Edgar Martinez meets fans
The Vela family meets former Mariners designated hitter Edgar Martinez at Lake Bowl on Saturday.
MOSES LAKE — Fans of Edgar Martinez packed Lake Bowl in Moses Lake for an opportunity to meet him Saturday.
“It was awesome,” Jaime Vela, 14, of Moses Lake said. “I almost cried.”
Vela, along with his little brother Miguel, 8, and his dad stood in line, memorabilia in hand, and waited to meet the former Mariners designated hitter.
The brothers play baseball. Jaime will play on the Crawdads team during the upcoming season and Miguel is practicing his moves for a shortstop position.
“I’ve idolized him for a long time,” Jaime said.
Martinez said his advice for young people was to find something they are passionate about.
“Young kids don’t always know what their passion is but when they find it, they should go for it because they enjoy it,” Martinez said.
Miguel said he had a similar experience.
“It feels pretty good (to meet Edgar Martinez),” Miguel said.
Martinez said fan meet-and-greets are a “great side of sports” and a side he enjoys.
“It’s great to meet with people. Especially fans from when I played,” he said. “It’s just great to connect with them.”
Luann Shoemaker, of Moses Lake, made sure she was the first fan in line to meet the Mariner great.
“It’s great to see him in person,” Shoemaker said.
Shoemaker became an avid Mariners fan during the team’s 1995 post-season run and has been watching them ever since.
“They were doing really well then,” Shoemaker said. “And (Edgar Martinez) is a good baseball player, very good.”
Shoemaker attended Martinez’s retirement ceremony at Safeco Field in Seattle on her birthday.
The day marked the beginning of a transition from baseball player to businessman for Martinez.
“There are different things to learn but baseball and business are very similar,” Martinez said.
He said the development of good habits and working hard are applicable to both.
Before the event Martinez took a moment to reflect with the Columbia Basin Herald on the passing of Mariners announcer Dave Niehaus.
“Dave Niehaus was an icon in Seattle,” Martinez said. “For years, he was the voice of the Mariners. He was in families’ homes, he was a friend and important to the game of baseball.”
Lake Bowl manager Troy Duzon said he was pleased.
“I think it’s a great turnout,” Duzon said.
The bowling alley allocated 250 tickets for the meet-and-greet to manage the number of people they had come through.
“The ticket idea came up yesterday,” Duzon said.
Lake Bowl received a number of calls that suggested they would have more people arrive than there was time allocated and so they decided to give out a limited number of tickets. By 4:30 p.m. the tickets for the meet and greet were gone.
“This is a really unique situation,” Duzon said of the visit.
He said the business would happily host another such event if the opportunity arose.
After the fan meet-and-greet, a private dinner for about 60 people was arranged at the Porterhouse in Moses Lake.
“We have a donation for Edgar’s foundation. That was part of the deal,” Duzon said.
The donation was presented to Martinez during the dinner.