Baker: Mariners’ nearly invisible owners stand firmly behind struggling team

Here’s a souvenir for you, and one for you!

But while Japanese billionaire Hiroshi Yamauchi has not been to the United States since becoming the team’s controlling shareholder in 1992, smaller owners can be found at games. Former Microsoft executive Chris Larson owns a 30 percent stake and has been seen giving friends and acquaintances field-level visits during batting practice, where they get to meet players and coaches.

Other minority owners, like Raymond “Buck” Ferguson, another ex-Microsoft executive, can be spotted doing the same thing.

Nearly two decades after forming one of the more unique alliances in sport, two truths remain about Mariners owners: their 17-member group is committed enough to have barely changed, and they still retain enough anonymity that even die-hard fans wouldn’t recognize them.

“I’m not a public person,” Ferguson said. “I always enjoy talking baseball when I’m down there. I don’t enjoy talking about my involvement in the team or anything like that. I love baseball. I love this organization. It’s had its ups and downs, but it’s a good, solid organization.”

...Craig Watjen, one of the group’s original members, died last year and his wife, Joan, controls the family shares. She said she no longer follows the team as closely.

“I don’t live and die with them any more now that they’re not doing so well,” she said. “I don’t even know the young people (players) right now who are involved.”