TORONTO -- Catcher Dan Wilson probably will miss a few games after being hit on his right wrist by a Brandon Lyon pitch in the fifth inning, but it could have been a lot worse. "Danny got hit pretty good on the wrist, and thank God it wasn't broken," Manager Lou Piniella said. Wilson was on the ground for several minutes and then taken to a local hospital for x-rays. There were no broken bones, but his wrist was badly swollen and he had to eat his post-game meal left-handed. "I have never broken a bone so I don't know what it feels like," he said, "but there was a lot of burning in my last two fingers. I was very fortunate that nothing was broken." Wilson then said, "Actually, I was hoping for a couple a bone chips so I could sell them on eBay." It was his way of giving a good-natured jab at Mariners reliever Jeff Nelson, who attempted to sell (for charity) the three bone chips he had removed from his right elbow last week. There was no immediate word on how many games Wilson will miss. The HBP ended a rough at-bat for the catcher. Several pitches earlier, he fouled a ball off the front of his left leg and hobbled around to let the pain diminish.
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Dan Wilson tries not to overreact when he has a bad pitch called a strike against him in Sunday's loss to the Red Sox. After all, if Wilson can get that same pitch called a strike when he's catching, that might be a break the Mariners can use. But when Wilson was called out on strikes on Tim Wakefield's knuckleball to end the eighth inning, he couldn't hold back. Wilson jumped like a startled kangaroo. "Did I jump?" Wilson asked, with a hint of a smile evident. "I felt that pitch was not a strike." Replays showed the pitch to be both outside and low, almost in the dirt. It wasn't close to being a strike. "The knuckleball is a tough pitch to call," Wilson said, not wishing to point fingers at umpire Eric Cooper. "But I didn't feel that was a strike."
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The Mariners returned to work on Tuesday, two days after a harrowing incident inside the Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston. The second of two buses transporting the team from Fenway Park to Logan International Airport caught on fire and about 15 veteran players escaped without injury. Manager Lou Piniella praised the driver of the first bus for pulling over when he noticed the second bus was in trouble. The thick, black smoke was so intense between the two buses that it was difficult to see anything. "It was scary," said Ichiro, who was among the players on the second bus. Catcher Dan Wilson, who was asleep when the bus driver stopped the bus, was one of the last players out and he helped the bus driver escape the disabled vehicle. Wilson had been credited for pulling the bus driver out of the bus, but he said Tuesday that he wasn't alone. "It was just like our season: a team effort," he said. Wilson added that he was afraid the bus would explode, "Like they do in the movies."
Once out of the bus, Wilson and other players said they "couldn't see or breathe very well." Piniella, coach Matt Sinatro and Ron Spellecy, the team's traveling secretary, were among those who left the first bus to assist the players on the second bus. Second baseman Bret Boone was sitting in the back of the second bus and didn't realize anything was wrong until the bus pulled over and he heard the bus driver yell, "Get off the bus!" "That's what we did. There was a ridiculous amount of smoke. It was scary there for awhile. You couldn't see 10 feet in front of you." The players finally made it to the first bus, and after making sure everyone was present and accounted for, continued to the airport. Piniella, who said he was a little woozy, and several of the players were given oxygen.
First baseman John Olerud wasn't on either bus. He stayed over in Boston with his wife and in-laws and didn't know anything about the near-tragedy until the following day when he was walking around a mall and someone recognized him and mentioned the incident. But it wasn't until Olerud checked out of the hotel and was shown a story in the local paper about the bus fire that he became fully aware of the problem. "If you ever want the pulse of the team," he smiled, "you can come to me."
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The Mariners' clubhouse was still buzzing about Sunday's incident in Boston, when one of their team buses caught fire in the Ted Williams Tunnel en route to the airport. Everyone came through the ordeal safely, but not without a few moments of real trepidation. "It was scary," said Bret Boone. "I was worried about how long it was until the end of the tunnel. It was getting tough to breathe. Once we got on the other bus, it was fine." Piniella credited the driver of the lead bus for noticing the trail bus was in trouble and pulling over to offer help. He led a small contingent of coaches, as well as traveling secretary Ron Spellecy, that headed back toward the other bus before encountering thick black smoke. "It was a little scarier than it looked," Piniella said. "What made it palatable was the bus driver saw the problem and just stopped. If they (occupants of the burning bus) had to walk the rest of the way out, a few would have run into problems. That smoke was awfully dark, and you couldn't see but a few feet."
Piniella was one of several Mariners personnel who were treated with oxygen by paramedics before the team's charter flight took off for Seattle. "I was woozy, not short of breath," he said, noting that he felt better about 20 minutes after receiving the oxygen. "Boy, you don't expect those things to happen. Baseball is a dangerous game." Meanwhile, catcher Dan Wilson downplayed his credited role in aiding the driver of the stricken bus. "It was nothing near heroic," he said. "The driver was struggling. He was in the smoke a long time. At one point, he was bent over. He had a hard time breathing. He was actually the guy who was in there the longest, making sure everyone got off the bus."
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