Cirillo comes to terms with stint in Seattle

YAKIMA -- It wasn't that Jeff Cirillo couldn't hit as a Mariner. He just didn't during his two years with Seattle, which to many Northwest baseball fans have infamously defined an otherwise sterling career.

Through 14 major league seasons, after all, the slick-fielding third baseman batted .296 and was a two-time All-Star.

"I was at .311 before I got to the Mariners," Cirillo said prior to being the guest of honor at Monday night's Bears game with Boise.

But of course he can't erase the .249 of 2002 or the .205 of 2003. He did, however, work his way back to the big leagues after an unwanted but much-needed trip to Mexico, hitting .319 in 77 games with Milwaukee in 2005 before ending his playing career last season with Arizona.

Since then the 34-year-old Cirillo, who lives with his family in Bellevue, has joined FSN Wisconsin as an analyst for Brewers games.

He came to Yakima partially as a favor for his friend Bob Didier, the Bears manager, and threw the ceremonial first pitch to fellow USC alum Ryan Cook.

Earlier, he spoke candidly about the Seattle years and the series of events that conspired to so dramatically alter his career.

"First," Cirillo said, "I came from two years at Denver, where the ball never breaks."

The thin air of the Mile High City is notorious for having that effect -- raising both batting and earned run averages not only because pitches fly straighter, but because batted balls fly farther.

The story is much different at sea level, where Safeco Field sits.

Then after Cirillo struggled out of the gate, he put more pressure on himself -- "I beat myself up unmercifully," he said -- and began tinkering with a previously productive swing.

The changes only made things worse, especially a toe-tap adjustment intended to keep the hitter's weight back that was suggested by then-hitting coach Gerald Perry.

"Sammy Sosa and Chipper Jones were doing their thing back then," Cirillo said, "so I gave it a shot."

But not only did the move not help, he couldn't stop doing it.

"I got traded to San Diego in 2004," Cirillo said, "and sure enough I came up to hit in spring training. Seattle Mariners, Gil Meche -- toe tap.

"It got to the point where my thought process and confidence were so messed up that one day when I was pitching to my young son, he asked me a question and I said, 'I don't know. I'm totally at a loss.' "

Those problems and a wrist injury rendered him inactive for the bulk of that season, and afterward Cirillo went to the Mexican League.

There he was able to break the toe-tap habit and afterward returned to the Brewers, with whom he'd enjoyed some of his best seasons.

"Not many teams were interested," Cirillo said, "but I guess I was still in their good graces."

He had batted .326 for them in 1999, after all, and at .306 Cirillo remains the career hitting leader on a franchise that has sent Robin Yount and Paul Molitor to the Hall of Fame.

Eventually, Cirillo said, he'd like to return to baseball, perhaps as a coach or in a front office capacity.

"I still go to games at Safeco," he said. "It's such a great ballpark and it's such a great setting. Maybe I'll work there again someday."

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