The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Jan. 19, 2013

Jon Wells is your typical Seattle Mariners fan.

Dedicated so much to the team, he started "The Grand Salami," a game-day program sold along the streets of the Kingdome and Safeco Field for the last 18 years.

His goal to write a book when the Mariners win the World Series hasn't quite happened yet, but his book "Shipwrecked - A Peoples' History of the Seattle Mariners" gives a description through his eyes of everything M's - from the 1995 run to the playoffs to the 100-loss seasons.

"I've always wanted to write a book on the Mariners," Wells said Wednesday night following a book signing at Hastings in Coeur d'Alene. "I was going to write a book about the Mariners when they won the World Series, but when it didn't seem like that was going to happen anytime soon, I was approached by a publisher in Seattle who talked to me about it. I just told him, it's all in here - in my head."

WELLS IS the publisher and editor of "The Grand Salami," featuring rosters, previews of the visiting teams and stories about the Seattle Mariners and upcoming series.

"They sell a program inside the stadium, but it's filled with fluff and advertising," Wells said. "You'll read articles about players visiting sick kids in the hospital, and that's nice - but it's not what baseball fans want to read about. They want to read about when is this damn team going to get good again and when will we have a chance."

Wells was there when the Mariners got good - beating the Los Angeles Angels in a playoff game to advance to the American League playoffs for the first time in franchise history in 1995, as well as the American League Championship Series before losing to Cleveland.

"It's got to be 1995," Wells said of his favorite M's moment. "Being at the Kingdome for the run in September and trying to get the new stadium behind that backdrop and the odds against it," Wells said.

“I come from the East Coast and I couldn’t believe the opposition against it. Some fans were saying ‘we don’t need a stadium and let them pay for their own stadium.’ I just couldn’t believe it and that they had well-funded opposition against it. They had a group called ‘Citizens for More Important Things’ and were saying that baseball doesn’t do anything for us and we needed bigger things than baseball. To have organized groups opposed to getting a stadium was amazing. Winning the division for the first time, beating the Yankees in the playoffs ... all that, and being a part of it was incredible,” Wells said.

Now, he wonders if that’s going to be the best era of baseball in Seattle.

“I say to my friends, ‘Gee, that was 18 years ago,’” Wells said. “Is it going to be another 18 years before we’re good again? Is that double still going to be the biggest moment in team history in 18 years — I sure hope not.’”

WELLS FEELS the time is coming that the Mariners will be better.

“I think they’re improving, but slowly,” Wells said. “Ownership is more concerned with making money and being a profit-making machine. I feel like they violated the public’s trust by getting a publicly funded stadium and then treated their fans like winning wasn’t important and turning profit is. These are guys that have a few billion dollars and a few million in profit isn’t that important. But when you’re squandering chances to win, they found that out when a manager quit because of it and when they’ve had chances to win, they don’t make any moves.”

On Wednesday, Seattle reacquired Michael Morse from Washington and sent John Jaso to Oakland in a three-team trade.

“To trade Jaso to a division rival didn’t make much sense,” Wells said. “I knew they were going to get Morse back. He’s not a good outfielder, but that’s likely where he’s likely to play. He’s developed into a decent hitter, but something about the whole thing burns me up. They gave him away (in 2009) for nothing (traded for Ryan Langerhans), and had to go somewhere else to be taught how to hit and play and we’ve got to trade a good player to get one year of Mike Morse. They’re not really one year away, but the two bats they’ve acquired (Morse and Kendrys Morales) are both a year away from free agency and they’re likely to not do anything (like re-sign). I’d like to see them do it with Morales right now and give him a three-year deal right now, but I don’t think they will with Morse. Morales is a player that hasn’t had a season where he’s made over 3 million in a season yet. To dangle a three-year, 30-million dollar contract in front of him — he’d probably take it right now.”

SOME OTHER moves — Wells, well, hasn’t agreed with.

“Pretty much every move Bill Bavasi made,” Wells said. “Carlos Silva was a huge mistake. And making the trade for Erik Bedard where we traded away five players. But Silva was definitely right there in the worst moves in team history.”

The trade of Tino Martinez to the rival Yankees after the 1995 season also didn’t sit well with him.

“It was a terrible decision,” Wells said. “That may be the worst because of what it symbolized. They got the stadium, got to the playoffs for the first time, and then we trade him to the team we beat so they could win four of the next five World Series — it just made no sense at all. And he was affordable. The team claimed they couldn’t pay him 3 million a year, but they’d just made all this money by making the playoffs for the first time. In 1996, we drew 3 million fans and outdrew the Yankees and how did they reward fans for that — they cut the payroll the next season, which is unexplainable and that led to them having to trade players the next season. In 2007, that was the only season they had Johnson, Griffey and Rodriguez healthy and in the prime of their career — and they were close to first place, but losing games on a nightly basis because of their bullpen and they had to make trades for bullpen help the year before and traded the future.”

AS FAR as future plans, Wells added his goal to write a book when the Mariners win the World Series remains, but doesn’t rule out another on a different sport.

“I’ll write another book when they win the World Series,” Wells said. “But I’m not planning a follow-up anytime soon. I’m a big baseball fan, but follow other sports, so it’s possible I might do another book on a different sport. Baseball is my passion. I’m at every game, and I love it.”

“Shipwrecked: A Peoples’ History of the Seattle Mariners” — is available by visiting www.grandsalami.net.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com.