THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Ty who? It's France who has been holding the M's together

Julio Rodriguez.

An eye-popping star.

He’s now made it to Hollywood, name in flashing lights, and an introduction to the rest of America.

Ty France …

Who?

Oh, the guy with his name on a milk carton.

Those are exaggerations, of course, when describing the only two Mariners selected for tonight’s All-Star Game.

But …

Not by much, really.

Julio is all that hype, and more — an icon at 21, a player you’d pay to see.

Everything he does seems spectacular, from tape measure home runs, to stolen bases, to highlight plays in center field.

Always smiling at the pure joy of playing baseball.

“Julio is electric,” said France.

Manager Scott Servais put it this way: “It’s Julio’s world, and we’re all riding along with him.”

Sounds over the top, but …

Baseball fans from New Jersey to Alabama to Nebraska will watch at least some of tonight’s game because they’ve heard about Julio.

But he plays in Seattle, up in the corner of the county, so they haven’t seen him yet.

AND THEN …

You have France.

He wasn’t named as an All-Star on the first go-round. Nor on the second.

In fact, he slipped in as the final choice when Mike Trout backed out on the final day of the regular season.

France found out he’d be going to the showcase in Los Angeles from Servais, who told him – in front of the whole team — about 45 minutes before Sunday’s game in Texas.

Cue chaos in the clubhouse.

“Yeah, it was kind of a dogpile,” France admitted with a huge grin.

“Since it was so close to game time, I was excited but there really wasn’t time to process it.”

Putting the news to one side, France simply went out and did his Ty France things — two hits, two runs driven in, a massive home run into the second deck as the Mariners won their 14th straight game.

Just for the record, Seattle owns the longest winning streak that a team has ever taken into the All-Star break.

Only three other teams have ever hit this milestone with 10 wins in a row — and all of them won pennants, with two going on to become World Series champions.

Baseball Reference pegs Seattle’s chances of reaching the postseason at 79.9 percent.

Yeah, it’s been fun for long-suffering Mariners fans.

The thing is, though, this season hasn’t all been a walk in the park.

It looks great now, but …

A combination of injuries, poor performances from players expected to carry a load, outrageous umpires’ calls targeting Julio that prompted a letter to the MLB office, and some plain old bad luck put the Mariners in early hole.

After starting 11-6, they stumbled along until hitting bottom — losing four of five at home to the Angels that left them at 29-39 on June 19.

Since then, we all know they’ve exploded to win 22 of 25 in every way imaginable.

Yee-hah!

LET’S BACK up to those darker, bumbling days prior to this glorious July.

This is a slight exaggeration once again, but it’s not all that wild …

Prior to the Mariners finding their mojo and zooming up into a bona fide wild-card spot, Ty France was the rock holding everything together.

Sure, Ty’s season-long stats (despite an injury to his arm that probably cost him some poor at-bats) are distinctly healthy.

He’s hitting .308 with an OPS of .846, with 11 home runs and 49 RBIs — despite missing 14 games.

But here’s the thing …

Through May and June, when the Mariners were merely treading water and hoping things might fall into place, France carried the team.

Through that up-and-down stretch, Ty still hit over .400 with runners in scoring position — something that the rest of the team struggled so mightily to get done.

Besides all that …

Maybe the strangest thing about France representing Seattle as an All-Star first baseman is that, when he was acquired via trade with Padres in 2020, nobody knew quite where to play him.

Third base, maybe? Second?

First base wasn’t even considered, because the Mariners had young phenom Evan White in that spot, and hoped he’d be there for years.

Unfortunately, White has suffered some serious injuries over the past two years, and France found himself at first base.

They won’t admit it, but Mariners execs likely were holding their breath with Ty in such a critical new position.

Instead of causing problems, however, France has become a Gold Glove contender at first, and he’s been one major reason Seattle leads all of MLB in fielding (and least errors committed).

Ty France has been a star in every phase of the game.

He deserves this All-Star recognition.

Really.

It’s just a little tough to get noticed, though, because ...

The spotlight usually finds Julio.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times each week. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published monthly during the offseason, and weekly beginning in October.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”