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The expression on David Bell's face is priceless. You're asking him how much of the Mariners' success can be attributed to, you know, "just playing solid baseball." To doing things like putting the ball in play, catching the ball, throwing to the right base. Finally, Bell crinkles his eyebrows and interrupts, "You mean, doing all the important stuff?"

Well, yeah.

"Do I have to answer that?" he asks with a smile. "Having guys who 'know how to play the game' may be a cliché, but I think that's why we've been as good as we've been. I don't understand why that's big news. To me, that's what baseball is."

Spoken like the son of a manager, right? Only in the Mariners clubhouse, being the son of a manager isn't even novel. Actually, it's not even all that novel to be, like Bell, the son of a manager/former player and also the grandson of a major leaguer. Over in the other corner of the M's clubhouse is Bret Boone, who's got the same exact pedigree. Then there's Stan Javier and Ed Sprague, who have big league fathers. And John Olerud and Charles Gipson, whose dads played in the minors. Suffice it to say, there's not a lot of talk in this clubhouse that's not related to the game. "You can tell there are a lot of guys here who grew up around the game," says Sprague. "We don't celebrate much when we win or sulk a lot when we lose. It's simplistic if you think about it, but our objective every day is to come here and play a good, competitive ball game."

The Mariners' team statistics bear out a club that excels in what you might call "the little things." Here's what they led the American League in at the 83-game mark: walks, sacrifice flies and fielding percentage. They also had hit into the fewest double plays. The one "big thing" the Mariners also happen to lead the league in? That would be runs.

"The reason for our success in a nutshell," says Boone, "is that we've made fewer mistakes than our opponents. It's as simple as that. Sure there's a lot of talent here. We've got some great players. But we've also got guys who know how to play the game right. It's an intangible that no one talks about."

Perhaps because it's so obvious.

This article appears in the July 23 issue of ESPN The Magazine.