A little bonus

The other day when the Mariners were in Anaheim playing the Angels, they had some visitors. Recognize anyone?

The Mariners had some on-field admirers during pre-game batting practice yesterday. members of the Class A High Desert squad turned up in the dugout at Angel Stadium to witness the action. In the photo above, you can see Felix Hernandez talking to some of the players. The guy in the red and white striped shirt is California League MVP Alex Liddi, a native of Italy, who has a league-leading .345 batting average with 23 home runs and 104 RBI. Liddi played in the Futures Game as part of All-Star Game festivities in St. Louis.

More pictures at the link, including one of Jamie McOwen ('07) that includes this...

One of the challenges faced by McOwen when the streak ended was to forget about it and continue to develop this season. After all, he's a Class A ballplayer trying to make the major leagues. Not like he could take a week off to relax. Well, he's hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games, hitting .444 over that stretch with an overall average well above .300.

"You definitely go 'Whew!' but you still want to go out the next day and get a hit,'' he said. "It's only A ball, so one 45-game hit streak isn't going to get you too far. You want to keep your nose to the grindstone no matter what.''

McOwen says he still has folks coming up to him on each stop his team makes and ask him about the accomplishment. He told me opposing players will go "Oh, you're the guy who had the hit streak? Good job!'' and things like that. No, his hair didn't fall out from the stress. He insists he still enjoys talking about it and tried to have fun with the whole thing as it was going down.

The streak would be that 45-gamer he had that got him some national press earlier this season.