Mariners' family remembers legendary broadcaster Dave Niehaus

They will be forever linked by the signature Dave Niehaus on-air call in 1995 when the Mariners pulled off a playoff feat that dared fans to believe in more.

But Edgar Martinez said Wednesday night that he'll remember Niehaus, who died of a heart attack Wednesday at age 75, for much more than his call on the double that delivered a walkoff, come-from-behind playoff win over the New York Yankees.

"I think the link that I feel is mainly because we were together with the Mariners for so many years," said Martinez, whose double won the American League Division Series. "Not just for that one play. I listened to his voice for so many years. I played 18 years, and it's just been a longtime link. And for Mariners baseball, his voice has been there longer than anyone else."

It's a voice that reintroduced Major League Baseball to Seattle in 1977 and described the highs and lows in distinctive, colorful verbiage until the very end.

"It's hard to think about him being gone now," Martinez said. "He was such a big part of baseball in Seattle. He made the game fun to listen to, even when we had bad years. It's going to be different listening to the games now."

The player who scored the winning run from first base on the Martinez double talked about Niehaus on ESPN 710, the team's flagship radio station. Ken Griffey Jr. said Niehaus "made the Mariners who they are," and that "without him, the guys out there are nothing."

Griffey added: "It's tough because he's like that grandfather to all of us, especially Jay (Buhner), me, Edgar and Dan (Wilson) and so many other Mariners, he was like our grandfather. He would give you a little bit of advice, and he was tough on you when he needed to be. This is a day that I was hoping would never come. It's just a sad day for all of us, not just his family, but for everybody in the great Northwest."

Buhner issued a statement, saying: "This is the saddest day of my life. It is like I am losing a Dad, someone that was a father figure to me. He was the voice of Northwest Baseball and the heart of the Mariners organization. He described everything with an art and painted a picture you could see in your mind. I've had the honor of working with him as a player and also in the broadcast booth, and there was no one better."

Ken Wilson was alongside Niehaus in that booth as he called the very first Mariners game in 1977.

"It was the culmination of his boyhood dreams in Indiana," said Wilson, who worked on Mariners broadcasts with Niehaus until 1982. "I could feel the excitement coming out of his body and how happy he was to be there."

That excitement never dissipated.

"What I remember most is that he was always excited," Wilson said. "He was always happy and excited about the game of baseball."

That excitement caused even visiting players to take notice.

"The first time I met him, I'd heard the voice before, but then you finally get to put a face to the voice," said Russell Branyan, who spent a decade in the majors before joining the Mariners in 2009. "The guys who have done it as long as he has, they tend to stand out. There are certain guys, they call a game and certain things stand out for you. He's one of those guys."

Branyan said longtime Mariners trainer Rick Griffin recently relayed a conversation he'd had with Niehaus toward the end of the 2009 season.

"He asked him how much longer he wanted to call games and his response was — until he was dead," Branyan said. "I thought that was really special. He loved the game of baseball so much that he was never going to leave it."

Former Mariners catcher Dan Wilson said he felt "indescribably sad," at the news of Niehaus' death.

"So much goes through your mind at that point," Wilson said. "He really is kind of the father of the Mariners in a lot of ways. He was there to usher in the new stadium and he brought almost a grandfatherly feel to the whole organization as a guy who'd seen it all."

Former Mariners pitcher Jamie Moyer said Niehaus was a great ambassador for the team in his many public appearances to sell baseball and help with various charities.

"He put a lot of time in," Moyer said. "He had a very positive impact on the Northwest. That's what we should remember about Dave. There are so many things he was able to do on a positive basis for people. He was a great friend of the Moyer Foundation, a great friend of the Mariners organization and foundation. He did so much for the people in and around the Northwest."

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com.

Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners