Women embrace the accessible, visible, nice-guy M's

SARAH SCOTT

Women love their Seattle Mariners.

They adore Kazuhiro Sasaki's "goofy smile" after another save and dote on second baseman Bret Boone, "a cross between Baryshnikov and Billy the Kid."

They want to take them home, whether it's to make babies or bake cookies.

The Mariners' owners did research a few years ago that showed an inordinately high number (around 50 percent) of female fans when compared to other baseball teams and other professional sports. The numbers, it turned out, were wrong.

The woman factor, corrected to 29 percent, is about average for the majors, according to the front office. Still, there's no denying that females embrace this team figuratively -- and oh, how they'd love to literally.

It might be, as one woman fan noted, that the Mariners are accessible and visible, not out there bamming into each other under heavy padding. There are no mics put on players to catch bellows, grunts and the clang of helmet against helmet. It's all so much, well, nicer.

Other male-dominated pro sports are not without their female audiences, but many M's fans in the double-X chromosome category don't give a hoot about the Seahawks or the Sonics.

Vary with age

The terms of endearment vary with age. One woman in her 20s who doesn't even follow baseball is nonetheless smitten by Ichiro's cool.

On the other hand, 79-year-old Lucille Jones of Seattle considers them all her sons.

"They're like little boys," she said, "all so young. Even the ones they talk about as getting on in years, like Edgar, they're still just little boys."

Nice little boys, too, she thinks.

"I don't think I've ever heard reports about any of them being involved in anything bad, so it's been easy to be proud of them."

The M's as ideal family members also fits for boomer-aged Olympia resident Melinda McCrady.

"I've picked out one or two I'd consider excellent son-in-law candidates," she said.

Great neighbors

Rebecca Hale, director of public information for the Mariners, described the team as "the sort of people fans think they'd like to live next door to."

She noted the time members spend on community projects and fund raising. Hale singled out first baseman John Olerud as "just about the nicest person on the planet."

Of center fielder Mike Cameron, she said, "That really great smile tells fans he's having a good time out there."

Not for nothing is there a TV promo showcasing Cameron's what-a-guy qualities.

Carolyn Rose of Vancouver said of utility player supreme Mike McLemore, "Is there anything he can't do? I bet if the team plane had engine trouble, he'd be out on the wing with a screwdriver making an adjustment."

Again and again, it's the niceness.

"I love the persona each man exhibits both on the field and in the media," said Peg Amandes of Olympia. "They act like gentlemen, they work together. They make a fan proud to be part of the team."

McCrady seconded that. "They all seem like such nice guys, working together, sharing the credit, the sort of people you'd like to know in real life."

No nice-guy list would be complete, of course, without Edgar Martinez, Dan Wilson and Jamie Moyer. But why stop there? There's no one whose name doesn't deserve to get jotted down.

McCrady also found them a source of oomph.

"This session was a particularly hard one," said the state legislative staffer. "Many days the success of the Mariners was all we had to keep us going at work."

Baseball afficionados

The women I spoke with are lifelong afficionados of baseball.

Jones remembers ironing while listening to the World Series on the radio in pre-TV days. Amandes recalls going to Wrigley Field with her dad and grandfather, the smell of hot dogs, seeing wrappers and gum wads stuck on the flooring and looking over at ticketless spectators on the roof of the brick building facing the outfield.

McCrady grew up watching the San Francisco Giants. "But," she said, "I've never had this kind of love affair with a team before."

Sarah Scott is a free-lance writer who also works at the state House of Representatives.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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