"In the late morning, on a back field, before a tiny crowd, an enthralling bit of spring-training theater was taking place on Saturday.

The focus, as it so often is with the Mariners, was on Felix Hernandez. Rather than let him face the A's in the regularly scheduled game, the Mariners opted to have Hernandez get his work in by pitching in an informal intrasquad affair against some of the organization's minor-leaguers.

The theory was to not let the A's, their opening day-opponent April 1, get too much of a handle on Hernandez. Though as The King mused logically afterward, "I don't know why. They've seen me for seven years already."

What occurred instead was a kick, as these kind of games so often are. It was on one of the Peoria back fields that Randy Johnson once dusted off a minor-leaguer who had the temerity to bunt on him. Jamie Moyer used to regularly get lit up by the kids and complain that they weren't sophisticated enough for him to set them up.

In this one, catcher Chris Gimenez called the balls and strikes and joked, "You've got the Cy Young award winner on the mound. If you don't call a strike, you've got him staring down your gut. What do you do there?"

For those fans lucky enough to have wandered over, the intimate setting allowed them to see both the animated and playful side of Hernandez. He exclaimed loudly in frustration after occasional pitches he didn't like. On a checked swing, he called out for Gimenez to appeal to the nonexistent third-base umpire, eliciting laughter from the bleachers.

"He's definitely like that in the dugout all the time," Gimenez said. "When I got to catch him against Oakland (on Monday), we were just goofing around. Even though he's at such an elite level, it goes to show we're just kids out here having fun. You've got to take it seriously, but at the same time it's a game and you have to have your fun."

For the minor-leaguers brought in to be Felix fodder, such as Kyle Seager and Dennis Raben, it was an unforgettable chance to face the Cy Young winner."