Major League Baseball

Mariner finds love in the bullpen

Published Jun. 17, 2010 10:46 p.m. ET

foxsports

Jason Phillips, bullpen catcher for the Seattle Mariners, didn't just look — he acted. He introduced himself to Molly Ray during a game last year at Safeco Field. On Sunday, after the Mariners' home agame against the Cincinnati Reds, Phillips and Ray will be married — in the bullpen.

"It kind of has to be there," Phillips, 33, told Seattle Times columnist Jerry Brewer. "It's only right."

After making eye contact with Ray, who was at the game with business clients, Phillips told his teammates he would try to meet her if the game went into extra innings. When it did, he wrote his phone number on a baseball and tossed it to her. When he checked his text messages, there was one from her: "My name is Molly. Nice to meet you."

Meeting at a restaurant a few nights later, they learned they had much in common. They were both divorced with children — and not looking to marry again.

Obviously, they changed their minds.

"It's my second chance," Phillips, who from 2001-07 played for the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays, told the Times. "She's gorgeous. She has a great job (Ray is in charge of corporate sales for a hotel). She has great ambition. It's like a mulligan for me. I didn't know what I wanted before, but now I do. She's my best friend. I'm so lucky to have her in my life."