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M's Wilson playing like All-Star

MINNEAPOLIS - The progression is natural enough, from All-State to All-American to . . . All-Star? Dan Wilson won't hear of it. However, after winning prep honors at Barrington (Ill.) High and collegiate honors here as a Minnesota Golden Gopher, the Seattle Mariner catcher might be en route to Philadelphia as a member of the American League team at the July showcase. "No question Willie's an All-Star," Manager Lou Piniella said. "No question. He's really come on." But Wilson, whose Cleaver-family-neighbor demeanor belies an intense competitive toughness, isn't making travel plans. "It's an individual honor," he said, deflecting even the briefest mention of All-Star. "Individual accomplishments are nice, but only have value when they add up to team accomplishment." Thus was Wilson's work in an 18-8 blitz of the Twins, a career-high five hits to tie the team record, three runs driven in, two scored. Seattle batted around in three innings, amassed a team-record 24 hits and ended up one run shy of the team record. "The hit record was fine, obviously a nice experience," Wilson said, "but also an individual thing that doesn't mean anything unless we win as a team. Winning the game tonight was much more important than making five hits."
Wilson's humility is refreshing and sincere. However, he cannot escape the fact that the season he is assembling is worthy of strong All-Star consideration, backed up by fan voting that has him third behind Sandy Alomar of Cleveland and Ivan Rodriguez of Texas. The numbers tell the story Wilson doesn't want told. He is one of two major-league catchers hitting over .300 with 10 or more home runs and 30 or more runs batted in. The other is Dodger All-Star Mike Piazza, who is hitting .349 with 14 home runs and 43 RBI. Wilson is hitting .316 with 11 homers and 43 RBI. Other top catchers: in average, Rodriguez, .311; Greg Myers, Minnesota, .306; in home runs, Todd Hundley, Mets, 16; Javey Lopez, Atlanta, 10; Chris Hoiles, Baltimore, 10; in RBI, Hundley, 50; Lopez, 34; Mike Matheny, Milwaukee, 34. "Danny's had a ton of big hits for us this year," said Lee Elia, Mariner hitting coach who's seen the Nos. 2-6 hitters go over .300. "He's stronger than ever and he's worked hard. Perhaps the most impressive thing has been his consistency. . . . He's one of the outstanding players in our league." When Wilson gets a chance, his grace-power blend of footwork and arm strength are more than enough to catch any base stealer in the league. On this trip, he has thrown out Ken Lofton in Cleveland and Tom Goodwin in Kansas City, the AL's two top base stealers. Wilson is still among the league leaders although the team percentage has fallen this past month. "Willie would still be up there," Piniella said. "But our pitchers were getting hit so hard so often that for a while we had them concentrating on the batters and not doing so much to hold runners on. If we give Danny half a chance he can throw anyone out - and has." By the time Wilson and teammates were through in the first inning against Rick Aguilera, no Minnesotan was running. Not down 5-0 quick as you can say blowout. Given the five-run jump start, Seattle starter Bob Wells struck out three of four batters in the first and allowed only one hit through four innings. By that time it was 11-0. Can you spell laugher? Wells weakened in the fifth, giving up four runs that hardly anyone noticed. "I didn't care about giving up runs in that situation," said the right-hander, who was making his second start. "The win is the thing. I had a good fastball and that's about all I was throwing." The teams exchanged solo runs for an inning or two until the ninth when Seattle erupted again, this time for five to turn the night into a prime specimen of the numbing score-a-thon AL baseball has become. What would have happened if Jay Buhner had not left with a jammed thumb in the fourth?

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Wilson goes deep into history books

Dan Wilson's inside-the-park grand slam was the 171st in major-league history and the 12th of the last 20 years. The last dozen, by year: 1979, Jim Essian; 1980, Ben Oglivie; 1982, Tom Brunansky; 1985, Terry Pendleton; 1987, Bob Brower; 1989, Junior Felix; 1990, Luis Polonia, Ron Karkovice, Mike Greenwell; 1991, Chico Walker; 1997 Tony Gwynn. Wilson's in-the-parker was his second in three years, (his first was April 16, 1996, against Anaheim), and tied him with Julio Cruz, Dave Henderson and Ken Griffey Jr. behind Ruppert Jones on the club's all-time list. It was the 19th insider in Mariner history, 15th in the Kingdome.

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