over him. On the radio, on the blogs, the reaction was unbelievable. Here we had a guy just telling it like it was, BECAUSE HE WAS ASKED. He said it sucked. He said he heard it. He said his family no longer came to the ballpark because of it. He also said he deserved it and would boo himself. Apparently this was not good enough for some people. They said he was whining or making excuses. That didn’t sound like either to me. I couldn’t believe he continued to answer the question this spring training. If it were me I would flat out refuse, but there he was once again answering honestly, that it didn’t feel too good but he understood. He did not have to continue to answer those questions, but he did.

On the team plane I sit about five rows in back of first class with the coaches in front of me and the players behind. Mike Blowers sits across from me and it is not unusual for a player to come up to where we are and talk to Mike for a short time. A couple of weeks ago Richie wandered up to talk to him. He sat on the arm of the chair diagonally across from Mike. I was on the aisle and decided to myself that with the struggles Richie was having he could probably use some quality Blowers time so I scooted over to the window seat of my row, patted the aisle seat and said “Sit down Big Fella.” He did.

I got more than I bargained for. I thought he would stay only 20 minutes, but he sat there almost the entire flight. I put on my headphones and watched a video. Believe it or not, I didn’t want to eavesdrop. I wanted him to be able to have the conversation with Blowers that he would if I wasn’t there. Every now and then he would ask me something and I would have to take the headphones off and ask again what the question was. At one point he said to me, “Shannon, I have really tried to be there after games this year because I know a lot of guys don’t do it (true). I have no problem being out there when I am going bad or going good, it’s the in between that I am just not sure about. What am I going to say?”

The in between didn’t just apply to his level of play, it also applied to the fact that he could be out of there at any time. He didn’t know what to say. He wanted me to make sure that the other beat reporters knew that he wanted to be there, but he wasn’t sure what to say and he was afraid he might say the wrong thing. I said those who were there every day should understand that. They also should recognize that he did better with his post game responsibilities than most position players, and one pitcher. The point is, he actually cared what we thought about him talking or not talking. A lot of guys don’t.

A little later in the flight I feel asleep only to be awakened by a poke in the shoulder. “You awake?” I heard as I opened my eyes, startled. Big Richie’s face is the last thing I expect to see as I wake up. It was pretty funny actually. Can you imagine? He just wanted to make sure something he had said earlier hadn’t been misinterpreted. It hadn’t I assured him and went back to sleep. This was a guy who wanted to be liked. He’s a little quiet, a little smaller town, definitely uncomfortable in the spotlight, but he never wanted to be the bad guy.

He wasn’t the bad guy. These are my experiences, (along with a hilarious moment when I walked into the gift store of the hotel in New York and wanted to get a magazine on a rack I couldn’t reach. I was debating climbing up the rack which I really didn’t want to do when I saw Big Richie coming through the door. “Richie” I said as I pointed at the magazine. He walked over, reached up over my head and pulled it down for me. A team official saw the whole thing and couldn’t help laughing. It’s always good to have big friends…”

I digress. I tell this story because to me it left the impression that people can indeed change. I think also that it shows past perceptions can cloud present realities. Richie wasn’t the bad guy. I talked to several teammates past and present from different groups in the clubhouse and they to a man said he was a good teammate. I was glad to hear this. While he certainly did not always meet expectations on the field, he tried. He did everything he could. You can’t ask for more.