Saturday, April 10, 2004
TIDBIZZLITS
Just a few things here all over the map. As you can see, no full Mariner recap out of me last night because I was searching for gratification in the Canuck game, which unfortunately didn't work out.
>> Curiously, Les Carpenter ran a Canuck column in the Times today, a column that seems a tad bit dumbed down, because after all, it is the Seattle market, and KeyArena doesn't sell out every night for the Thunderbirds (though the Silvertips have a 3-2 series lead on the Vancouver Giants) every night, and other than that, I don't really have anything on which to gauge the state of hockey in the Seattle market.
So giddy was the sellout crowd at GM Place last night that the singer brought out to sing "O Canada" stopped about halfway through, raised his microphone and let 17,000 people belt out the next several stanzas. Which would have been chilling had the Flames not been up 2-0 by "home and native land."
It was still chilling. For Game 1, the radio broadcast got back from commercial in the middle of the anthem, but I could hear the crowd singing along behind the singer, who was also singing. I didn't know Mark Donnelly spurred the crowd on after the first couple lines of the anthem. That was INCREDIBLY chilling. That's the best word I could come up with the other day, and it still is now.
>> Again, no recap from me for the Friday game, but I'll refer to David Locke's bullet points (this game under "I MISS MIKE CAMERON"). It was also the 2004 maiden voyage for Baseball's Best Postgame Show on KJR, which included a couple of numbskull callers with flawed arguments who Locke blew up on (which was hilarious) and someone who was calling out Jason Puckett for saying the ball hit to Randy Winn could have been caught by a Little Leaguer, a caller whose only comeback was "you don't know what you're talking about."
Locke's most meaningful bullet point was something he harped on a few times during the program...
Is Ichiro ever going to run again? In the 8th inning Ichiro is on first with one out in a one run game and he never runs. Winn and Boone go down so it may not have mattered, but if he doesn’t run then when is he going to go. In the 7th inning with 1 out he was at first base down 4 to 3. This team is not playing for a two run home run. 3-1 pitch to Winn and Ichiro didn’t go. Winn walks so it doesn’t matter but it is discouraging that Ichiro didn’t go.
Locke talked about Ichiro having the perpetual green light from Melvin. Ichiro isn't going. Locke suggested that if Melvin wants to show some balls, he can stand up and send Ichiro one of these days. Of course, this would probably strike up a great rapport between Melvin and Ichiro, one that would fly in the face of the overrated clubhouse chemistry. Steve marvelously published his winning-leads-to-chemistry post the other day. The Mariners can have an A in chemistry for 2004, sure. But they can also finish 75-87 with said chemistry.
>> When I saw that Mark Redman was pulled in the game last night, I was slightly disappointed. I didn't want Ricardo Rincon to come in -- I wanted Method Man. It would look great in the game logs: "Method Man relieves Redman."
>> Caller Dre on KJR's John Clayton Saturday morning show just mentioned the names of Chuck "Wagon" Armstrong and Howard "Abe" Lincoln
>> Apparently Dave Grosby of KJR said yesterday that no team that has started out 0-4 has won the World Series. There was no confirmation on whether this was mentioned during the "Is Groz Full of Crap or What?" segment.
>> They just brought up a great point. The Seahawks made the playoffs and then went out and signed Grant Wistrom and Bobby Taylor. The only criticism is that maybe they overpaid for one or both. Both players are good and make the Seahawks a lot better. The Mariners miss the playoffs and then overpay for Raul Ibanez, whose bat is marginally better than Cameron's (damn right I said it), and is basically a wash in terms of lost defense (even more so since Winn gets moved to CF). Seahawks overpay for good players, Mariners overpay for crap. Just for kicks, this is where I will place the fact that the Sonics have absolutely no plan for their future as a team.
>> As of right now, here's your American League standings...
Detroit 4-0
Anaheim, Oakland 3-1
Tampa Bay 3-2
New York 3-3
Chicago, Kansas City, Minnesota, Texas 2-2
Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland 2-3
Toronto 1-3
Seattle 0-4
I know it has to get better from here for the Mariners and it is just four games. But I have this weird lingering thought that even with all the talent on this team (most of the team, anyway), that the Mariners might have come full circle. Full circle as in 1992, when apparently someone in the organization thought making third-base coach Bill Plummer the manager was a great idea, a year after the Mariners finished over .500 for the first time.
>> Jeremy said to me last night that he thought Rafael Soriano isn't completely healthy. I don't think anyone can argue that Soriano missed out on some valuable reps in spring training, and now he has to use the regular season to get back into the groove. There may be an adjustment period for Soriano, and who knows how long it's going to last, and who knows how much of a cliffhanger it's going to be? It's bad enough to have it with Soriano, but when Eddie Guardado gets back off the shelf, he's going to have to go through an adjustment period himself because he missed time in spring training due to the knee and came out of the Litterbox came with the freak shoulder injury. I thought freak injuries were Rich Aurilia's game; he should sue Guardado for copyright or something.
>> Speaking of Rich Aurilia, I think he's the best hitter on the team right, hands down. Though he's been spotty on defense, but he's hit three doubles and has drive in 7 runs. Simple math says that 162/4 = 40.5. So, if we take these numbers and multiply them by 40.5, Rich Aurilia is on pace to hit 121.5 doubles and drive in 283.5 runs. Of course, he's also on pace to hit zero home runs.
>>The Mariners blew it in more ways than one yesterday. Yeah, Randy Winn blew the pop fly and cost them the game. But doubly bad is the fact that yesterday was the Mariners' best chance to win a game in the series. The Mariners have fit the role of Tim Hudson's bitch quite nicely in the past, and then have to face Mark Mulder on Sunday. Good luck with that, guys.
>> A high school friend of mine lives in San Diego right now and I asked him the other day if there's been any nicknames bandied about for Petco Park other than the Litterbox. He was about to reply to me, and prefaced that I wasn't going to believe how stupid the nickname was. Apparently, the local radio jocks and personalities of public prominence have taken to calling Petco Park "The Pet." HOW PATHETIC IS THAT!?!?!!!?!?!!! That's absolutely idiotic. I know The Safe is pretty simplistic, but at least you have an unbreakable/uncrackable image of a giant metal box with a handle and a big-ass combination wheel on it. A safe is sturdy and is dependable. A pet? It craps everywhere and is high-maintenance. If I had the money, I'd go to SD right now and mount my "Call it 'The Kennel,' Dammit!" campaign. Though The Kennel has been used in other places, it would fit really well in this case. A kennel would usually have some sort of animal inside, keeping it restrained. When the kennel is opened, the animal inside probably goes nuts upon exit. When Padres fans go inside The Kennel, they should be hyped up to the point where they know the team is nuts like a bunch of rabid-acting cooped-up dogs.
>> Lastly, Jeremy sent me a link that now updates the South Park anime post. The difference? Sound clip.
Mariners. A's. Three hours. If everything falls into place, I should have a recap up tonight.
[Edit ~10:23a -- Added Kennel part and fixed spelling mistakes.]
>> Curiously, Les Carpenter ran a Canuck column in the Times today, a column that seems a tad bit dumbed down, because after all, it is the Seattle market, and KeyArena doesn't sell out every night for the Thunderbirds (though the Silvertips have a 3-2 series lead on the Vancouver Giants) every night, and other than that, I don't really have anything on which to gauge the state of hockey in the Seattle market.
So giddy was the sellout crowd at GM Place last night that the singer brought out to sing "O Canada" stopped about halfway through, raised his microphone and let 17,000 people belt out the next several stanzas. Which would have been chilling had the Flames not been up 2-0 by "home and native land."
It was still chilling. For Game 1, the radio broadcast got back from commercial in the middle of the anthem, but I could hear the crowd singing along behind the singer, who was also singing. I didn't know Mark Donnelly spurred the crowd on after the first couple lines of the anthem. That was INCREDIBLY chilling. That's the best word I could come up with the other day, and it still is now.
>> Again, no recap from me for the Friday game, but I'll refer to David Locke's bullet points (this game under "I MISS MIKE CAMERON"). It was also the 2004 maiden voyage for Baseball's Best Postgame Show on KJR, which included a couple of numbskull callers with flawed arguments who Locke blew up on (which was hilarious) and someone who was calling out Jason Puckett for saying the ball hit to Randy Winn could have been caught by a Little Leaguer, a caller whose only comeback was "you don't know what you're talking about."
Locke's most meaningful bullet point was something he harped on a few times during the program...
Is Ichiro ever going to run again? In the 8th inning Ichiro is on first with one out in a one run game and he never runs. Winn and Boone go down so it may not have mattered, but if he doesn’t run then when is he going to go. In the 7th inning with 1 out he was at first base down 4 to 3. This team is not playing for a two run home run. 3-1 pitch to Winn and Ichiro didn’t go. Winn walks so it doesn’t matter but it is discouraging that Ichiro didn’t go.
Locke talked about Ichiro having the perpetual green light from Melvin. Ichiro isn't going. Locke suggested that if Melvin wants to show some balls, he can stand up and send Ichiro one of these days. Of course, this would probably strike up a great rapport between Melvin and Ichiro, one that would fly in the face of the overrated clubhouse chemistry. Steve marvelously published his winning-leads-to-chemistry post the other day. The Mariners can have an A in chemistry for 2004, sure. But they can also finish 75-87 with said chemistry.
>> When I saw that Mark Redman was pulled in the game last night, I was slightly disappointed. I didn't want Ricardo Rincon to come in -- I wanted Method Man. It would look great in the game logs: "Method Man relieves Redman."
>> Caller Dre on KJR's John Clayton Saturday morning show just mentioned the names of Chuck "Wagon" Armstrong and Howard "Abe" Lincoln
>> Apparently Dave Grosby of KJR said yesterday that no team that has started out 0-4 has won the World Series. There was no confirmation on whether this was mentioned during the "Is Groz Full of Crap or What?" segment.
>> They just brought up a great point. The Seahawks made the playoffs and then went out and signed Grant Wistrom and Bobby Taylor. The only criticism is that maybe they overpaid for one or both. Both players are good and make the Seahawks a lot better. The Mariners miss the playoffs and then overpay for Raul Ibanez, whose bat is marginally better than Cameron's (damn right I said it), and is basically a wash in terms of lost defense (even more so since Winn gets moved to CF). Seahawks overpay for good players, Mariners overpay for crap. Just for kicks, this is where I will place the fact that the Sonics have absolutely no plan for their future as a team.
>> As of right now, here's your American League standings...
Detroit 4-0
Anaheim, Oakland 3-1
Tampa Bay 3-2
New York 3-3
Chicago, Kansas City, Minnesota, Texas 2-2
Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland 2-3
Toronto 1-3
Seattle 0-4
I know it has to get better from here for the Mariners and it is just four games. But I have this weird lingering thought that even with all the talent on this team (most of the team, anyway), that the Mariners might have come full circle. Full circle as in 1992, when apparently someone in the organization thought making third-base coach Bill Plummer the manager was a great idea, a year after the Mariners finished over .500 for the first time.
>> Jeremy said to me last night that he thought Rafael Soriano isn't completely healthy. I don't think anyone can argue that Soriano missed out on some valuable reps in spring training, and now he has to use the regular season to get back into the groove. There may be an adjustment period for Soriano, and who knows how long it's going to last, and who knows how much of a cliffhanger it's going to be? It's bad enough to have it with Soriano, but when Eddie Guardado gets back off the shelf, he's going to have to go through an adjustment period himself because he missed time in spring training due to the knee and came out of the Litterbox came with the freak shoulder injury. I thought freak injuries were Rich Aurilia's game; he should sue Guardado for copyright or something.
>> Speaking of Rich Aurilia, I think he's the best hitter on the team right, hands down. Though he's been spotty on defense, but he's hit three doubles and has drive in 7 runs. Simple math says that 162/4 = 40.5. So, if we take these numbers and multiply them by 40.5, Rich Aurilia is on pace to hit 121.5 doubles and drive in 283.5 runs. Of course, he's also on pace to hit zero home runs.
>>The Mariners blew it in more ways than one yesterday. Yeah, Randy Winn blew the pop fly and cost them the game. But doubly bad is the fact that yesterday was the Mariners' best chance to win a game in the series. The Mariners have fit the role of Tim Hudson's bitch quite nicely in the past, and then have to face Mark Mulder on Sunday. Good luck with that, guys.
>> A high school friend of mine lives in San Diego right now and I asked him the other day if there's been any nicknames bandied about for Petco Park other than the Litterbox. He was about to reply to me, and prefaced that I wasn't going to believe how stupid the nickname was. Apparently, the local radio jocks and personalities of public prominence have taken to calling Petco Park "The Pet." HOW PATHETIC IS THAT!?!?!!!?!?!!! That's absolutely idiotic. I know The Safe is pretty simplistic, but at least you have an unbreakable/uncrackable image of a giant metal box with a handle and a big-ass combination wheel on it. A safe is sturdy and is dependable. A pet? It craps everywhere and is high-maintenance. If I had the money, I'd go to SD right now and mount my "Call it 'The Kennel,' Dammit!" campaign. Though The Kennel has been used in other places, it would fit really well in this case. A kennel would usually have some sort of animal inside, keeping it restrained. When the kennel is opened, the animal inside probably goes nuts upon exit. When Padres fans go inside The Kennel, they should be hyped up to the point where they know the team is nuts like a bunch of rabid-acting cooped-up dogs.
>> Lastly, Jeremy sent me a link that now updates the South Park anime post. The difference? Sound clip.
Mariners. A's. Three hours. If everything falls into place, I should have a recap up tonight.
[Edit ~10:23a -- Added Kennel part and fixed spelling mistakes.]
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