FPF: Phil Bradley and the Ultimate Grand Slam I Nearly Saw.
Two down. Bases loaded. Bottom of the ninth. Down by three. The pitch is on the way. You swing and Dave Niehaus starts his famous call, "Swung on and belted, deep, back to the track, the wall, get out the rye bread and mustard Grandma, it’s grand salami time!" It’s known as an ultimate grand slam, and it is the fantasy of many a baseball player. It was mine when I was young and my favorite player, Phil Bradley, got to live it and I almost got to see it live and in person. Almost.
It was early April 1985 and the Mariners were surprisingly off to a great start having won their first 4 games of the season. I was seven and my dad and I were off to our first game of the season. Many times when going to games with my dad, we’d turn around and go home before even getting to the stadium because the traffic was too bad or he couldn’t find a parking spot. This day was different, we sailed into town and found a great parking spot. The game was a different story. The Twins started scoring early and often and built up a 7-4 lead going into the eighth inning. After the Mariner hit in the bottom of the eighth, my dad decides to leave to beat the traffic. Already being a jaded Mariners fan at 7 and assuming they’d lose, I agreed to leave. We made our way down the Kingdome ramps and walked to our car. We get in and my dad turns on the radio, just in time to hear Phil Bradley hit his ultimate walk off, game winning, grand slam. When he hit it, he was only the fifth AL player to ever hit an ultimate grand slam. We were there and yet we missed it. My dad died in 2016, but he never left another game early ever again.
Phil Bradley would go on to have his best year in 1985. He slashed 300/365/498 with an OPS+ of 134 and a WAR of 4.8 with 26 homers, 192 hits, and 22 steals. He finished second on the team in WAR that year, was the Mariners lone all-star and even received some MVP votes. He finished tenth in the league in WAR, 7th in batting average, 9th in slugging percentage, 9th in OPS, 6th in extra base hits. He was awesome and he was my favorite player. Yet if you think back about great or even good Mariner players, I doubt Phil Bradley comes to your mind. He continued to produce in 1986 and 1987. Putting up an average slash line of 303/395/454 for an OPS+ of 126. He stole 40 bases in 1987, good for 6th in the league. He was 2nd in the league on On-Base percentage in 1986 with .405. He was even a pretty good left fielder leading the league in putouts in 1987. Bradley never finished lower than second in WAR on the Mariners during 85-87. But for some reason, the Mariners traded him to the Phillies prior to the 1988 season for Michael Jackson (not the singer, but a relief pitcher, who was pretty good and underrated himself) and a couple of throw-ins. He played okay for the Phillies in 88, and was traded again before the 89 season to the Orioles. He played pretty good for the Orioles that year putting up a nearly 3 WAR season. In 1990, he was not playing to his usual standards and was traded mid-season to the White Sox. After the season he was a free agent and not finding much interest stateside, he went to Japan to play for the Yomiuri Giants for the 1991 season. He had quite the year there slashing 282/368/491 with 21 homers. He tried to come back to the MLB in 1992, but only played in the minors for the Angels and the Cubs and by 1993 he was out of baseball.
Phil Bradley was one of the best, if not the best, Mariner for three straight years. He was awesome. He was my favorite player. For all you younger Mariners fans, you probably never even heard of him, which is a shame. While his peak was short and he only played with the Mariners for a few years, he has to be one of the most underrated Mariner of all time. With all the power hitters the Mariners have had, they have only had one ultimate grand slam and that belongs to Phil Bradley.