Wednesday, February 02, 2005
SCHED MARKS
I haven't aired out about the Mariners' 2005 schedule yet, but I guess now is as good a time as any...
-- Who decided to spread apart the intra-division games? Opening against a non-AL West team I can understand, then maybe we could see the 17-game stretch of AL West games after that. Great. Three day games in the middle of the second week of April at Kansas City? Not so great. None of the three are televised either.
-- I liked having that feeling after the 17 AL West games that you've definitely been through a tough stretch and you were ready and aching to face some other teams. You knew how you matched up against your division, and if you did crappy, you couldn't wait to get back at the other three teams.
-- Yes, the Angels are listed on the schedule as "LAA." Nothing to say about this.
-- Anyone at FanFest was bombarded with the promotion, and if you're going to be watching any Mariner games over the course of the first month or two, I'm going to warn you about something. Get ready for the onslaught of ads for the three Mariners Memorables Collectible Statue nights. They're all Tuesday nights, which makes it great for Bremerton folks that work (not me, I'm just looking out for the others), but that's beside the point. The three statues commemorate The Double (3 May), Jay Buhner's ALCS homer at Cleveland (31 May), and Junior's walk-off shot while wearing a teal top down the stretch in 1995 (21 Jun). Seriously, I was sick of the ads just at FanFest, so I can imagine how it's gonna burn my hide when the season gets here.
-- The games at Toronto this year start not at 5 or 35 after the hour, but at 7 and 37 minutes after the hour. The games aren't at SkyDome anymore either, though that's what I'll still call it. The corporate name? The Rogers Centre. So I guess I have the choice of calling it SkyDome or the Raj. The place will have FieldTurf installed and mini-JumboTrons built into the fences in the LCF/RCF gaps. Yikes.
-- Ten games against the Yankees this season. One of the games is on a Thursday. The other nine are on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (three each). Hope none of you had plans to get a weekend together with some friends this year and watch the Mariners face the Yankees.
-- Okay, we've had interleague play for this many years, and Ken Griffey Jr. has been gone for quite a while. What the hell are we going to have to do to get the Reds to come to Seattle? Can we at least get this as an exhibition game two days before the season starts? It'd be a sure sellout.
-- Intra-division spread redux: Who likes the idea of road games in Toronto and Detroit the second-to-last week of the season? What was wrong with intra-division play before? Nothing was wrong with the way the AL West did it. Nothing. Four teams, no outside teams for the better part of a month. Good times.
-- I hope 1995 Retro Cap Night goes over a lot better than Turn Ahead the Clock Night. May I never see the Mariners wearing any significant red on any uniform again.
Okay, I guess that's all I have for now. I know I'll probably think of something the next time I take a gander at the schedule myself, but until then, I'm going with what I got.
Seriously, though. Four games in Toronto from Monday the 19th of September to the 22nd (Thursday). I hate everything about this. Especially the fact that the Detroit series after that isn't going to be three easy wins either.
-- Who decided to spread apart the intra-division games? Opening against a non-AL West team I can understand, then maybe we could see the 17-game stretch of AL West games after that. Great. Three day games in the middle of the second week of April at Kansas City? Not so great. None of the three are televised either.
-- I liked having that feeling after the 17 AL West games that you've definitely been through a tough stretch and you were ready and aching to face some other teams. You knew how you matched up against your division, and if you did crappy, you couldn't wait to get back at the other three teams.
-- Yes, the Angels are listed on the schedule as "LAA." Nothing to say about this.
-- Anyone at FanFest was bombarded with the promotion, and if you're going to be watching any Mariner games over the course of the first month or two, I'm going to warn you about something. Get ready for the onslaught of ads for the three Mariners Memorables Collectible Statue nights. They're all Tuesday nights, which makes it great for Bremerton folks that work (not me, I'm just looking out for the others), but that's beside the point. The three statues commemorate The Double (3 May), Jay Buhner's ALCS homer at Cleveland (31 May), and Junior's walk-off shot while wearing a teal top down the stretch in 1995 (21 Jun). Seriously, I was sick of the ads just at FanFest, so I can imagine how it's gonna burn my hide when the season gets here.
-- The games at Toronto this year start not at 5 or 35 after the hour, but at 7 and 37 minutes after the hour. The games aren't at SkyDome anymore either, though that's what I'll still call it. The corporate name? The Rogers Centre. So I guess I have the choice of calling it SkyDome or the Raj. The place will have FieldTurf installed and mini-JumboTrons built into the fences in the LCF/RCF gaps. Yikes.
-- Ten games against the Yankees this season. One of the games is on a Thursday. The other nine are on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (three each). Hope none of you had plans to get a weekend together with some friends this year and watch the Mariners face the Yankees.
-- Okay, we've had interleague play for this many years, and Ken Griffey Jr. has been gone for quite a while. What the hell are we going to have to do to get the Reds to come to Seattle? Can we at least get this as an exhibition game two days before the season starts? It'd be a sure sellout.
-- Intra-division spread redux: Who likes the idea of road games in Toronto and Detroit the second-to-last week of the season? What was wrong with intra-division play before? Nothing was wrong with the way the AL West did it. Nothing. Four teams, no outside teams for the better part of a month. Good times.
-- I hope 1995 Retro Cap Night goes over a lot better than Turn Ahead the Clock Night. May I never see the Mariners wearing any significant red on any uniform again.
Okay, I guess that's all I have for now. I know I'll probably think of something the next time I take a gander at the schedule myself, but until then, I'm going with what I got.
Seriously, though. Four games in Toronto from Monday the 19th of September to the 22nd (Thursday). I hate everything about this. Especially the fact that the Detroit series after that isn't going to be three easy wins either.
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