Smokin’ Eh’ce
Ladner’s James Paxton takes the mound today in Seattle for the Mariners against Canada’s team — the Toronto Blue Jays
There’s big shoes to fill if you’re taking up the “Big” moniker in Seattle, but for B.C.’s James Paxton, well, it’s no biggie.
The 6-foot-4, 200-pound flame-thrower is in his fifth season with the Seattle Mariners, and his performance this season is pushing his popularity into the rarefied atmosphere inhabited by a pitcher with Rain City’s favourite nickname: the Big Unit.
A recent Seattle Times poll had The Big Unit — 6-foot-10 former Mariners pitcher Randy Johnson — beating out some of the city’s other legendary athlete sobriquets, like Beast Mode (Marshawn Lynch), Reign Man (Shawn Kemp), The Kid (Ken Griffey, Jr.) and The Glove (Gary Payton). But rapidly climbing the list is The Big Maple, James Paxton.
He’s won seven straight starts, five of them this season, with a microscopic ERA of 1.69, although, in his second game back from a month on the disabled list with a strained forearm, the lefty from Ladner showed a little rust, giving up five hits and three runs, including his first home run of the season.
He gets the start Sunday afternoon (1.p.m., SNP) for the final date of the three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays, but don’t think for a moment he’ll have any divided loyalties.
“I didn’t watch a lot of baseball on TV when I was young,” he told the Seattle Times.
“I just played it. We’d come down here to watch Mariners games once or twice a year. And so that’s who I was a fan of.”
The usual influx of Canadian fans made Friday’s series opener seem like a home game, with more than half of the 33,518 at Safeco cheering for the Jays. A similar atmosphere was expected Saturday night.
The invasion of Blue Jays blue is something that has always caught Mariners players and staff off guard, as Seattle Manager Scott Servais told Ryan Divish of the Times.
“Surprise? That would probably be a good way to put it,” he said.
“I think I mentioned it last year when we stood out for the national anthem and they played “O Canada.” I turned to Tim Bogar and said, “Oh, s---. Wow. There’s a lot of people here and they ain’t rooting for us.’ That’s just the reality of it.”
Paxton still enjoys getting a chance to play in front of his countrymen, along with plenty of friends and family.
“Every year it’s the same thing,” Paxton said. “It’s a lot of fun because there is so much energy in the building. It’s a bunch of Mariners and a bunch of Blue Jays fans going back and forth, they’re doing the chants. It makes it fun for us.
“… That’s what is on TV up there,” he added, explaining why so many Canadians from Western Canada wind up disciples of an Eastern team.
“It’s all Blue Jays, all the time. There aren’t many Mariners games on. It’s the only team in Canada. It’s Canadian pride.
“(And) it’s obviously easier than going to Toronto.”