From the class of '06

Ex-Rattler Adam Moore ('06) has been having an impressive spring training with the Mariners.

Mariners catcher Adam Moore grew up right in the shadows of Friday Night Lights in Mineola, Texas, a town of 5,000 or so about a 90-minute drive from Dallas.

"The expectations for a high-school player in football there were very high," he says.

Baseball? Not so much.

But though he emerged as the quarterback of the high-school team in a football-crazy area, his heart was always on the diamond.

"I just knew baseball was where it was at for me," he said.

That belief was validated as Moore swiftly rose through the Mariners' farm system. Moore could finally reach the top rung in a few weeks by making the opening-day roster.

After a 6-2 spring-training win over the Giants here Thursday, Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu pointed to Moore as the player of the day. In his fifth game of the spring, Moore again showed patience at the plate and an improved presence behind it. He seems to be far more mature than the six games of major-league experience he received last September.