February 16, 2026 • 21 mins
Kevin Martinez, Seattle Mariners President of Business Operations, joins Dave Softy Mahler to talk about 2026 ahead for the franchise including jerseys, number retirements and stadium plans, the new television-viewing plan, and the new ball-strike call system.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, President's Day means we got to have a
president right on the radio show.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
We're gonna do things a little bit different this year.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
We'll have some presidents hopefully joining us throughout the week
on the program. But first stop, the first victim on
President's Week is the president of Business Operations for your
Seattle Mariners, longtime Mariner employee, now the big boss over there,
Kevin Martinez joining us on the radio show on this
President's Day Monday, Kmart, How are you mad?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
I'm doing great, SAFTI just got down to Peoria, Arizona
last night and bright and early today at camp and
it couldn't be better. Great, great atmosphere. So glad to
be down here, though. I think I might have brought
some of the clouds and rain that Seattle typically has,
so hopefully we'll get out of the clouds and get
(00:49):
some sunshine going.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, that's fine, you guys can have the cloud and rain.
We'll take the Arizona sun up here as long as
you're down there, and then we'll swop when I go
down to Arizona. That's fine.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Why don't we Why don't we start off, Kevin by
just talking about the atmosphere around this franchise. Man Game
seven of the Alcs obviously a heartbreaker for all of us,
but this franchise saw some moments that we've frankly never
seen before as a fan base. How would you characterize
the state of the franchise on this President's Day show
(01:21):
as we are just about a month and a half
away from the season getting going.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, absolutely, the state of the union is very strong.
You know, as you might expect, we're counting down in
the days man to opening day and getting this thing
going because there's unfinished business. And just walking through the
halls this morning, Softie and bumping into the guys, you know,
(01:47):
they have the same the same feeling. And you've heard
me say it before, but I just love this group
of players that we have in the clubhouse. And you know,
the World Baseball Classic is this year. That's going to
be cranking up here in just a bit. Players are
reported down here earlier than normal. You know, two of
(02:09):
the first people I saw were Cal and Logan this morning,
and you know, wow, what can you say about Cal?
Incredible leader, just an extraordinary player. Josh Nayler's down here
hanging out with Tucker the dog. What an impact Josh had,
you know, both on and off the field. And Sophie,
(02:30):
you and I've been in this market, you know, forever.
You you grew up in Seattle. I didn't, but we've
been working together for so long, and I don't know
if we've seen a player have such an impact and
connection with a fan base like Josh did last year.
You know, he showed up in the off season at
our at our fan fest, he was popping up at
(02:52):
cracking games. He's just immersed himself in the community. It's
just incredibly cool to watch. I haven't a chance yet
to meet uh Brandon Donovan, but I'm looking forward to
meeting him. He was doing some of the the the
video board stuff with our team here and and they're
just raving about what an incredible guy is and personality
(03:16):
and just a great teammates. So I think he's going
to sit in incredibly well with this group of players,
pitching staff, all healthy, all back. Uh. So yeah, I mean,
we couldn't be more excited to pick up the torch
from the Seahawks and uh and run with it and
(03:38):
and and get to a place that this franchise has
never been. You're right, we were, we were on the doorstep,
but we didn't get there, and there's there's this feeling
of unfinished business. I spent a lot of time this
offseason with the skipper, Dan Wilson, and uh, yeah, they
that's that's the goal. The goal is to get there
(03:58):
and win it. And uh and they believe, they believe
to a person that they're a really good team. And
that's the expectation. And you'd love to hear that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Kevin Martinez again, president of business Operations for the EMS,
is with us on our President's Day Show. And Kevin,
there's a lot going on obviously off to fill the
park this week or this week, this year, the fiftieth anniversary,
Randy's number retirement in May.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
We'll talk about all that in a second.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
But the biggest change, obviously is how fans will consume.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You guys on television. Let's just talk about that.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
What do people need to know, especially old guys like me,
you know, fifty two years old, kind of setting their ways.
I did make the change to Fubo, so I'm even
impressed by myself, you know, doing that. But let's talk
about what fans need to know about how things will
change this year.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
From a viewing perspective, yeah, And the short answer, sofie
is the same way as they did last year. You'll
be able to watch on cable, You'll be able to
watch on Fubo. If you've got Fubo, hang with it, right,
You're good direct TV and games will be streams, you know.
The landscape, Yeah, the media landscape continues to evolve, and
(05:12):
the regional sports network model, which you know, provided meaningful
revenues for the game for a long time, is essentially,
you know, collapsed, and it was painful to see Roots
Sports close its doores last year. And on that point,
you know, I'd personally like to thank all the people
who worked at Root Sports for decades to make that
(05:34):
network one of the best regional sports networks you know,
in the country. But things have changed, and you're seeing
it now as more and more teams are migrating over
to what it's called MLB Media, and MLB is putting
together the distribution deals the production for Major League clubs.
(05:58):
I think we're up to fifteen now clubs.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
That are over there.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
You know, our goal has always been and we you know,
we launched the streaming platform last year, is to make
games available to our fans the way they want to
watch them. So the streaming platform will now be on
the it'll be Mariners dot Tv, it'll be on the
MLB uh platform, MLB dot com. You know that, and
(06:24):
that that streaming platform is one of the best streaming
platforms that's out there in sports and entertainment. It's really slick,
it's really good. I think that experience, if you're a
fan who likes to stream games, I think that experience
is going to be even better than it was last year.
(06:44):
But fans will be able to get the games exactly
the same way now. If you are a cable subscriber,
there'll be a channel where Mariners games exist, and it
might even be the same channel where Root Sports was.
But during the day, you'll see a Mariner's logo on
that on that channel and it'll say game tonight, you know,
(07:07):
at pregame at six o'clock, and then at six o'clock, boom,
it fires up, the open starts, and then the game
comes on. There'll be a replay of the game, there'll
be another replay, there'll be a postgame show right then
the replay of the game, and I think another replay
of the game is how it goes, and then it'll
go back to the logo. So you know that's that's
(07:28):
the only different. There will be the same thing on
on Fubo and direct Tv. However you want. Watched it
last year, you'll be able to watch it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
So so let's but let's make this as more on
proof as possible. All right, mostly for my purposes. Okay,
So let's say I've got Comcast or I've got Fubo,
I've got direct TV, I've got whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
How do I pay for this? Do I have to
log on to the website and then pay for it?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
There is there an app that comes up on like
my Fubo camp for example, How do I sign up
for this thing?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah, so it'll you'll you'll have the opportunity. If you're
a cable subscriber, all right, you already have it, right
as long as you have the right package, got it
of you know where sports, it'll it'll just be there.
The same thing with with Fubo. It will be very
similar to with Root Sports. You'll be you know, if
(08:21):
you paid for that tier of package and you'll get that.
And now if you want to subscribe to the streaming
you have to go to Mariners dot com. There's a
button there you can sign up and subscribe to it,
and then once we start playing ballgames, you'll see those
got it.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
So just go go into my Fubo account for example
Comcast account, log into there and then select whatever package
includes the Mariners for the season, and you're and you're
good to go. Great, well, Kevin Martinez with us. And
there's a lot happening, you know, off the field in
the park. I mean, Rady Johnson's getting his number retired
on the on the second of May. The fiftieth anniversary
celebration coming up August seventh to the ninth, we got
(08:58):
some statues being unveiled. Take a minute, Kmart and tell
people what's happening at the park this summer.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Well, I'll try to be brief because there's so much
going on this year. It's just great to see it
all coming together. At the same time. It is the
fiftieth season, and we're gonna make that a season long celebration.
We'll kick it off on opening night when we play
the Guardians March twenty sixth. We're gonna unveil a new
(09:26):
American League West Championship banner up in the rafters. We'll
have a special retrospective of the first forty nine seasons,
and man, the forty ninth season might have been one
of the best, if not the best season in Mariners history.
So we'll get the party started then, and then as
we go through the year. In early April, April tenth
(09:50):
will unveil each e ro statue outside of the ballpark
will have a special giveaway that night as well. In
each euro statue giveaway, you mentioned the unit and I
know this was near and dear to your heart and
appreciate your passion for Randy over the years. But on
May second, we're going to retire Randy Johnson's number. It's
(10:11):
so cool to have him back in the family and
being a part of everything. Was so cool to see
him last summer come out for each row and his
number retirement, and this year it's it's Randy's turn. It's
great to see the friendship that's developed between the each
row and Randy. Just an incredible mutual respect. And then
(10:32):
you mentioned the weekend in August, and if you've been
a fan for five years or fifty years, or anywhere
in between, Saturday, August eighth is a day, you're gonna
want to be at the ballpark, all right. We are
going to assemble the fifty greatest Mariners to ever play
for the organization and in a ceremony similar if you
(10:55):
can remember a number of years ago, MLB at the
All Star Game did the All Century Team and they
brought the best players who played the century major leaue baseball.
We're going to do very similar pregame extravagands around the
fifty greatest Mariners.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
We've never had everybody.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
The best of the best assembled in one place as
an organization. And the excitement around that just internally as
we're planning it has everybody just jacked up. So Saturday,
August eighth, if you're a Mariners fan, I implore you
to be there because it's going to be one of
those one of those events that you'll talk about for
(11:40):
a long time. And you mentioned the other statue SAFI
on September third, inside the center field gate in a
very interactive setting, a statue of Mike Cameron Mark macklamore.
And you'll remember that poignant moment in two thousand and one,
right after the nine to eleven when the Mariners clinched
(12:01):
the American League West. The team walked around the field
in a very respectful manner with the American flag, celebrating
clinching the division. That moment will be memorialized out in
center field with a statue of Cammy and Meck holding
the American flag as we celebrate also the twenty fifth
(12:24):
anniversary of those nine to eleven attacks, or remember I
should say that the nine to eleven attacks and remember
all of those who lost their lives during this at
the horrible day.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
No, I love, that's a great idea, man, And you know,
just for a guy like me that grew up with this,
you know, going to the Dome back in the day,
we didn't have any ret retired jerseys and now we've
got you know, the five of them right with Griffy, Edgar,
Ichi Randy and of course Jackie Robinson. But Kevin, I'm
wondering if there's going to be another one down the road.
I mean, you guys have kind of always said that.
You know, look, I mean it's got to be a
(12:57):
Hall of Fame caliber level player. And we're talking about
four Hall of famers and Ehiro, Edgar, Randy and Junior.
You got a guy like Felix Hernandez, who was on
the cuss potentially of making the Hall of Fame nobody's
worn thirty four. I believe since him is Felix Hernandez
a guy that could be up for consideration to have
his number retired one day.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, well, I mean, Felix is one of the most
beloved players and in my time with the organization. You know,
I was talking about Josh Nayler in the connection he
had with the fan base earlier. Ye, Felix's relationship with
our fans is incredibly special and just the way Felix interacted,
(13:43):
the way he treated our fans, and it was it
was really it's really elite. And seeing the surge in
the Hall of Fame voting, I think Felix will will
definitely be in that that conversation as we move forward
in terms of putting the thirty four up on that wall.
(14:06):
One of my personal favorites Felix Rnandez, there's no doubt,
and just such an electric picture, a dominant during his time,
and he loves the city, he loves the organization and
it would you know, he's one of the most emotional
guys that I've ever had The privilege to know, and
I think it would mean the world to him as well.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Kevin Martinez with us on our President's Day Show, president
of business Operations for the MS. You guys also announce
you you'll be wearing jerseys on Sunday home games as.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
A tribute to the Steelheads.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Obviously, talk more about that little bit, Kayak, kind of
how you came to that decision. And then the City
Connect jerseys that have become so popular with fans that
you guys were on Friday. I believe this is the
third or fourth year that you've been doing that. Will
those eventually change and if so.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
When, Yeah, let's start with the Steelheads. You know, for
a number of years we wore the Steelheads jerseys and
Major League Baseball had changed its guidelines on uniforms a
couple three years ago, and what major League Baseball now
(15:23):
says to all clubs is you can have four different
uniforms plus a city connect And as part of that,
they said we are no longer doing one off tribute
jerseys or special jerseys. So when we moved away from
wearing the Steelheads jerseys, we had tremendous feedback from our
(15:47):
fans softy how much they really liked the jerseys and
wanted us to wear them, you know, regularly, which we
took that under consideration, and we also got feedback from
our players how much they like those jerseys. But we
realized if we brought the Steelhead jersey back, we had
(16:08):
to make it one of the regular four jerseys. So
something had to go away, right. We have the home whites,
We have the Navy jerseys that we wear on the road,
the Northwest Green jerseys that we wear on the road,
and then we have the Sunday jerseys that were a
nod to the old Mariners colors, the Royal blue and gold. Well,
(16:29):
because the Steelhead jersey is also kind of this cream jersey,
it's an off white jersey, feels a little more nostalgic.
The decision we made after a lot of conversation, was
to replace what was the current Sunday jersey, which was
a really great look in jersey in my opinion, uniform.
It was just really sharp. It looked great in the
(16:51):
day games, so much to the delight of the fan
feedback when we announced it during FanFest. You know, there
were some fans who were sad to see that the
Sundays go. But they're really excited about the Steelhead jerseys.
And Josh Naylor had never seen him. He was kind
(17:12):
enough to unveil the jersey and come out for a
quick photo shoot. He's like, this is one of the
cleanest jerseys I've ever seen. This is so cool. He
didn't know about the Seattle Steelheads, and they immersed themselves
and sort of learning more and thought it was just
a great story. So that is not though. Some other
questions we got, Softie is that the new City Connect.
(17:34):
It is not the New City Connect. The Steelheads will
be part of those four uniforms that were allowed to
wear the City Connect, the one that has the royal
blue jersey with the Pilot's lettering in the black pants
that comes back for this final year, and we are
looking to introduce a new City Connect next year.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Oh wow, okay, great, yeah, great. Well.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Kevin Moore Tinas again with us on our President's Day
Show from the Mariners and Kevin before you go, I'm
just curious. We talked about the changes to how people
will watch you guys on on cable, satellite, streaming, all
that stuff with the new the new plans, but what
about the new ABS system that's being put into place
this year. I mean, people like me have come to
(18:20):
appreciate and rely on the EQC tracer right which used
to be on Root Sports. With the new ABS system,
will we still see that on the telecast?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Will that betweak? What's the plan for that?
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah? A great question, and it's and it's a hot
topic right now. And I really do think this ABS
system is going to add a great element to the game,
and in part I think it's really going to be
a nice addition to the game. Like so many of
the changes that MLB has has recently made, they've all
(18:57):
improved the game. They sped up the game. If you're
sitting at home, SAFTI, the way I understand it is
you will still see I'll call it that the tracer
box will still be on your screen when a pitch
is thrown. In the past, the little circle that would
appear on the screen to show the pitch location. If
(19:19):
it was a strike, it was a solid circle. If
it was a ball, it was a hollow circle. Now
all the circles will be hollowed. Okay, so you know
those edge pitches, you know, will be up to you
at home to be the umpire wasn't a strike, was
it or not? And then you know, you may see
(19:41):
the pitcher, the batter of the catcher tap their head
and there'll be a challenge. Now in the park, this
is where it changes. If you go to the game
and you're looking on a monitor in the park, in
the park, SAFTI, there will not be that that that
trace or box that will be you know, they'll they'll
(20:02):
send a clean feed technical term clean feed to the
monitors in the ballpark without those graphics. And so that way,
there's no chance that you know, if I put you
in the front row of the Diamond Club right in
front of a monitor and we had that tracer on
it and you saw that it was clearly a ball
and called us, right, you could yell, hey, you know
(20:24):
cal challenging, right, we can't have that. So that that's
that's the direction it's headed. You'll still see the tracer
box on your screen at home, and you know, I
think the only ones that will be difficult for you
to discern is those those ones on the edges.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Got it good.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Look, Well, there's a lot of change going on, man.
I I'm not kevin, I'm not a big change guy.
You know, I think I think most of the stuff
has been beneficial for the game.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
And that's the thing. It happens, right, Yeah, they've they've
been some tweaks and they've worked out for well.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I think they've won a lot of research. Yeah, they
really have.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
They've been testing this ABS system for a while and
in the minor league parts and they were not fast
to move it in the folks at MLB, and I
give them a ton of credit the way they went
about it. And like I said, I'm excited. I'm excited
to see it. I think it's gonna have a fun
funnel on the game.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Game, a lot of change that for some reason, is
all about appealing to the younger fan base. I think
everything should be about me, So I'm not really caring
about the younger fan base. We wont for a year ago. Man, Yeah,
I get it.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I know, all right, Kevin, you're the man, great stuff.
Thanks for doing this.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Let's go get a World Series this year and we'll
see us soon.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Man. Appreciate it, Bud, Yeah, thanks for the time and
look forward to seeing you down here in Arizona and
then of course opening Day March twenty sixth.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Man it's coming up, Quick Love It.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Kevin Martinez, President and business Operations for the m's on
Our Presidents Today Show
All right, President's Day means we got to have a
president right on the radio show.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
We're gonna do things a little bit different this year.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
We'll have some presidents hopefully joining us throughout the week
on the program. But first stop, the first victim on
President's Week is the president of Business Operations for your
Seattle Mariners, longtime Mariner employee, now the big boss over there,
Kevin Martinez joining us on the radio show on this
President's Day Monday, Kmart, How are you mad?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
I'm doing great, SAFTI just got down to Peoria, Arizona
last night and bright and early today at camp and
it couldn't be better. Great, great atmosphere. So glad to
be down here, though. I think I might have brought
some of the clouds and rain that Seattle typically has,
so hopefully we'll get out of the clouds and get
(00:49):
some sunshine going.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, that's fine, you guys can have the cloud and rain.
We'll take the Arizona sun up here as long as
you're down there, and then we'll swop when I go
down to Arizona. That's fine.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Why don't we Why don't we start off, Kevin by
just talking about the atmosphere around this franchise. Man Game
seven of the Alcs obviously a heartbreaker for all of us,
but this franchise saw some moments that we've frankly never
seen before as a fan base. How would you characterize
the state of the franchise on this President's Day show
(01:21):
as we are just about a month and a half
away from the season getting going.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, absolutely, the state of the union is very strong.
You know, as you might expect, we're counting down in
the days man to opening day and getting this thing
going because there's unfinished business. And just walking through the
halls this morning, Softie and bumping into the guys, you know,
(01:47):
they have the same the same feeling. And you've heard
me say it before, but I just love this group
of players that we have in the clubhouse. And you know,
the World Baseball Classic is this year. That's going to
be cranking up here in just a bit. Players are
reported down here earlier than normal. You know, two of
(02:09):
the first people I saw were Cal and Logan this morning,
and you know, wow, what can you say about Cal?
Incredible leader, just an extraordinary player. Josh Nayler's down here
hanging out with Tucker the dog. What an impact Josh had,
you know, both on and off the field. And Sophie,
(02:30):
you and I've been in this market, you know, forever.
You you grew up in Seattle. I didn't, but we've
been working together for so long, and I don't know
if we've seen a player have such an impact and
connection with a fan base like Josh did last year.
You know, he showed up in the off season at
our at our fan fest, he was popping up at
(02:52):
cracking games. He's just immersed himself in the community. It's
just incredibly cool to watch. I haven't a chance yet
to meet uh Brandon Donovan, but I'm looking forward to
meeting him. He was doing some of the the the
video board stuff with our team here and and they're
just raving about what an incredible guy is and personality
(03:16):
and just a great teammates. So I think he's going
to sit in incredibly well with this group of players,
pitching staff, all healthy, all back. Uh. So yeah, I mean,
we couldn't be more excited to pick up the torch
from the Seahawks and uh and run with it and
(03:38):
and and get to a place that this franchise has
never been. You're right, we were, we were on the doorstep,
but we didn't get there, and there's there's this feeling
of unfinished business. I spent a lot of time this
offseason with the skipper, Dan Wilson, and uh, yeah, they
that's that's the goal. The goal is to get there
(03:58):
and win it. And uh and they believe, they believe
to a person that they're a really good team. And
that's the expectation. And you'd love to hear that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Kevin Martinez again, president of business Operations for the EMS,
is with us on our President's Day Show. And Kevin,
there's a lot going on obviously off to fill the
park this week or this week, this year, the fiftieth anniversary,
Randy's number retirement in May.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
We'll talk about all that in a second.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
But the biggest change, obviously is how fans will consume.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You guys on television. Let's just talk about that.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
What do people need to know, especially old guys like me,
you know, fifty two years old, kind of setting their ways.
I did make the change to Fubo, so I'm even
impressed by myself, you know, doing that. But let's talk
about what fans need to know about how things will
change this year.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
From a viewing perspective, yeah, And the short answer, sofie
is the same way as they did last year. You'll
be able to watch on cable, You'll be able to
watch on Fubo. If you've got Fubo, hang with it, right,
You're good direct TV and games will be streams, you know.
The landscape, Yeah, the media landscape continues to evolve, and
(05:12):
the regional sports network model, which you know, provided meaningful
revenues for the game for a long time, is essentially,
you know, collapsed, and it was painful to see Roots
Sports close its doores last year. And on that point,
you know, I'd personally like to thank all the people
who worked at Root Sports for decades to make that
(05:34):
network one of the best regional sports networks you know,
in the country. But things have changed, and you're seeing
it now as more and more teams are migrating over
to what it's called MLB Media, and MLB is putting
together the distribution deals the production for Major League clubs.
(05:58):
I think we're up to fifteen now clubs.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
That are over there.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
You know, our goal has always been and we you know,
we launched the streaming platform last year, is to make
games available to our fans the way they want to
watch them. So the streaming platform will now be on
the it'll be Mariners dot Tv, it'll be on the
MLB uh platform, MLB dot com. You know that, and
(06:24):
that that streaming platform is one of the best streaming
platforms that's out there in sports and entertainment. It's really slick,
it's really good. I think that experience, if you're a
fan who likes to stream games, I think that experience
is going to be even better than it was last year.
(06:44):
But fans will be able to get the games exactly
the same way now. If you are a cable subscriber,
there'll be a channel where Mariners games exist, and it
might even be the same channel where Root Sports was.
But during the day, you'll see a Mariner's logo on
that on that channel and it'll say game tonight, you know,
(07:07):
at pregame at six o'clock, and then at six o'clock, boom,
it fires up, the open starts, and then the game
comes on. There'll be a replay of the game, there'll
be another replay, there'll be a postgame show right then
the replay of the game, and I think another replay
of the game is how it goes, and then it'll
go back to the logo. So you know that's that's
(07:28):
the only different. There will be the same thing on
on Fubo and direct Tv. However you want. Watched it
last year, you'll be able to watch it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
So so let's but let's make this as more on
proof as possible. All right, mostly for my purposes. Okay,
So let's say I've got Comcast or I've got Fubo,
I've got direct TV, I've got whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
How do I pay for this? Do I have to
log on to the website and then pay for it?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
There is there an app that comes up on like
my Fubo camp for example, How do I sign up
for this thing?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah, so it'll you'll you'll have the opportunity. If you're
a cable subscriber, all right, you already have it, right
as long as you have the right package, got it
of you know where sports, it'll it'll just be there.
The same thing with with Fubo. It will be very
similar to with Root Sports. You'll be you know, if
(08:21):
you paid for that tier of package and you'll get that.
And now if you want to subscribe to the streaming
you have to go to Mariners dot com. There's a
button there you can sign up and subscribe to it,
and then once we start playing ballgames, you'll see those
got it.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
So just go go into my Fubo account for example
Comcast account, log into there and then select whatever package
includes the Mariners for the season, and you're and you're
good to go. Great, well, Kevin Martinez with us. And
there's a lot happening, you know, off the field in
the park. I mean, Rady Johnson's getting his number retired
on the on the second of May. The fiftieth anniversary
celebration coming up August seventh to the ninth, we got
(08:58):
some statues being unveiled. Take a minute, Kmart and tell
people what's happening at the park this summer.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Well, I'll try to be brief because there's so much
going on this year. It's just great to see it
all coming together. At the same time. It is the
fiftieth season, and we're gonna make that a season long celebration.
We'll kick it off on opening night when we play
the Guardians March twenty sixth. We're gonna unveil a new
(09:26):
American League West Championship banner up in the rafters. We'll
have a special retrospective of the first forty nine seasons,
and man, the forty ninth season might have been one
of the best, if not the best season in Mariners history.
So we'll get the party started then, and then as
we go through the year. In early April, April tenth
(09:50):
will unveil each e ro statue outside of the ballpark
will have a special giveaway that night as well. In
each euro statue giveaway, you mentioned the unit and I
know this was near and dear to your heart and
appreciate your passion for Randy over the years. But on
May second, we're going to retire Randy Johnson's number. It's
(10:11):
so cool to have him back in the family and
being a part of everything. Was so cool to see
him last summer come out for each row and his
number retirement, and this year it's it's Randy's turn. It's
great to see the friendship that's developed between the each
row and Randy. Just an incredible mutual respect. And then
(10:32):
you mentioned the weekend in August, and if you've been
a fan for five years or fifty years, or anywhere
in between, Saturday, August eighth is a day, you're gonna
want to be at the ballpark, all right. We are
going to assemble the fifty greatest Mariners to ever play
for the organization and in a ceremony similar if you
(10:55):
can remember a number of years ago, MLB at the
All Star Game did the All Century Team and they
brought the best players who played the century major leaue baseball.
We're going to do very similar pregame extravagands around the
fifty greatest Mariners.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
We've never had everybody.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
The best of the best assembled in one place as
an organization. And the excitement around that just internally as
we're planning it has everybody just jacked up. So Saturday,
August eighth, if you're a Mariners fan, I implore you
to be there because it's going to be one of
those one of those events that you'll talk about for
(11:40):
a long time. And you mentioned the other statue SAFI
on September third, inside the center field gate in a
very interactive setting, a statue of Mike Cameron Mark macklamore.
And you'll remember that poignant moment in two thousand and one,
right after the nine to eleven when the Mariners clinched
(12:01):
the American League West. The team walked around the field
in a very respectful manner with the American flag, celebrating
clinching the division. That moment will be memorialized out in
center field with a statue of Cammy and Meck holding
the American flag as we celebrate also the twenty fifth
(12:24):
anniversary of those nine to eleven attacks, or remember I
should say that the nine to eleven attacks and remember
all of those who lost their lives during this at
the horrible day.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
No, I love, that's a great idea, man, And you know,
just for a guy like me that grew up with this,
you know, going to the Dome back in the day,
we didn't have any ret retired jerseys and now we've
got you know, the five of them right with Griffy, Edgar,
Ichi Randy and of course Jackie Robinson. But Kevin, I'm
wondering if there's going to be another one down the road.
I mean, you guys have kind of always said that.
You know, look, I mean it's got to be a
(12:57):
Hall of Fame caliber level player. And we're talking about
four Hall of famers and Ehiro, Edgar, Randy and Junior.
You got a guy like Felix Hernandez, who was on
the cuss potentially of making the Hall of Fame nobody's
worn thirty four. I believe since him is Felix Hernandez
a guy that could be up for consideration to have
his number retired one day.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, well, I mean, Felix is one of the most
beloved players and in my time with the organization. You know,
I was talking about Josh Nayler in the connection he
had with the fan base earlier. Ye, Felix's relationship with
our fans is incredibly special and just the way Felix interacted,
(13:43):
the way he treated our fans, and it was it
was really it's really elite. And seeing the surge in
the Hall of Fame voting, I think Felix will will
definitely be in that that conversation as we move forward
in terms of putting the thirty four up on that wall.
(14:06):
One of my personal favorites Felix Rnandez, there's no doubt,
and just such an electric picture, a dominant during his time,
and he loves the city, he loves the organization and
it would you know, he's one of the most emotional
guys that I've ever had The privilege to know, and
I think it would mean the world to him as well.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
No doubt.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Kevin Martinez with us on our President's Day Show, president
of business Operations for the MS. You guys also announce
you you'll be wearing jerseys on Sunday home games as.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
A tribute to the Steelheads.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Obviously, talk more about that little bit, Kayak, kind of
how you came to that decision. And then the City
Connect jerseys that have become so popular with fans that
you guys were on Friday. I believe this is the
third or fourth year that you've been doing that. Will
those eventually change and if so.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
When, Yeah, let's start with the Steelheads. You know, for
a number of years we wore the Steelheads jerseys and
Major League Baseball had changed its guidelines on uniforms a
couple three years ago, and what major League Baseball now
(15:23):
says to all clubs is you can have four different
uniforms plus a city connect And as part of that,
they said we are no longer doing one off tribute
jerseys or special jerseys. So when we moved away from
wearing the Steelheads jerseys, we had tremendous feedback from our
(15:47):
fans softy how much they really liked the jerseys and
wanted us to wear them, you know, regularly, which we
took that under consideration, and we also got feedback from
our players how much they like those jerseys. But we
realized if we brought the Steelhead jersey back, we had
(16:08):
to make it one of the regular four jerseys. So
something had to go away, right. We have the home whites,
We have the Navy jerseys that we wear on the road,
the Northwest Green jerseys that we wear on the road,
and then we have the Sunday jerseys that were a
nod to the old Mariners colors, the Royal blue and gold. Well,
(16:29):
because the Steelhead jersey is also kind of this cream jersey,
it's an off white jersey, feels a little more nostalgic.
The decision we made after a lot of conversation, was
to replace what was the current Sunday jersey, which was
a really great look in jersey in my opinion, uniform.
It was just really sharp. It looked great in the
(16:51):
day games, so much to the delight of the fan
feedback when we announced it during FanFest. You know, there
were some fans who were sad to see that the
Sundays go. But they're really excited about the Steelhead jerseys.
And Josh Naylor had never seen him. He was kind
(17:12):
enough to unveil the jersey and come out for a
quick photo shoot. He's like, this is one of the
cleanest jerseys I've ever seen. This is so cool. He
didn't know about the Seattle Steelheads, and they immersed themselves
and sort of learning more and thought it was just
a great story. So that is not though. Some other
questions we got, Softie is that the new City Connect.
(17:34):
It is not the New City Connect. The Steelheads will
be part of those four uniforms that were allowed to
wear the City Connect, the one that has the royal
blue jersey with the Pilot's lettering in the black pants
that comes back for this final year, and we are
looking to introduce a new City Connect next year.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Oh wow, okay, great, yeah, great. Well.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Kevin Moore Tinas again with us on our President's Day
Show from the Mariners and Kevin before you go, I'm
just curious. We talked about the changes to how people
will watch you guys on on cable, satellite, streaming, all
that stuff with the new the new plans, but what
about the new ABS system that's being put into place
this year. I mean, people like me have come to
(18:20):
appreciate and rely on the EQC tracer right which used
to be on Root Sports. With the new ABS system,
will we still see that on the telecast?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Will that betweak? What's the plan for that?
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah? A great question, and it's and it's a hot
topic right now. And I really do think this ABS
system is going to add a great element to the game,
and in part I think it's really going to be
a nice addition to the game. Like so many of
the changes that MLB has has recently made, they've all
(18:57):
improved the game. They sped up the game. If you're
sitting at home, SAFTI, the way I understand it is
you will still see I'll call it that the tracer
box will still be on your screen when a pitch
is thrown. In the past, the little circle that would
appear on the screen to show the pitch location. If
(19:19):
it was a strike, it was a solid circle. If
it was a ball, it was a hollow circle. Now
all the circles will be hollowed. Okay, so you know
those edge pitches, you know, will be up to you
at home to be the umpire wasn't a strike, was
it or not? And then you know, you may see
(19:41):
the pitcher, the batter of the catcher tap their head
and there'll be a challenge. Now in the park, this
is where it changes. If you go to the game
and you're looking on a monitor in the park, in
the park, SAFTI, there will not be that that that
trace or box that will be you know, they'll they'll
(20:02):
send a clean feed technical term clean feed to the
monitors in the ballpark without those graphics. And so that way,
there's no chance that you know, if I put you
in the front row of the Diamond Club right in
front of a monitor and we had that tracer on
it and you saw that it was clearly a ball
and called us, right, you could yell, hey, you know
(20:24):
cal challenging, right, we can't have that. So that that's
that's the direction it's headed. You'll still see the tracer
box on your screen at home, and you know, I
think the only ones that will be difficult for you
to discern is those those ones on the edges.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Got it good.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Look, Well, there's a lot of change going on, man.
I I'm not kevin, I'm not a big change guy.
You know, I think I think most of the stuff
has been beneficial for the game.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
And that's the thing. It happens, right, Yeah, they've they've
been some tweaks and they've worked out for well.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I think they've won a lot of research. Yeah, they
really have.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
They've been testing this ABS system for a while and
in the minor league parts and they were not fast
to move it in the folks at MLB, and I
give them a ton of credit the way they went
about it. And like I said, I'm excited. I'm excited
to see it. I think it's gonna have a fun
funnel on the game.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Game, a lot of change that for some reason, is
all about appealing to the younger fan base. I think
everything should be about me, So I'm not really caring
about the younger fan base. We wont for a year ago. Man, Yeah,
I get it.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I know, all right, Kevin, you're the man, great stuff.
Thanks for doing this.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Let's go get a World Series this year and we'll
see us soon.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Man. Appreciate it, Bud, Yeah, thanks for the time and
look forward to seeing you down here in Arizona and
then of course opening Day March twenty sixth.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Man it's coming up, Quick Love It.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Kevin Martinez, President and business Operations for the m's on
Our Presidents Today Show
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