Rainiers lose, but three players get call-up

For three Tacoma Rainiers, the season didn’t end with Monday’s 12-9 loss to the Fresno Grizzlies.

Third baseman Alex Liddi, outfielder Michael Saunders and rags-to-riches reliever Steve Delabar were called to the Seattle Mariners and will join that team today in Anaheim, Calif. – arriving about an hour before early batting practice.

“No direct flights, so we’re connecting through Salt Lake City,” said Saunders, who’d homered earlier in the day.

“We’re flying first class!” said Liddi, who hit two home runs Monday to give him 30 for the Pacific Coast League season.

“I started this spring coaching high school baseball in Kentucky,” Delabar said. “I broke my elbow pitching in ’09, so I’d gone back to school, was doing some part time substitute teaching.

“My summer goal was to play slow-pitch softball.”

Instead, after pitching in Arizona for the Mariners, then Class A, AA and – two weeks ago – AAA, the 28-year-old right-hander was called to the Seattle bullpen.

“The first time I saw him I thought he might be special,” manager Daren Brown said. “He throws 94-95 mph and has a split that really moves. He’s been impressive with us, and you have to love his story.”

All three have rich backgrounds, and Liddi and Delabar will be joining a major league team for the first time. Liddi is the first born-and-raised Italian player in big-league history – other Italian native players have been raised in the U.S.

“I knew I wanted this when I was 5 years old,” Liddi said.

How many 5-year-old Italian boys had that dream?

“Not many,” he said, laughing.

“Alex earned this, he deserved it,” Brown said. “He’s still learning, still has things to work on – like cutting down on his strikeouts. But his hits produced.”

In 138 games with Tacoma, Liddi batted .259, scored a league-leading 121 runs, hit 30 home runs and had 104 RBI. When he heard the news, he immediately called his mother and father – not in Italy, but in Cheney Stadium.

“They came over to see the end of my season, and thought I might get called up,” Liddi said.

Saunders, 24, has spent part of the past three seasons in Seattle, and earned the call Monday by working hard the past two months in Tacoma, fashioning a solid .288 season.

“His offense is coming, and he can play all three outfield positions,” Brown said.

“No looking back this time,” Saunders said. “I’m not going to worry about an 0-for-4 day. I have confidence I can play this game, and when you’re up and down a lot, you realize you want to play at the highest level.”

Of all the players in the Seattle system, only Mariners reliever Tom Wilhelmsen has a 2011 story remotely like Delabar’s.

After surgeons literally wired his elbow together again – he carries photos on his cellphone of an X-ray – Delabar didn’t start throwing again until this spring, when a friend saw him and called Seattle scout Brian Williams.

“We set it up the next day, and I had to pull our high school catcher out of class to catch me,” Delabar said. “I was probably throwing 94-95 mph, and Brian taped me and had the gun on me.

“A bit later they flew me to Arizona, had me throw a couple of live batting practice sessions, then called me and signed me. I started pitching in the extended spring, then went to High Desert. I was the oldest guy in that league, and one night I gave up three runs and thought, ‘What am I really doing here?’ ”

The rise continued. He was moved up to Class AA Jackson, where he closed, then on Aug. 5, was moved again, this time to Tacoma.

“I just called my wife and told her, ‘They want me to keep pitching,’ and I teared up on the telephone,” Delabar said. “I called my dad, and he said, ‘What’s going on?’ and I couldn’t even talk for a second.”

The three players will continue the season today in a Mariners uniform. For the rest of the Rainiers, 2010 ended with a 70-74 record, with a lot of hugs after the final loss.

larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners