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TagsOnly 14,528 came out last night to watch the Mariners paste the Orioles. On the bright side, that's nearly 12,000 more than Conan O'Brien drew at the 2,800-seat Paramount the 2,900-seat McCaw Hall. On the dark side, Conan didn't play to any empty seats. The M's had 32,000 of them. It was their worst-attended Safeco Field game ever.
The local sports community is confused. Why aren't people showing? "The M's ... had an incredibly productive off-season and were pre-season contenders for the AL West crown," writes ESPN 710's Mike Salk. "They are not a bad team."
Well, you've answered your own question, Mike: While diehard sports fans may care about productive off-seasons and pre-season predictions, the casual fan--the one who does most of the ticket-buying--decidedly does not.
When you're someone who follows sports closely, it's easy to forget how few of the things you care about on a daily basis--M's Sign Ramon Vazquez to a Minor League Contract!--make it into the consciousness of the average person. Just like what's news to politics diehards couldn't matter less to me. For instance: Over on Publicola, something called "O'Brien Will Vote No on Panhandling Ordinance" is marked "Exclusive!" Who? What? Ping me when someone takes a bribe....
The Florida Marlins hired Creed's Scott Stapp to compose and sing a team song. It's called "Marlins Will Soar," even though it really sounds like he's singing "Marlins Will Suck." FEEL THE POWER!
Well, isn't that...Creedy. Here in Seattle we have no official team troubadour, but we do have YouTuber ErinBev, who's written a ukeleke ode to Ryan Rowland-Smith.
Extra points for this line: "When he throws his change-ups are they to Rob Johnson's glove, or are they straight to my heart?"
More exciting than Mariner baseball
Baseball is supposed to bring fathers and sons together, and it certainly did yesterday for the father and son sitting one row in front of me. It brought them together in a united effort to ignore the fiasco unfolding before them and instead play video games on their iPhones.
We weren't out of inning six before son, a pre-teen in a stylish windbreaker, busted out Cube Runner. Dad, who bore a passing resemblance to Phil on Modern Family, got next turn. By the eighth they'd moved on to what looked like Centipede.
I stupidly kept my eyes fixed on the field, where the Mariners put forth the lamest opening day offensive effort in team history. Two hits! Two! Yes, the Mariners had been two-hit before in a home opener, but that was by Pedro Martinez in his prime. A's starter Justin Duchscherer is a talented pitcher, but vintage Pedro he's not.
For sheer awfulness, the only home opener comparison is 1992, when the M's bullpen blew a five-run lead in a portentous 12-10 loss.
Starting pitcher in that game 18 years ago was Randy Johnson. The Big Unit who appeared a few hundred yards to the south yesterday at Safeco to throw out the first pitch. Johnson made his entrance from centerfield, walking toward the mound enveloped by a sustained standing ovation. His pitch, to longtime battery mate Dan Wilson, was an indisputable strike. Wilson and Johnson met and shook hands after the pitch; they were soon joined by fellow Mariner legends Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, and Ken Griffey Jr. for a '95 Mariners photo-op....
He'd fit right in on this team
"Speed never slumps," the old saying goes. But bats do, and you can't win many baseball games with your legs--though it looks like the 2010 Mariners are going to try.
In their opening-game win over Oakland, the M's had three stolen bases, two by new second baseman Chone Figgins. Figgins also forced three Oakland errors with his speed.
In yesterday's extra-inning loss, the M's speed got them their only run of the night. After lashing a double, Franklin Gutierrez' bluffs off second base suckered Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden into a balk. Gutierrez then scored on a wild pitch.
The dark lining to this silver cloud is that the Mariners can be made to look pitiful at the plate. Oakland's Braden, who averaged about four strikeouts per start last season, struck out 10 Mariners last night. And these were not strikeouts of the blow-you-away variety.
Nine of the K's came on Braden's slllloooowwww change, which ranges from 71-74 mph. Not sure I've ever seen that many major leaguers strike out on a pitch so slow.
"He was throwing it for a strike, keeping it down," said Figgins, who struck out twice. "You do it on both sides of the plate like he was, and it makes it awfully tough to hit."
Dave Cameron of USS Mariner had a different take: "The M’s decided to abandon their make-the-pitcher-work approach and chased every pitch he threw. [...] That looked more like bad hitting than great pitching to me."
Jack Wilson has been especially pitiful at the plate; impatient and ineffective. In eight hitless at bats, Wilson has seen just 23 pitches. If the M's keep him in the lineup for his glove, Wilson has a chance to have the worst offensive year ever for an M's shortstop, which is saying something for a team that once employed Mario Mendoza.
The M's try to find their hitting stroke tonight against two-time All-Star Justin Duchscherer, who missed last season with an elbow injury and a bout with depression.
You can buy that 1981 Topps Mario Mendoza card for $.10 on CheckOutMyCards.com
The centerfield wall at the Mariners' spring training stadium is a joke. No, really, it literally is a joke. Prankster Ken Griffey Jr. had the wall covered with a 60x30 foot photo of him jostling notoriously gruff coach Roger Hansen. See? (via @theRealmariners)
Impressive, huh? The joke being that no-nonsense Hansen, the M's catching coordinator and Griffey's minor-league roommate, isn't one to let another man embrace him. Now, proof positive that Hansen's a big softie. Hansen got his revenge by calling Griffey's mom to complain.
Other hilarity highlights from spring: Milton Bradley leaving a box of "Just for Men" hair coloring in graying Griffey's locker. Ryan Rowland-Smith interviewing teammates after an ESPN The Magazine photo shoot (video!). A "Mariners Idol" singing competition, with Ichiro and Griffey serving as judges. (Three minor leaguers won by singing in grass skirts and coconut tops.)
Yesterday, the Mariners played a game of "backwards baseball." Right-handed hitters had to bat lefty, and vice versa, and players ran the bases clockwise. Ha!...
Probably you know that the Mariners have been doing "funny" commercials for more than a decade now. The spots had been getting a little stale, but rely on Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro to bring back the funny.
No embed, but here's the link to the legitimately hilarious commercial called "Meaningful Moments." Simple concept, really well done.
There are a couple of other winners among the other four commercials, by Seattle agency Copacino+Fujikado, and shot and directed by Mercer Island's Blue Goose Productions.
Don Wakamatsu and Jack Zduriencik have their golf game interrupted in "Running Catch."
David Aardsma has a dubious idea for his bullpen mates in "Immortalized."
Then these two, which didn't really do it for me.
Ryan Rowland-Smith once again gets questionable advice from a marketing exec in "The Next Big Thing."
And Cliff Lee gets ribbed about his name by Felix Hernandez and Chone Figgins in "What's in a Name."
After you're done, check out the blooper reel.
Joe Posnanski, the best sportswriter in America, tweeted thus recently: "Felipe Lopez, not yet 30, hit .310/.383/.427, signed for $2 mil? Jason Kendall, not yet 52, hit .241/.331/.305 sign 2yr/$6 mil? Confused."
Posnanski might be equally confused to learn that the Mariners made no serious attempt to replace starting catcher Rob Johnson, who hit an abysmal .213/.289/.326 last year--and had surgery on both hips in the off-season.
Kendall is old and doesn't hit, Johnson is young and doesn't hit. Why do the two have jobs? Because they play the immeasurably important position of catcher.
The catcher is not the most important player in a baseball game. But he is the caddy, coach, and confidante of the most important player in a baseball game, the pitcher. In 2009, the Mariners were 25-9 when ace Felix Hernandez pitched. A .735 winning percentage. That would be 119 wins over a 162-game season. In other words, when Felix Hernandez pitches, the Mariners are the best team in baseball history.
Now listen to what Hernandez says about Johnson: "We just seem to think alike. Every time he calls for a certain pitch, I am thinking the same thing." Do you know what having Johnson behind the plate must mean for Hernandez' confidence? What a like-minded partner like Johnson does to increase Hernandez' chances of success?...
The Mariners played an intrasquad game yesterday, and, courtesy of the Times' tireless Geoff Baker, we get a peek at actual baseball being played. Huzzah!
And tomorrow--yes! tomorrow!--you'll be able to listen to Hall-of-Famer Dave Niehaus again, as ESPN 710 broadcasts the first M's spring game of the year, vs. San Francisco, at 12:05 p.m. Seattle time. (Full broadcast schedule here.)
Thus, it is time for my annual tradition of sharing this wonderful ode to spring training by light verse superstar Ogden Nash. Take it away, Ogden!
All winter long, yes, every day,
I throw the sporting page away,
I turn my faithful radio off
And grimly settle down to scoff,
Since contests that as sport I list,
In wintertime do not exist.
If Mr. Gallup me is polling
He will not tally a vote for bowling;
Despite our brief Olympic radiance,
Hockey belongs to the Canadians;
But chiefly am I unbeguiled
By Dr. Naismith's monster child,
Basketball is not a sport,
Not even as a last resort --
A game indulged in by giraffes
And only good for scornful laughs,
All whistle-blowings and palaverages
And scores that read like Dow Jones averages.
Only Harlem's unique Globetrotters,
As comic as seals and slick as otters,
Find its pretensions are grotesque
And treat it purely as burlesque.
But hark! A hint from softer climes
Of past and future golden times!
In Phoenix and St. Petersburg
The rookie generates the erg,
And Vero Beach and Sarasota
Of embryo Ruths can boast their quota.
The airwaves now begin to tingle
As grapefruit knights in tourney mingle;
Again the happiness pills I know
Of sporting page and radio.
Home is the exile, home is the rover,
The storm of basketballs is over;
I sail serenely into harbor
With Phil Rizzuto and Red Barber.
Ljungberg: "The longest ever." Preseason! We're talking about preseason!
In all the Olympics excitement, you may have missed that spring training is underway. Both the Sounders and the Mariners have been preparing for their upcoming seasons--the Sounders at a tournament in Spain, the Mariners at their spring training hub northwest of Phoenix.
Both training seasons are much longer than they need to be--something Freddie Ljungberg complained about in a blog post for ESPN.com titled "The longest preseason training ever."
"We have been running our asses off," according to Ljungberg, who expressed concern that the long training schedule could be detrimental to his fitness. Ljungberg points out when he played for Arsenal, one of the top clubs in the world, training was half as long than the Sounders' is. Well, Fred, the Sounders have a lot more work to do.
Big question is, will they get to do it? Major League Soccer and its players' union are overdue to sign a collective bargaining agreement, and negotiations are not going well. "They're not even humoring us," says Kansas City Wizard Jimmy Conrad, whose invocation of the Weaken Resolve spell at the last bargaining session had no appreciable effect. (D&D reference! Yes!) There's a Thursday deadline to get a deal done--and a work stoppage is looking like a possibility.
The Sounders split two games in Spain, losing 3-0 to defending Norwegian champs Rosenborg FC on Thursday, but beating Staebek IF, another top Norwegian team, 2-0 on Sunday. Fredy Montero and Roger Levesque scored the goals, both assisted by Ljungberg.
The Mariners aren't yet playing games, or really doing much of anything, to the eternal dismay of the reporters in town to cover them. Said reporters had a difficult enough time finding material for stories in the pre-blog days; now, with both column inches and pixels to fill, they are desperate. How desperate? Tacoma News-Tribune writer Larry LaRue (the best writer among our local baseball scribes, in my view) posted a story about a new hitting drill the Mariners are doing. The Times' Geoff Baker, who has the best nose for news, could only come up with "Jack Hannahan catches bullpen session." Yeah....
In the most shocking and yet outstanding news Mariner fans have received maybe ever, star pitcher Felix Hernandez has agreed to a five-year contract. Hernandez could've left the Mariners to sign with another team after the 2011 season, and would've have been possibly the most sought after free agent in baseball history. Now the M's have locked him up through the middle of Sarah Palin's first presidential term.
Why is Hernandez so sought after? The same reason Mariner fans will have silly grins on their faces all morning. Felix Hernandez is one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he's only 23 years old--an age at which some of the all-time greats were still struggling to break into baseball.
Randy Johnson didn't have a single major league win at 23. Bob Gibson had 3. Sandy Koufax, despite having logged five major leagues seasons by age 23, had just 28 wins. Felix Hernandez already has 58.
With his high-90s fastball and knee-buckling curve, Hernandez can be nearly unhittable. And given the current state of medical science, and the fact that fireballing pitchers now seem to be able to pitch into their mid-40s, Hernandez would seem to have an outside shot at equaling Roger Clemens' modern day record of 354 wins (for pitchers in the era of five-man rotations).
The Mariners and general manager Jack Zduriencik (who I could kiss right now) have locked up at least five more seasons of this excellence. I'm shocked that they managed it....
Thought it would be fun to mark the high and low points for our local sports teams this decade. Today: The Mariners!
High point: October 6, 2001. By beating Texas 3-2 for their 116th win, the Mariners match the 1908 Cubs for the winningest season in major league history. Fans look forward to a cakewalk through the playoffs.
Low point: June 4, 2008. After the $100 million Mariners fall to 21-39, manager John McLaren unleashes this nonsensical rant. He was fired later that month, and the M's dropped 101 games.
Best player: Ichiro. Who else? The 2001 MVP, breaker of the all-time hits mark in 2004, he compiled 2030 hits in nine years. And played a little defense.
Worst player: Carlos Silva. Given a four-year, $48-million contract by Bill Bavasi, Silva compiled this line in 34 starts as a Mariner: 5-18, 6.81 ERA, 25 HRs allowed. ICK ICK ICK.
Best trade: Franklin Gutierrez for J.J. Putz. Some other prospects and bit players were involved, but these were the two big pieces in the deal. Jack Zduriencik obtained the best centerfielder I've ever seen (yes, better than Griffey and Cameron). Putz threw only 29 innings with his new team and had a 5.22 ERA.
Worst trade: Ramon Santiago for Carlos Guillen. One of Bavasi's first moves as GM foretold his future mistakes. He threw aside Guillen for a minor prospect so he could play Rich Aurilia at shortstop. Aurilia was released in July after hitting .241. Santiago had just eight hits as a Mariner. Guillen became a cornerstone of the Tigers' revival, going to three All-Star Games in six years....
Yesterday the Mariners finalized a trade that sends three lower-tier prospects to Philadelphia in exchange for 2008 Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee. Reaction is bubbly.
"THANK YOU SANTA Z!!!"--Seattle Times commenter
"This is, quite frankly, a heist. The Mariners are getting a Cy Young caliber pitcher for some decent-but-not-great prospects. They aren’t giving up Morrow. They aren’t giving up Saunders. They aren’t even giving up Triunfel. And yet, they walk away with one of the five or six best pitchers in baseball."--Dave Cameron, USS Mariner
"The virtues of acquiring a starting left-handed pitcher in his prime with the resume of Cliff Lee are apparent to any attentive Mariners fan. To summarize: JEEZUSRUKIDDINMEDRINKSALLAROUND!"--Art Thiel, Seattlepi.com (It's worth reading the rest of Thiel's thought-provoking column about the national perception of the Mariner franchise.)
"This is about as good as a right left punch can get. It gives me a boost of energy knowing that this is what the team is doing and that expectations are we will go further."--M's pitcher Ian Snell, via KIRO's Shannon Dreyer
"We've acquired a very, very nice piece to help this organization move forward. It will be exciting to watch him pitch at the top of out rotation – him and Felix Hernandez.... I don't think we're done yet."--Jack Zduriencik
"Lee succeeds in the same way that Ben Sheets used to succeed--by just throwing strikes over and over with sufficiently good stuff to maintain a solid strikeout rate. He doesn't miss a ton of bats--his contact rate is actually below-average--but he's consistently ahead in the count, which puts him at a significant advantage. In a way, he and Felix take remarkably different paths towards a similar end result, and it'll be all kinds of fun to watch them BACK TO BACK OH MY GOD."--Jeff Sullivan, Lookout Landing...
Ken Griffey, Jr., 13-time All-Star, slugger of 630 home runs, former guest star on the Harry and the Hendersons TV show, will return for his 13th season as a Mariner, the Seattle Times' Larry Stone is reporting.
Griffey's return to Seattle last season caused much rejoicing: my own reaction was to cancel evening plans and enjoy celebratory drinks with a longtime friend and Mariners rooter. The Mariners sold 23,000 tickets in two days.
The joy will be more muted this time--I'm not canceling any plans, and I doubt the Mariners will see much of a spike in ticket sales.
But I still have a smile on my face. If a different regime had brought Griffey back, I might worry that they planned to use him in a role greater than he could handle at this stage in his career.
But I trust Jack Zduriencik and Don Wakamatsu to utilize Griffey appropriately--giving him the odd start as a sometime DH, rolling the dice with him as a pinch hitter when they need a home run (à la Matt Stairs of the Phillies), and letting him play the role of leader, elder statesman, and Ichiro-tickler he filled so well last season.
The Mariners' 2010 season begins on April 5, 144 days from now, in Oakland.
Griffey's Return Would Spike Program Sales
We'll likely know this week if Ken Griffey, Jr., and the Mariners will strike a deal to bring Junior back for his 22nd MLB season, 12th as a Mariner.
Last year, Griffey demanded a multimillion-dollar salary and attendance-based performance incentives to return to Seattle. This year, as if in tune with the rest of us poor saps in this disaster of an economy, Griffey has readjusted his expectations.
In negotiations that will take place over the next few days, Griffey's agent has telegraphed his "bargaining" strategy.
"Whether Junior comes back or not, he certainly has no demands as far as dollars or playing time," Brian Goldberg told the Times' Larry Stone.
In other words, Griffey will show up at M's HQ bearing a "Will work for food" sign.
Not that he needs the money. Griffey's earned nearly $150 million in his baseball career, and that doesn't count endorsement dollars. He apparently just wants to keep playing for the love of the game.
But do the Mariners want him? For all his clubhouse leadership, and for as much as I personally loved seeing him play, Griffey was one of the worst DHs in the American League.
Far better options exist on the free agent market: Carlos Delgado, Jim Thome, Vladimir Guererro, and Hideki Matsui, all of whom far outperformed Griffey at bat last season.
Or the Mariners may choose to bring back Russell Branyan as their designated hitter and hand first base to young Mike Carp.
Griffey could serve as a pinch-hitter, but most managers like versatility and speed off their bench; Griffey doesn't have either.
Mariner watchers are weighing in on the issue:
MLB.com's Jim Street: "(Griffey) was an absolute joy to be around the entire '09 season and it rubbed off on everyone. That reason alone seems to make it worthwhile bringing him back for at least one more season."
The Times' Larry Stone: "I believe Griffey still has something to offer. He can tickle Ichiro, bring laughter to the clubhouse, hit an occasional bomb and take one more crack at October. Sounds great to me."
USS Mariner's Derek Zumsteg: "The 2010 Mariners need to improve their offense, and they need better hitting from their designated hitters. Griffey doesn’t offer that. And as much as Seattle loves him, well, we love Edgar too, but we wouldn’t bring him back to DH next year."
My take is this: Do it for Ichiro. Griffey's presence took the pressure of being the team's superstar off Ichiro's shoulders, and gave Ichiro a friend in a clubhouse that had turned against him. The hit king responded with his best season since '04.
If Griffey doesn't mind coming back as the 25th man on the roster, and getting only a few at bats a week on the rare occasions that American League teams need a pinch-hitter, the M's won't really lose anything from a strictly statistical perspective. And they certainly gain if Ichiro hits .350 again.
I'm reposting this one because it's Thursday and extremely topical. If you saw Game 1 of the World Series last night, you'll know what a freaking dilemma tonight's offerings create.--MvB
Thursday is shaping up to be one of those nights that I wish there were three of me. To wit:
At 5 p.m., Game 2 of the World Series will be extra special as the Phillies have chosen 38-year-old future Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez to start at Yankee Stadium against his longtime rivals. Martinez was 8-4 in his career at Old Yankee Stadium, including the finest game I have ever seen pitched, a 17-K performance against the Yanks in September 1999. (Wow! I'm getting old!) Game's on FOX.
At 7 p.m., the Sounders play the franchise's first MLS playoff game, against the Houston Dynamo at Qwest Field. The game is the first leg of a home-and-home series, the teams will play again on Sunday the 8th in Houston and whoever's ahead in the combined score of the two games advances. If you don't have tickets, buy some (there are scads on StubHub<...
Rodriguez was the Seattle Mariners #1 overall pick in the 1993 draft; he was at the apex of baseball prospects.
In 1994, Rodriguez made his major league debut.
In 1995, he played in his first postseason game.
In 1996, he made his first All-Star team.
But not until 2009, after a dominating post-season performance, will Alex Rodriguez get his at-bats at the pinnacle of baseball competition: the World Series.
Partially, this is A-Rod's own fault for being hilariously incompetent in postseason baseball as a Yankee.
My childhood friend David and I, confirmed A-Rod haters after he left the Mariners claiming he had a better chance to win in Texas (har!), enjoyed Rodriguez's well-documented postseason struggles. We were remembering them last night, while the Angels pitched around a suddenly clutch Rodriguez for the umpteenth time in the ALCS.
There was 2004, when A-Rod slapped the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's mitt on his way to first base, inspiring the brilliant "A-Rod purse" Photoshop.
There was the time in 2005 when...
The Mariners' accountants are staggering into work late yesterday morning after a night of wild celebration--the team announced Monday that veteran catcher Kenji Johjima, who lost his starting job this season, has decided to opt out of the next two years of his contract, which would've paid him a total of $16 million.
"He walks completely on his contract here, and we start fresh," Johjima's agent told the Times. The Mariners now owe Johjima nothing, not even COBRA coverage.
Why would Johjima do it? This was my question to childhood friend David as we watched the two amazing baseball playoff games Monday night at the Roanoke.
"Well, he's already made a ton of money," David said.
True. Johjima played 11 years in the Japanese league, and made more than $25 million in his four seasons as a Mariner. But. Still. $16 million! How can you walk away from that?
Mariner GM Jack Zduriencik repeatedly characterized Johjima's choice as a "personal decision"--as if there is any other kind. The real question is, why make it?...
We've reached the League Championship Series stage of the baseball playoffs, which will hopefully be more entertaining than the yawner that was the Divisional Series. Three of the four DSs were sweeps, the other only went four games.
The Phillies and Dodgers start their series tonight (5:07 pm, TBS) and ex-Mariner George Sherrill may end up as the key in the series.
The Phillies' three best hitters--Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and another ex-M, Raul Ibanez--all bat left-handed.
You're almost sure to see a late-inning confrontation between one of these three and the lefty Sherrill, who's holding lefty hitters to a .128 average this season.
You also might see Sherrill against the Phils' top pinch-hitter, Matt Stairs.
Other ex-Mariners still playing this postseason: Yankees SS Alex Rodriguez, Angels closer Brian Fuentes, Phillies' utility men Miguel Cairo and Greg Dobbs, and Dodgers reliever Jeff Weaver.
When I tell you that the highlight of the Seattle sports weekend was giving a standing ovation to a third-place team, you may think it wasn't much of a weekend. But it was epic, notably for our sports teams getting the worst Indiana lambasting since the Kerry campaign.
Notre Dame 37, Washington 30 (OT)
As I headed to Teddy's to watch Washington vs. Notre Dame (live from South Bend, Indiana), I wondered exactly how empty the bandwagon would be. Coming off the USC win, the bar was packed for Stanford. But after losing that game, how would it look? Let's let pictures tell the story:
Crowd at Teddy's for UW/Stanford
Crowd at Teddy's for UW/Notre Dame
So--yeah, Seattle sports fans, you are some fairweather sons of bitches. And you missed an amazing game, one that will always be remembered for the stunning inability of the Huskies to score one touchdown from twelve tries inside the one-yard-line. If you have a Husky fan at your office, I recommend putting his morning coffee three feet behind a white line and see...
The Mariners have secured the 12th winning season in franchise history thanks to three-run homers on consecutive nights by Ken Griffey Jr. Both homers were no-doubters that had Griffey adopting his familiar slow walk toward first base. Here's video of Tuesday's and video of Wednesday's.
Griffey now has 18 homers for the year--and if he's wanting to leave a positive impression in his bosses' minds when they draw up 2010 contracts, he's picked the right time to get hot.
Statswise, Griffey hasn't made the case. His .408 slugging percentage places him 11th among AL DHs (didja ever think you'd see the day that Carlos Guillen outslugged Griffey?).
Personality-wise, he has. Last year's Mariners' clubhouse was full of backbiting whiners, this year Griffey has helped turn the "office" into a joyous ticklefest.
And 100-loss Mariners of last season now have an outside chance of capturing second place in the AL West. They are three games behind Texas with four to play--three of them against the Rangers.
Our brain says...
Ichiro was ejected from Saturday's M's loss to the Blue Jays--it was the first ejection of Ichiro's career, including his time in Japan, and the first ejection for a Mariner player or coach all season. Here's how the heave-ho from umpire Brian Runge went down.
Mariners ace Felix Hernandez is running out of time to capture voters for a Cy Young Award campaign he's probably not going to win.
Hernandez, a.k.a. King Felix, has just two starts left. The first of them is tonight at Toronto.
His Highness is in a bad spot. The award--given to each league's best pitcher as voted on by baseball writers--almost always goes to the league leader in Earned Run Average or Wins. Hernandez--2nd in ERA and 3rd in wins--doesn't top either list.
Eight of the past ten AL Cy Young winners have been first in either ERA or Wins. The two who weren't are special cases. C.C. Sabathia won the award in '07 based on an incredible pennant race run, when he won five of his last six starts. Roger Clemens won in '01 by compiling a gawdy 20-3 record.
Felix Hernandez can't do either of those things. He's got three chances:
1) A miracle outing, like a perfect game, no-hitter, or 20-strikeout performance.
2) For ERA leader Zack Greinke to get bombed in his final two starts, dropping behind Hernandez...
With some baseball trades, you need to wait years to decide which team got the better of the bargain. No need with Jack Zduriencik's deadline day trade of Jarrod Washburn. If the trade were a baseball game, it would be Mariners 936, Tigers 1.
Washburn has been dismal for Detroit, and after not making it past the first inning on Tuesday, may not pitch again this season.
"I don't know why they'd want me to pitch, pitching the way I have," Washburn told FOX Sports.
Neither do we, Jarrod: In eight starts as a Tiger you've won just one game and compiled a 7.33 ERA.
Inflammation in Washburn's knee is causing him discomfort--but it's an injury the Tigers knew about when they made the trade. Evidently the pain has gotten worse, and there's nothing anyone can do.
Based on Washburn's performance, this would've been a good trade if the M's had gotten nothing in return but a Jim Leyland cigarette butt--but they received pitcher Luke French, a candidate for the '10 rotation. French made six starts with the M's, compiling...
One of the most enjoyable baseball spectating experiences of my life occurred at a rained-out minor league game in Burlington, Vermont. A summer squall had rendered the field unplayable. But as we 2,000 or so fans were covered under the grandstand, we simply stayed and enjoyed the warm, misty summer air. (It's not like there was anything else to do, this being Burlington, Vermont.)
As we waited optimistically for play to resume, the P.A. blasted that generic playlist of classic oldies and rock that pretty much any American knows by heart: "Jailhouse Rock," "Celebration," "Surfin' Safari"--you know the ilk. People started dancing and singing along. Someone busted out a beach ball, people started batting it around. All of a sudden, a giant community party had broken out--miraculously for Vermont, without a jam band in sight.
It has fixed in my mind the reason why we bother to attend spectator sports, given what a pain it is to park: It's to be with people.
The Mariners will play rain or shine since they have...
About a month ago, I went to Safeco Field with a friend to watch the Mariners play the the New York Yankees, scum that they are. We met early at the beer garden across the street from the field. We each had a beer and a hot dog and we talked about our busy weeks while casually observing the tight denim backsides of the female fans. All very ordinary, except for one thing: I was wearing a brand new, brilliant white Mariners jersey. It was the first time I'd ever put on such a flaunting, flashing display of my little place in the fandom. And it felt great.
But I find myself wondering sometimes, how did I get here? It wasn't that many years ago that I not only avoided professional sports, but downright loathed them. It's not that I hated sports. Far from it. I had the time of my life playing co-ed soccer years ago, and again recently when I played on my company softball team. We lost every game, badly. In fact, the mercy rule came into effect in a couple of innings. But we had a blast losing those games.
No, it was never about sports. It was the corporate commercialization of the game. It was the performance-enhancing drugs. It was, I felt, wasting one's time and money on spoiled, over-paid jocks who didn't really represent my city or state, but were here only because they were paid to be. Jerks!
So what happened? How did I go from Major League Hater to the guy standing at the cash register of the Mariners Team Store, happily forking over a wad of cash for a jersey I probably wouldn't even wear that often?
I'd gone to Mariners games a few times a year since 2001 because the company I worked for at the time had season tickets. It was something to do. And I started occasionally watching the Seahawks in 2003 if nothing better was on television, but it wasn't until a lazy Sunday in 2005 that some inner sports fan scratched himself and then flipped a switch in my brain. Ambling through the channels, I landed on a Seahawks game, saw that they were beating the Atlanta Falcons and decided to stick around and watch. The following week, I watched again as they beat the Arizona Cardinals. The week after that, they lost to the Washington Redskins, but by this time something was already happening. I was becoming familiar with our team. I suddenly knew the names of our players. Brown, Tatupu, Wallace, Babineaux, Trufant, and of course, Hasselbeck and Alexander. It was becoming the perfect Sunday ritual. Me, the television, some guacamole.
At some point during the season, I bought a knit hat with the Seahawks logo emblazoned across the front, you know, to keep my head warm. Then I bought another one, in a different color.
For eleven weeks straight, the Seahawks never lost a game and it was during this time that I got it. That feeling. Something like hometown pride, but also camaraderie with people I didn't even know. I spent the playoffs cheering and screaming in bars with these people.
By playoff time I'd bought a cool Seahawks t-shirt with bright, lime green piping on the sleeves. By the end of Super Bowl XL, my voice was nearly gone from screaming at the Goddamn referees. I was a fan.
When I moved to the Seattle area in 1999, Ken Griffey Jr. had just left the building so I wasn't around for the many cheers and tears that man created during his ten years as a Mariner. I was, however, always aware of his impact and it was amazing to see how excited people were when it was announced that he was coming back. A woman in my office absolutely squealed with delight the moment she got the official word.
The 2009 Mariners season hasn't exactly been great, but it has without a doubt had its great moments. A lot of this obviously has to do with Griffey's return. It's been reported all over that his return to Seattle has done something spectacular, not only for the fans, but also for the moral of his team. He's made this season so much fun to watch if only because of the chance he might do something wonderful like he did in the August 12 game against the White Sox, in which, in the 14th inning, he pinch-hit an RBI single to give the Mariners a walk-off win. A scoreless 14 innings and I was ready to give up and go to bed. But when I heard Griffey was up to bat, I stayed up to see what would happen. And when he ripped that ball down the right-field line sending Adrian Beltre home, I jumped and screamed while the dog and cat fled to another room with their ears down.
It's moments like this that make me a fan. Not to mention Ichiro's recent record-setting achievement of 200 hits in 9 consecutive seasons. The man is simply amazing.
But I still haven't answered the question. What happened? Is it because I'm turning 30 in a couple of months? A simple matter of fading idealism as I get older? I have been reading less Noam Chomsky--opting instead to watch reruns of How I Met Your Mother. Aren't Marshall and Lily so adorable?
I'm not yet a sports nerrrd. I don't memorize stats. Half the time I don't even know what the stats mean. I've joined a fantasy tournament exactly once, resulting in the most neglected fantasy team ever. But I'll be sitting in the center-field cheap seats for this week's series against the White Sox. I'll be there in my gleaming white Mariners jersey and I'll be wearing that same jersey during this weekend's series against the Goddamn Yankees--even if I'm watching at home alone. It's more fun that way.
I am a fan.
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