Ah, yes, here we are again.  The time of year when three or more sports overlap and it seems that all of the games that I am interested in are on the tube at the same time.  The TiVO can record one and I can watch another, but the problem is that today there are five on at the same time, and we only have two TV's in the apartment and I'm not swift enough to run from room to room to keep up on all of them at the same time.

There is the replay of last night's WNBA playoff game between the Storm and the Phoenix Mercury that I didn't get to see when it was on live. I already knew the outcome, but just hadn't seen the game, so it is kind of down around number five on my priority list for channel hopping.

But the Mariners/Rangers game started at 5:30 our time,, followed at 6:00 by both the Seahawks/Vikings game and the Angels/Jays game, and the Yankees/Tigers game was in the mix in that time frame as well.

The problem with all of this is that just when it is time to change channels for the next 10 minute stretch of catching up, something important and/or exciting happens in the game of the moment.  But, if I don't change the channel, I miss something equally important and/or exciting in the next game on the surfing schedule.  And, to make things worse, college football is about to toss itself into the mix any day now.  What's a body to do?  I can't, unfortunately, clone myself.  My daughter likes baseball and football, but not enough to watch the games and report on them for me (now, if hockey were on right now, I wouldn't have any problems, because she loves to watch hockey--just against the possibility that some colossal fight will occur sometime during the game (I think she is a closet Canadian)).

So, on I continue to go with my schizophrenic television watching schedule, never really knowing everything that happens in any particular game of a Saturday or Sunday.  If this were the last three years, I would say that it would be over in about another three weeks, and all I would have to worry about would be college football mostly on Saturdays, and pro football mostly on Sundays.  But this year, it is beginning to look like there might just be Mariners baseball into at least the first week or two of October, if not farther (please Lord????????), so I might just have to figure out some other means of keeping current with all of the important games.

Meanwhile, in other more amusing news, I could not help but ROTF and LMAO when I read this and this .  It looks like Clay "not quite a truth teller" Bennett and his cronies might finally be looking down the barrel of what they have coming to them,. After all, it's not like those of us who really pay attention didn't know that he never really meant to keep the Sonics in Seattle from the get-go, but now Commissioner Stern has spoken with the $250K fine for Aubrey McClendon and could very well put the proverbial bug into the board of governors of the NBA that Oklahoma City will just have to wait a while longer for an NBA team, and it could very well not be the Sonics that they end up with.

Oh well, my friends, the Hawks just scored another TD and it is time to check in on the M's,  who were down two runs the last time I peeked in on them in the seventh inning, then on to the Angels and Jays who were tied 2-2 the last time I looked in about the fifth inning.  Here's to productive sports viewing for you all this fine Saturday evening.

If you had told me back in the second week of April that this team was going to be three games back of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Azusa, Cucamonga and all points east in the AL West, or one game back of Cleveland and Detroit for the AL Wild Card spot (with a cumulative record of 35-26 and a winning percentage of .574), I'd have told you that you were slightly crazy, or worse.

They haven't been 9 games over .500 almost since Hector was a pup, and they are currently the only team with a 9-1 split in their last ten games.  Ichiro had a league leading 24 game hitting streak and, when it was broken, Yuni Betancourt took over and made it to 20 games before his streak, too, was broken.

Locally it has been suggested that JJ Putz should be given one of two very descriptive nicknames:  either simply "Over" or "The Undertaker" because, when you see him coming into the game you know that it is over and the burying is about to begin.  He was suffering from flu like symptoms last night, but still came in at the bottom of the 13th inning to get his 19th consecutive save.  And the rest of the bullpen is pretty much the same (I wish I could say the same about the starting rotation, but, thank the Lord, they have had the bullpen to save them here lately).

As they should, they have been beating up on the "bottom feeders," but they've also beaten Cleveland and San Diego in the past seven days--teams that have legitimate post-season hopes this year.  What looked like sheer misery on all of the players' faces the first few weeks into the season has been transformed into confidence and looking like they are finally having fun playing the game, after three abysmal seasons preceding this one.

Ichiro even laughed out loud last night when Jose Vidro did a little hop and clap on home plate when Michael Barrett dropped the ball that should have put him out, rather than putting the M's ahead for good in the top of the 13th.

I still have my moments of wanting to turn off the TV and just let the TiVO record the game for later consumption when things are getting a little ugly, but it seems that I just have to come back and peek, only to find that "late inning lightning" has struck again and they are winning once more.

I'm not silly enough to say out loud, in public, that I think they are going to make it deep into the post-season this year, but I certainly have hope that the rebuilding process is finally working, and they will be there sooner than later. (Of course, if any of y'all's teams have a quality starting pitcher that they would like to trade for the stretch, tell 'em to get into contact with the M's, looks like they might be buyers this year after all, rather than fire sale artists).

This post has received the National Sarcasm Society seal of approval.  No baseball players were injured (or kidnapped/replaced with a doppelganger) in this episode.

Whispers have been overheard in the visitors' dugout at Angels' Stadium in Anaheim the past couple of days that are very intriguing to this writer (the names of the whisperers shall be kept to myself and the "fly on the wall" that heard them, in order to protect the potentially guilty.......well, maybe).

"Look," said whisperer number one to the player sitting to his right, "we're  in Anaheim, and he's here with us (referring to a certain pitcher currently on the disabled list).  I think we should give it a try--we'd probably get away with it..."

"I dunno," replied his audience, "He's a pretty big guy, and he might put up a fight."

"Yeah," chimed in the player to his left, "He's bigger than me, and I know for a fact that he's got a pretty bad temper when he's upset about something.  Besides, how are we going to pull the switch without them (tips head toward Angels' dugout) figuring it out in a great big hurry?"

"We hire the sneakiest person that I know to pull the job.  His name is Shooter B, and he is wanting to try out for the fifth slot in the rotation. I say we tell him that he can have the try out if he pulls this off with no one being the wiser.  Then we make sure that he does it during the dark of night, though it will have to be Tuesday night, because the other one is scheduled to pitch for them on Wednesday night against King Felix.

"He can sneak into his room at home, and have an accomplice sneak into the other's one room at his house.  They can put great big burlap bags over their head and tie their arms down to their waists so they can't get the bags off.  Then we'll have that really good hypnotist we saw not too long ago convince the younger one that he is the older one, and vice versa.  Then, the last thing we do, after they're hypnotized is to transplant them to the other one's house."

"Then, when it's time to come to the ballpark for Wednesday's game, they will naturally go to the opposite team's clubhouse and get ready for the game.  We make sure that the post-hypnotic suggestion is refreshed every day and, voila!,  instead of an 0-6 pitcher with a double digit ERA, we have one that is 4-3 and with a sub-4.00 ERA.  The Angels start losing and we start winning.  It's a win-win situation."

"OK," replied the two compatriots, "give that Shooter guy a call, it's sure worth a try........."

Now, my friends, if Shooter is successful, which of these two will you see on the mound in an Angels' uni on Wednesday night?

This one?

Or THIS one?

I know which one I wish it would be, but only Shooter will know for sure.

Joel Pineiro was demoted to the bullpen yesterday---about five or six weeks too late, if you ask me. Who's going to take his next start (never mind the ones after that)? A left handed middle reliever by the name of Jake Woods. Who is he starting against? His former team, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Azusa, Cucamonga and All Points East; for whom he pitched a grand total of 27 innings last year and not as a starter (OK, so he has pitched 57 innings this year, again not as a starter).

Will Gil Meche be the next one to receive this treatment? He has been woefully inconsistent this year (and last year, and part of the year before that). If so, who will take HIS place? Jamie Moyer needs to retire and Jarod Washburn needs some run support. Other than that, our pitching rotation is just fine thank you very much(sarcasm alert), If it sounds like four out of the five designated starters are in trouble, you are getting the picture quite clearly.

Then there is the offense (and offensive it is, too).  Ichiro is in an awful slump (well, for him, that is), and everyone else is not far behind. In the past ten days or so, it has gotten even worse. There has been enough swinging and missing at pitches to provide air conditioning for the fans who are present to watch the games.  As for the season series with the Oakland Athletics.......no, wait, we are not going to go there, we just aren't.

After two horrendous seasons (2004, 2005), this one has been better, but only marginally.  This is not, however, to say that there are not rays of hope on the horizon. Yuniesky Betancourt and Jose Lopez look to be turning themselves into a middle infield with quite a bit of promise. Felix Hernandez (always assuming that they don't allow his arm to fall off from overwork--and that may be a BIG assumption given the Mariners' history with young pitchers) is the ace of the future.  The aforementioned Messrs. Meche and Pineiro  are both in their walk years, and it is reasonably doubtful that either one or both of them will be back. Mark Lowe has been nothing short of phenomenal since his call up from AA San Antonio, but he has already had elbow pain and been unavailable for a short period in the past few weeks.

What will it take to completely turn the team around?  (I will avoid the obvious--get rid of most everybody who is here currently and start over, primarily because that could turn out with even more disastrous results).  Ownership's publicly stated goal (like that of the vast majority of sports franchises nowadays) is the bottom line. They have promised, repeatedly I might add, to field a "competitive" team. They never promised us a winning team, though even I am intelligent enough to know that winning teams bring in more revenue than losing ones, but that is another issue entirely (and one I addressed in my early days here....see "What Howard Lincoln Could Learn From George Steinbrenner" ).

If they want the fans to start coming back to Safeco Field (and we/they have been staying away in droves this year (either that or they have been cleverly disguised as empty seats)) rather than staying home to support the team by watching on television, where it doesn't cost upwards of $200 per game to watch them lose, there needs to be a change of attitude in the upper management arena.  Promise us a winning team, and mean it, and then PROVE that you mean it. 

Non-tender or don't resign free agents to be that haven't been productive this year (and before, as indicated).  Don't start a Florida Marlins type fire-sale in the offseason and cut payroll to Devil Rays levels. Convince Jamie Moyer that he either retires to run his foundation and/or becomes a pitching coach somewhere in the organization, but don't sign him to another one year contract. He just isn't the pitcher that he used to be, and it is hurting the team (and him). Protect the arms of the young pitchers. And get a good sports psychologist in to help out those who are left and yet to come, ,a la what the Seahawks did last year in their Super Bowl season.

Oh, yes, probably most importantly.....send Howard and Chuck packing and replace them with some real baseball men, and maybe we need a new GM, too (I am reserving judgement on that one, because no one knows for sure what Bill Bavasi could really do if he had free reign to make deals rather than having to live up to the higher ups expectations of a bolstered bottom line before baseball needs).

Does this mean that I am jumping off the Mariners bandwagon? No, not at all. I will continue to watch or listen to every game. I will just be doing it from home for the time being, because I have a lot of better uses for my ticket money while they are in this losing frame of mind.

Although he is about three months younger than Roger Clemens, Jamie is an entirely different type of pitcher. Roger still has a power fastball (something that Jamie never really had, after all), and doesn't need to rely on stealth and craftiness to get a batter out.

The Mariners have been shut out seven times during Moyer's 23 starts this year. Now, I will be the first to say that this is not all his fault...the offense has been downright offensive (in the icky sense of the word) for a good part of the season. Still, it has become far less difficult for opponents to miss Mr.Moyer's 79 mile an hour fastballs this year than it ever has been before.  His record is 6-10 this year, with 23 home runs given up (five in one game not too long ago). Not a good sign to say the least, since a good many people consider him to be the "ace of the staff" (notwithstanding the 20 year old Mr. Hernandez, who is still in his first full season in the league and has a lot to learn before he can fit that definition).

Jamie would make an excellent pitching coach, and I think it is time for him to fill that role. He has been a mentor to the young pitchers for a long time, and they respect him. Let him make a contribution in that way. The M's are now the fourth youngest time in the majors (after having been about the second oldest for a couple of years after the amazing 2001 season), and they need to get a little younger yet.

The team has done better this year than I thought they would, but not as well as I expect they will do next year once all of the youngsters start to gel as a group. There are a few pitchers in the minors who deserve a chance to show what they have, and it might as well be now given the state of the AL West. The A's are on their annual late summer winning streak (not that they will fare any better in the post season than they usually do, of course, even if they do win the division. The Angels are hot on their tails. The Rangers, being the Rangers, will likely have their annual pitching implosion any day now, and their offense is not going to be enough to keep them in the race.

Jamie, do us all a favor (yourself included), and do an Edgar.  Announce your retirement for the good of the team; and the good of yourself and your family. Dan Wilson is gone, and he seems to have taken your best days with him. So, bow out now--it's not like you don't have a lot of other things to do with your six kids and your foundation.....