Five years after Edgar Martinez's last major-league at-bat — he grounded into a double play off Texas' Doug Brocail, which is like remembering Orson Welles for 1986's "Transformers: The Movie" — Martinez is stepping back into the batter's box.
On Wednesday, the Baseball Writers' Association of America mails out its Hall of Fame ballots to pick the Cooperstown Class of 2010. Edgar, having served his requisite five-year waiting period, will be one of the names on it.
For the first time (but certainly not the last), a player predominantly associated with the Mariners — exclusively, in his case — will be a serious Hall of Fame candidate. We're not talking an aging Gaylord Perry hooking on to get his 300th win, or Goose Gossage and Rickey Henderson making brief stops in Seattle long past their prime.
Edgar Martinez is a Mariner; some would say THE Mariner (with apologies to Ken Griffey Jr., but he did take a nine-year hiatus in Cincinnati; Edgar never left).
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