Flashback to Mariners glory days: Junior, A-Rod, The Big Unit

It was an array of talent rarely assembled on one team in all of baseball history.

Big Unit. Junior. A-Rod. No full names required.

All three of the Mariners' glittering 1990s triumvirate of Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez would eventually leave town with varying degrees of bitterness and rancor. And without a title to show for their time together — only the knowledge that they helped revitalize baseball in Seattle.

Tonight, at Safeco Field, two of the Big Three will be back on the field together in Seattle for the first time since July 20, 1999, the sixth game in the history of the ballpark that they were largely responsible for getting built.

Johnson returns as a member of the San Francisco Giants, seeking his 299th career victory en route to becoming the 24th pitcher in history with 300 wins.

Griffey is back with the Mariners after nine seasons in Cincinnati, seemingly content with his role as a designated hitter. He has added four home runs this season to bring his career total to 615, fifth on the all-time list.

Whether or not Griffey will be in the lineup against Johnson depends on Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu's sense of drama. Normally, he wouldn't start against a left-handed pitcher like Johnson, but Griffey has already said he'll lobby Wakamatsu to be in there.

There was a time, of course, that lefty swingers would beg out of the lineup against the glowering Big Unit. Now, at age 45, Johnson doesn't throw quite as hard as he used to, and the 39-year-old Griffey is no longer the fearsome force that allowed him to rule the baseball world in the 1990s.

Griffey well remembers their 1999 meeting, when Johnson was pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Junior was still several months away from being traded to Cincinnati.

Junior went 0 for 3 with a strikeout — and got hit with a Johnson pitch.

"He just started laughing," recalled Griffey. "It brushed me, didn't hit me square."

There's no bad blood between these two. Griffey still considers Johnson a friend.

"I'm going to bunt," Griffey joked recently of a possible confrontation with Johnson tonight. "Make him get off the mound."

If history is any indication, Johnson will be received warmly, if not reverentially, by the Safeco Field crowd. That was the case in his return with the Diamondbacks in 1999, when his bitter departure from Seattle was still fresh in fans' mind. He pitched an eight-hit shutout, striking out 10, in a 6-0 Arizona victory.

Embroiled in a contract dispute, Johnson had been traded to the Houston Astros on July 31, 1998. He was 9-10 with a 4.33 earned-run average before the trade, and 10-1, 1.28 (with four shutouts) afterward, eliciting accusations by some that the Big Unit had "tanked" the Mariners portion of his season.

Griffey, for one, doesn't buy that.

"I think we just didn't click — everybody," said Griffey of a season in which he hit 56 home runs, but the Mariners sputtered to a 76-85 finish. "It was just one of those years. The wheels on the bus were just spinning.

"Sometimes a change of scenery rejuvenates you. You feel a lot better about coming to the ballpark."

Griffey, in fact, has fond memories of Johnson, who brings a 3-4 season record and 6.86 ERA to Safeco.

"He's one of those guys you want on your team, because you knew if there was a streak that had to be broken, or kept going, he was the guy you wanted on the mound," Griffey said.

Johnson has made two other appearances at Safeco Field, both as a member of the Yankees, since he departed. He was well-received in both — on Aug. 31, 2005 and Aug. 24, 2006. Johnson is 2-1 against his old team.

That's a stark contrast from the raucous boo-fest that still greets Rodriguez every time he returns to Seattle. Rodriguez departed after the 2000 season, signing a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Rangers. He lasted just three seasons before being traded to the Yankees, where he has found controversy, disillusionment — and Madonna.

Griffey, on the other hand, returned to Seattle two years ago with the Reds, and received a hero's welcome. That overwhelmingly positive reception helped motivate his decision to sign with the Mariners in February.

For four seasons, from 1995 through 1998, Unit, Junior and A-Rod roamed the Kingdome together. Another potential Hall of Famer, Edgar Martinez, was there with them.

"We were still young, trying to feel out things," said Griffey. "Even though two of us had seven years experience, we were still young."

All that firepower, however, never got the Mariners to the World Series. They won two division titles, in 1995 and '97, but couldn't take the final step.

"When guys like Jay [Buhner] and myself look back, we sometimes say, 'If we couldn't win with that team, maybe it just wasn't meant to be,' " observed Norm Charlton, a Seattle reliever in that era.

But that omission only minimally dims the blinding light that trio shined on the previously dark and dreary realm of Mariners' baseball.

Johnson's return to Seattle tonight underscores the staggering star power that put Mariner baseball on the map. Made it a destination city, in fact.

Until one by one, they departed Seattle, leaving a void that was never quite filled, despite the astonishing 116-win season of 2001.

Woody Woodward, the general manager in that era, resigned in 1999, rather than face the unsavory prospect of ushering Griffey and Rodriguez out the door.

Trading Johnson had been painful enough for Woodward, who was also responsible for bringing the Big Unit to Seattle from Montreal in 1989 in the initially panned Mark Langston deal.

"I said that after 12 years, I really don't want to be the one that has to trade Junior and Alex," said Woodward. "It may come to that, and it's probably a good time to step aside."

Woodward, now 66 and back scouting for the Mariners, prefers to remember the fierce glare of Johnson, all 6 feet 10 of him, as he peered over his glove, standing imperiously on the mound. Or the brilliance of Griffey in his absolute prime, the exuberant face of baseball, backward hat and all. Or the emerging grace of a pre-disgraced Rodriguez.

"What people forget — not just fans, but people in the game, too — is that with all their talent, you have to be able to play the game; you have to have instincts," Woodward said. "Griffey had great instincts. So did Alex. Randy had stuff, and he knew how to use it. They didn't just have tools; they knew how to play."

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com