Friday, August 29, 2003
AACK!
The Mariners are down 1-0, and for the first time in three months are wearing those horrible pseudo-Diamondback black jersey tops that faded in the first place due to bad luck, but now it doesn't matter.
Pedro Martinez has an alias tonight of Eric DuBose, who has allowed ONE DAMN HIT through seven innings of work against the Mariners.
I was going to do some research about how bad the Mariners are when they don't score first, but Niehaus and Co. did that for me. The Mariners have a 17-41 record (.293 winning pct) when not scoring first. That's right, kids, when you see the other team scoring first, that means the Mariners lose more than 70% of the time. Does anyone out there still have confidence in the Mariners coming from behind to win? I sure don't. I hardly did in the first place, but other than that freak 2001 season, I never had the belief in the Mariners as a come-from-behind team. There were countless times in 2000 when the Mariners would be down 7-2 or something like that and then rally back to 7-6 and lose. Sure, the rally is nice, but it's an L.
Make that 2-0, another dong, this time to Batista. But Franklin's done his job so far. He's into the 6th, and given up two home runs, but they're solo shots. The Mariners offense is crap. Plain and simple. And Bloomquist in the lineup sure doesn't help.
There's a belief among some that the Mariners will draw well next year regardless of whether they make the playoffs. To that, let me say this. I'm flipping back and forth between the Mariners and a Seahawks preseason game tonight. If people that usually go through the Safe gates find something else more interesting to do, say a good Husky team, a great Seahawk team, or a fun-to-watch Sonic team, the fans are going to go to that instead, rather than seeing a Mariner team who they know has a tendency to cough it up in the second half. Take this, for example. I'm going to give you the attendance figures from April, the first 16 home games. Tue 8th-Thu 10th (Anaheim): 45931 (opener), 35492, 32746; Fri 11th-Sun 13th (Texas): 37784, 36591, 35496; Mon 14th-Thu 17th (Oakland): 26567 (OUCH), 26666, 29674, 33412 (day); Tue 22nd-Thu 24th (Cleveland): 25231, 26036, 26263; Fri 25th-Sun 27th (Detroit): 34458, 36258, 39678. Safeco Field capacity is just over 47000. The draw against Cleveland is a little more excusable, but the draw against DIVISION RIVAL OAKLAND is putrid, I don't care if it's a mid-week series, they drew like crap. And take a look at this article in the Puget Sound Biz Journal. Sure, there's some other factors that go into the attendance drop, i.e., high unemployment rates in Oregon and Washington, and the slowing tide from the freak 2001 season, but it's a safe bet that a good portion of those fans had in the back of their minds that this team failed to get into the playoffs last year. Proof in numbers: season ticket count: 23608 (2002), 20236 (2003). The Mariner brass (I know, the players need to also) needs to realize that they have to raise the bar and expect more out of what they can do to this ballclub. If the brass just wants to keep treading water and wants to be good but not good enough, they're gonna get less season tickets and less walkup crowd and less everything, especially if something like a good Seahawk team or a good Sonic team or a good Husky team comes along. There really is a lot to do on the east side of the Sound, and if the Mariners don't watch out, it'll blow up in their face like it has in Atlanta, though even they won the World Series to half-validate what they did. Sure, Atlanta is considered by some to be the most dominant team of the '90s with all those NL East (and West) division titles, but I keep pointing to the World Series rings. They won once, but the fans have gotten sick of seeing that team be good, but not good enough, and people stay away from Turner Field in droves. They can't sell out frigging PLAYOFF GAMES in Atlanta. It's pathetic. And it's something that your Seattle Mariners could turn into in four or five years. And the Mariners have only had three division titles, compared to the buttload that Atlanta has. Go figure.
Franklin has left down 2-0 in the 8th. Well, the Mariner starting pitchers in the homestand have gotten at least into the 7th every time, and they have one damn win to show for it thus far. So now the starting pitching comes around and the bats don't show up. Ugh. THIS TEAM SUCKS!!!!!
AND TO TOP IT OFF, the Red Sox have already won tonight, so the Mariners will be 1.5 games back in the Wild Card, and Oakland is up 5-2 on the Rays, so the Mariners will be THREE (oh, it's the magic number, yes it is) games back of the A's.
So with the Mariners this bad, the Husky football overload on KJR today was made almost (but not quite) bearable. It was better to hear KJR Husky-slanted broadcasting from the Frog Bear & Wild Boar in Columbus rather than hear abhorrent Mariner talk which I've long since stopped caring about.
From Beano Cook, top three things that should be done in life: 1) witness an Army-Navy game, 2) watch the dotting of the I in Columbus, and 3) become a parent or grandparent. Further down the list was watching the Trojan ride around the Coliseum, but not get off the horse unless it's the UCLA game.
That last paragraph got me thinking about brighter things. Non-Mariner related, and therefore brighter, things.
Pedro Martinez has an alias tonight of Eric DuBose, who has allowed ONE DAMN HIT through seven innings of work against the Mariners.
I was going to do some research about how bad the Mariners are when they don't score first, but Niehaus and Co. did that for me. The Mariners have a 17-41 record (.293 winning pct) when not scoring first. That's right, kids, when you see the other team scoring first, that means the Mariners lose more than 70% of the time. Does anyone out there still have confidence in the Mariners coming from behind to win? I sure don't. I hardly did in the first place, but other than that freak 2001 season, I never had the belief in the Mariners as a come-from-behind team. There were countless times in 2000 when the Mariners would be down 7-2 or something like that and then rally back to 7-6 and lose. Sure, the rally is nice, but it's an L.
Make that 2-0, another dong, this time to Batista. But Franklin's done his job so far. He's into the 6th, and given up two home runs, but they're solo shots. The Mariners offense is crap. Plain and simple. And Bloomquist in the lineup sure doesn't help.
There's a belief among some that the Mariners will draw well next year regardless of whether they make the playoffs. To that, let me say this. I'm flipping back and forth between the Mariners and a Seahawks preseason game tonight. If people that usually go through the Safe gates find something else more interesting to do, say a good Husky team, a great Seahawk team, or a fun-to-watch Sonic team, the fans are going to go to that instead, rather than seeing a Mariner team who they know has a tendency to cough it up in the second half. Take this, for example. I'm going to give you the attendance figures from April, the first 16 home games. Tue 8th-Thu 10th (Anaheim): 45931 (opener), 35492, 32746; Fri 11th-Sun 13th (Texas): 37784, 36591, 35496; Mon 14th-Thu 17th (Oakland): 26567 (OUCH), 26666, 29674, 33412 (day); Tue 22nd-Thu 24th (Cleveland): 25231, 26036, 26263; Fri 25th-Sun 27th (Detroit): 34458, 36258, 39678. Safeco Field capacity is just over 47000. The draw against Cleveland is a little more excusable, but the draw against DIVISION RIVAL OAKLAND is putrid, I don't care if it's a mid-week series, they drew like crap. And take a look at this article in the Puget Sound Biz Journal. Sure, there's some other factors that go into the attendance drop, i.e., high unemployment rates in Oregon and Washington, and the slowing tide from the freak 2001 season, but it's a safe bet that a good portion of those fans had in the back of their minds that this team failed to get into the playoffs last year. Proof in numbers: season ticket count: 23608 (2002), 20236 (2003). The Mariner brass (I know, the players need to also) needs to realize that they have to raise the bar and expect more out of what they can do to this ballclub. If the brass just wants to keep treading water and wants to be good but not good enough, they're gonna get less season tickets and less walkup crowd and less everything, especially if something like a good Seahawk team or a good Sonic team or a good Husky team comes along. There really is a lot to do on the east side of the Sound, and if the Mariners don't watch out, it'll blow up in their face like it has in Atlanta, though even they won the World Series to half-validate what they did. Sure, Atlanta is considered by some to be the most dominant team of the '90s with all those NL East (and West) division titles, but I keep pointing to the World Series rings. They won once, but the fans have gotten sick of seeing that team be good, but not good enough, and people stay away from Turner Field in droves. They can't sell out frigging PLAYOFF GAMES in Atlanta. It's pathetic. And it's something that your Seattle Mariners could turn into in four or five years. And the Mariners have only had three division titles, compared to the buttload that Atlanta has. Go figure.
Franklin has left down 2-0 in the 8th. Well, the Mariner starting pitchers in the homestand have gotten at least into the 7th every time, and they have one damn win to show for it thus far. So now the starting pitching comes around and the bats don't show up. Ugh. THIS TEAM SUCKS!!!!!
AND TO TOP IT OFF, the Red Sox have already won tonight, so the Mariners will be 1.5 games back in the Wild Card, and Oakland is up 5-2 on the Rays, so the Mariners will be THREE (oh, it's the magic number, yes it is) games back of the A's.
So with the Mariners this bad, the Husky football overload on KJR today was made almost (but not quite) bearable. It was better to hear KJR Husky-slanted broadcasting from the Frog Bear & Wild Boar in Columbus rather than hear abhorrent Mariner talk which I've long since stopped caring about.
From Beano Cook, top three things that should be done in life: 1) witness an Army-Navy game, 2) watch the dotting of the I in Columbus, and 3) become a parent or grandparent. Further down the list was watching the Trojan ride around the Coliseum, but not get off the horse unless it's the UCLA game.
That last paragraph got me thinking about brighter things. Non-Mariner related, and therefore brighter, things.
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