The Associated Press
Ex-Mariners catcher Tom Lampkin (left) tags out Colorado's Juan Uribe during an exhibition game on Friday in Tucson, Ariz.

Lampkin moves on after trade

Catcher accepts leaving Mariners

KIRBY ARNOLD, FOR THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Wednesday, March 6, 2002

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Tom Lampkin's perfect world turned upside down the moment he checked his voice mail on Dec. 11.

He had been in the Oregon mountains riding snowmobiles with two of his major-league buddies, Alan Embree and Richie Sexson, when his cell phone started beeping.

"When we came down that mountain and got back into range, it started to go crazy," he said. "I had 16 messages."

The first was all he needed to hear.

The Seattle Mariners, the hometown team that Lampkin dreamed of playing with in the last years of his baseball career, had traded him to the San Diego Padres.

With such cold suddenness, the comforts of playing in the city where he grew up, where he could play ball and never leave his wife and kids all year, had vanished.

"Even the most ideal job has aspects that you don't like, and that's one of them about baseball that I don't like," said Lampkin, a former Mariners clubhouse boy who went to high school at Blanchet in Seattle and attended Edmonds Community College.

In a pro career now in its 17th year, Lampkin is accustomed to switching teams. San Diego, where he played from 1990-92, is his seventh major-league stop.

"I can play anywhere," he said. "I played in the Dominican. I played in Venezuela. I played in Mexico. It's not me that I was worried about. It's my family.

"I can adapt, but it's difficult having to be away from a 14-year-old daughter who needs her paternal influence. It's difficult being away from my wife who has to deal with three kids. It just wasn't going to be healthy for the family to be apart."

So the Lampkins -- Tom, wife Lori Kath and children Jennifer, Stephanie and Thomas Michael -- spilled some tears, said a lot of prayers and became united in a decision: Wherever Tom goes, they all go.

The kids now attend school in Peoria, where the Padres hold spring training, and they'll enroll at schools in San Diego next month when the regular season begins.

"This is tougher on the kids than it is on us, but both of the girls wanted to stay together, so they definitely made it easier on me," Lampkin said. "Now that it's said and done, I'm fine with it.

"I knew I would be, but at the time it was very difficult."

In truth, it's still painfully difficult.

Lampkin says he enjoys the camaraderie in the Padres clubhouse and the family-oriented atmosphere that the organization stresses, and most of all he's still having fun on the field.

But there was something special about the three years he played for the M's, and it wasn't just because they are his hometown team.

After the Yankees eliminated the M's from the playoffs last October, no Mariner seemed more eager to suit up again than Lampkin.

"Those two games in Yankee Stadium were as much fun as I've ever had in baseball. Ever," he said. "I was in St. Louis when Mark (McGwire) hit his 70th home run, and I've been around for some special moments. But in terms of playing the game, that was by far the best time I'd ever had between the lines. I was so looking forward to coming back to that team.

"But sometimes when things are so perfect, you forget that all good things come to an end."

On Dec. 11, the M's traded Lampkin, Brett Tomko and Ramon Vazquez to the Padres for 24-year-old catcher Ben Davis, infielder Alex Arias and pitcher Wascar Serrano.

Lampkin had hoped to end his career the most fitting way he could imagine, as a Mariner.

"That would have been nice. I grew up there," he said. "My 20th reunion is there this year and I thought it would be cool to go back and see everybody I went to high school with."

Lampkin turned 38 on Monday, another reminder that he doesn't have many days left as a player. He hasn't decided if this will be his last year.

"Before I give it any genuine thought, I want to see how I hold up over the first part of the season," he said. "I want to see how my arm does, how my knees feel. And I want to see how much fun I'm having."

And if his enthusiasm does wane, what's the worst that can happen?

Lampkin will leave the game and have more time for what he cherishes most -- his family.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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