VintageSeattle.org

Baseball season may be long gone and our hearts still full of bitter disappointment, but there’s always our ‘79 Mariners. So let’s indulge in some M’s nostalgia, shall we? Like the 1980 season, they didn’t fair all that well — winning 67 games and losing 95. On display here are a few scans from the one dollar 1979 souvenir program. You’ll recognize your favorite players — among them the one and only Mario Mendoza once again. Click on the images for larger versions. Blast! Now I’m hungry for a red hot. P.S. I gave the Vintage Seattle site design a spitshine. Here’s the old vs new. Thumbs up / thumbs down?

Front cover. 1979 Mariners Official Program & Souvenir Magazine. $1.00.	Page 15. Leon Roberts, Larry Cox, Shane Rawley, Bob Stinson, Larry Milbourne, Mario Mendoza.
Page 16. Floyd Bannister, Ruppert Jones, Willie Horton, John Hale, John Montague, Kevin Pasley.	Page 17. Julio Cruz, Glenn Abbott, Dan Meyer, Juan Bernhardt, Paul Mitchell, Odell Jones.
Page 18. Bruce Bochte, Byron McLaughlin, Jim Colborn, Rick Honeycutt, Tom Paciorek, Mike Parrott.	Page 19. Bill Stein, Rafael Vasquez, Bill Plummer, Mike Potter, Greg Biercevicz, Charlie Beamon.

John Yarno is the Vintage Seattle Player O The Week with this his 1979 Topps card. He played offensive line for our Hawks from 1977 until 1982 after being selected in the 4th round of the 1977 college draft. Here is a photo of him from 2001. I can see all of the Yarno fans coming out of the woodwork right… about… now. Click on the thumbnail for a larger and more glorious version of Yarno. Oh, and you were all watching as the Hawks clobbered the 49ers, right?

John Yarno, Seattle Seahawks, Topps, 1979.

The Player O The Week this week is instead the Team O The Week. And O is it gonna excite you. Grabbing the honor is the 1980 Seattle Mariners! We’ve got the Topps card from that year on display along with the team checklist. You can check off your favorite player, including the infamous Mario Mendoza. You probably know his contribution to the sport through the “Mendoza Line” term — when a player is under a .200 batting average. O our Mariners, they know just how to leave a lasting impression on the sport. The 1980 Mariners had a winning percentage of just .364 (winning 59 games and losing 103). Not a great year but let’s check out the image anyway. Click on the image for a high-res copy.

Front: 1980 Seattle Mariners. Mgr. Darrell Johnson.

Back: Mariners Team Checklist. 1980 Topps Chewing Gum, Inc.

We’re going back, back, back… way back for this one. Back past the Mariners. Past even the Pilots. The Vintage Seattle Player O The Week goes to Spencer, the catcher for the 1911 Northwestern League Seattle Baseball Club. He’s described as a player who “always catches good ball and infuses plenty of pepper into the game.” The card was made by the American Tobacco Company (advertising their Obak Cigarettes), who started including baseball cards in their cigarette packs in 1909. The most famous of these cards is considered the “Holy Grail” of card collectors, the Honus Wagner. Let’s put aside Honus for now though and examine the Spencer card. Click on the image for more resolution.

Front: Spencer, Seattle, N.W.L. 1911

Back: Spencer always catches good ball and infuses plenty of pepper into the game. Is a fine backstop and clever at tagging runners. Bats left handed, and ranks as a good hitter. Obak speaks quality in any company. Factory No 171 1st Dist, Cal.

Not much of a challenge this week for our Hawks, with 0-7 St. Louis coming to the table. 33-6 was the final and with that it’s time for our 2nd ever Player O The Week. Getting the honors this week is legendary Seahawk QB Jim Zorn — the image is from his 1977 Topps card. He is known for being the Hawk’s first ever quarterback in 1976 and stayed in town for 7 and a half seasons. If you’re a local fan, you also probably already know that Zorn is now the quarterback coach for the Seahawks. Here’s the image, click on it for the high-res copy.

Jim Zorn, Quarterback, 1977, Topps.

Rough day for our Hawks — 28-17 loss to the Saints. Regardless, I’m starting off a new feature here at the Org called Player O The Week, sorted under the new Old Sport category. This first one is dedicated to Jonathan Shipley, who namechecked Dan Doornink. Well here he is — number 33 from the 1981 Topps card. Doornink took over as the Seahawks’ starting fullback in 1979 and was actually born in Yakima, Washington. And did you know that Doornink is now a medical doctor practicing Internal Medicine in his hometown. Click on the image for the high-res version.

Dan Doornink, Running Back, 1981, Topps.