Dustin Ackley is 23 and, in one 24-hour period on Twitter last week, was said to resemble a young Clint Eastwood, was the subject of several marriage proposals and was hailed by Seattle Mariners fans as the best hitter on the team.
Ackley is quiet and observant, a veteran of 45 big-league games and the second baseman of the present and future – a well-known, well-liked quantity who played more games with Tacoma than he has with Seattle.
Is there anything about him the public doesn’t know?
Ever accommodating, Ackley weighed the question.
“Here’s something they probably don’t know,” he said. “I’m a little color blind. I don’t see shades, but I get by. We found out when I was in kindergarten. We were coloring, and they said ‘Color it blue’ – and I picked up purple and colored it purple. It looked like blue to me.
“I’d never go buy clothes alone. I don’t match things up well.”
Standing nearby, shortstop Jack Wilson was listening to Ackley’s story.
“Big deal,” he said. “The baseball is white, and all you do is crush it every time you swing. We should all be that color blind.”
Wilson has a point. Things are going so well for the 2009 first-round draft pick that even perceived weaknesses aren’t taken seriously by anyone around him.
“From his first day here, he’s worked hard, fit in and contributed,” manager Eric Wedge said. “Dustin doesn’t give away at-bats, and he’s played second base as if he’d been there most of his life, not a year and a half.”
Texas manager Ron Washington said the Rangers knew Ackley could hit, but one aspect of his game surprised them.
“He’s a lot faster than we thought he was,” Washington said. “He’s got that great first step out of the box, and you’ve got to gun it to beat him to first.”
Coming off a six-game trip, Ackley is enduring something of a slump with only three hits in that span. This “slump” has knocked his batting average all the way down to .293.
“He’s made some hard outs, faced some tough pitchers; it’s just baseball,” Wedge said.
One thing the Mariners never have to worry about, they say, is Ackley carousing until all hours of the night – home or road. He’s engaged and admits to a routine that’s positively boring.
“My average night? If it’s a day game coming up, I’m in bed by 11:30 p.m.,” Ackley said. “If it’s a night game, I might be watching a movie, messing around on the computer.
“I’m not a big morning guy, so I probably wake up, grab lunch, relax and head to the park.”
And once he gets to work?
“I’m quiet, but I’m not silent in the clubhouse,” he said. “It took me a few weeks to get comfortable, but I talk to everyone. I love getting on guys like (Justin) Smoak.
“When I first came up, there were guys here I knew – Carlos Peguero, Mike Carp, Greg Halman. That took the pressure off. I wasn’t the only rookie here, we could talk things over.”
A lot has happened in his 45 games with Seattle. He has met players he had only read about, and he’s taken in the sights.
“It’s been great meeting guys like Derek Jeter, Adrian Gonzalez,” he said. “During a pitching change, Dan Uggla went out of his way to come talk to me at second base and spent the whole time with me. …
“My favorite road park has been Fenway Park in Boston – it’s hitter friendly, and the crowd is right on top of you, which is great.
“Best road city? Probably New York. You can find almost anything you’re looking for there. I went to Times Square this year, and I hadn’t been there since I was a kid. We went after a game, and it was like it could have been at noon.”
Then there’s the nightly competition. The toughest pitcher he’s face so far?
“CC Sabathia in New York,” Ackley said. “It wasn’t that he had so much better stuff than anyone else, he just really hid the ball well. You can’t pick it up, and that’s an uncomfortable at-bat. He was tough.”
As for the transition from college outfielder/first baseman, he said he’s fine with it.
“I’m comfortable at second base. It’s like the transition I made in college to first base,” he said. “Give me some fly balls in the outfield, I’d be fine there again, too. Now, third base? I wouldn’t feel right. I’ve never played there.”
Learning pitchers has been tougher, and the second time around, Ackley said, both he and the pitchers have approached things differently.
“In the big leagues, every pitcher you face has seen scouting reports on you, and whatever you’ve done, they adjust. They know you even if they haven’t seen you,” he said.
“I might look for different pitches, try to look for one pitch in a certain zone. Sometimes, you have to give something up – if you’re looking away, you give up the inside part of the plate.”
Wedge has preached “adjustment” to the Mariners since Ackley first met him in spring training. That didn’t change last month, when things weren’t going well for the team.
“During our (17-game) losing streak, he’d talk to us,” Ackley said. “He said if you’re having bad at-bats day after day, don’t do the same thing and expect different results.”
What was his best day in the big leagues, so far?
“I’ve had quite a few,” Ackley said. “My first hit, my first home run.”
And the worst? It had nothing to do with his at-bats.
“I messed up a double play in Toronto during the streak and it wound up costing us three runs,” he said. “We were down a couple but close, then I messed up. That was a bad day. Any time you do something that costs the team, that stays with you.”
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners
TODAY
Boston (John Lackey: 10-8, 6.14 ERA) at Seattle (Blake Beavan: 3-2, 2.83), 7:10 p.m., Root Sports, 710-AM
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