As Felix Hernandez prepares to make what almost certainly will be his final Mariners start Thursday – No. 418 over a 15-year span – it’s long past the time to ponder where he went off track, and how he could have fixed it.
Too late for that now. I prefer to look back in appreciation and wonder at what The King accomplished in a career that, for the bulk of it, was that rarest of things: One that somehow surpassed the breathless anticipation with which it began.
During a dark period in the franchise’s history – one that continues to this day, in fact – he was often was the best thing about the Mariners.