A response to Cleveland's suffering second-worst on our list

I "dunno"--is it really worse in Cleveland than it is here?  At least the Indians made it to the World Series not all that long ago (and, of course, guess who was their manager when they did--yep, one in the same, the Human (B)rain Delay--the current manager of the M's). 

I wasn't here for Heathcliff Slocumb, so he really is not a persistent nightmare for me, but  the 2001 ALCS surely was and is.  How on earth can you tie the record for the most games ever won in one season, then lose the championship series in such a stupid manner (Oh, wait, ever since then, the Evil Empire version 1.0 has been doing the same thing, haven't they?  Well, then, maybe the curse of 116 rubbed off on them that year).

And the author of this piece forgot a few things....the Huskies' fall from football grace; the oh-so-close trip to the Sweet Sixteen a couple of years ago; the new ownership of the Sonics turning their backs on the city mere days before/after getting the second overall draft pick in the NBA lottery (yeah, yeah, I know that they really turned their backs on the city the day they bought the team, but they only just made it official this week); the rumor of the M's being bought by Pat Gillick and friends/associates.  I'm sure there is more, I'm just too depressed to think about it right now, is all.

It's like...did you notice that every time you get up just a little tiny spark of hope and start to nurture it into bigger brilliance someone comes along and blows it out?  That's pretty much what it's like to be a sports fan in Seattle right now.

Maybe it would be better to live in someplace like, say, Las Cruces NM (yes, I AM talking to you, sir) where you don't have a team of your own, so you can be a fan of a team or teams somewhere else (like, maybe, Pittsburgh, or something).

Meh, I'm going to go up on the roof and watch the raindrops fall, and the new building that is cutting off my view of the Puget Sound get even taller as I am sitting there.......Sorry,  Cleveland.

In his column in this morning's Boston Globe, Nick Cafardo says that he has been told by baseball insiders that the Mariners are on the block, with the likely purchaser a group headed by (former Mariners and current Phillies) GM Pat Gillick, seen below.

Mariners Chairman Howard Lincoln immediately responded that this was "nonsense," according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

In a way, this sounds to me kind of like the pronouncement of public support that GM's make with regard to field  managers just before they fire them.  "Yeah, John Doe is absolutely our manager of the present and future."  Within a week of that being printed and filmed by the media, Mr. Doe is out and looking for work. (That's certainly how it worked for Bob Melvin, who even had his contract extended just before being shown the door after his second season as M's manager).

There was also some mild speculation of this nature in the local papers abuot a month ago when Nintendo America announced that it was moving part of its sales force out of its Seattle headquarters--wondering if they were going to move more (or all) of their operations out of the area and, if they did so, would they want to continue to own a baseball team in a city in which they were no longer headquartered.

Hmmmm.  Another case of "methinks he doth protest too much?"  Connections to the Sonics fleeing the city because of no public support for their new arena plan?  Lincoln, Armstrong and their partners tired of being the target of public ire for the teams three plus losing seasons?  Mr. Yamauchi no longer interested in owning the team if Ichiro walks at the end of the season?  All of the above, some of the above, or none of the above?

GM Bill Bavasi was soundly (and loudly, and for quite some time) booed when introduced at Edgar Martinez' Mariners' HOF induction yesterday evening.  There are more and more fans coming to the ballpark dressed as empty seats as the team's losing ways continue.  The bottom line, while certainly not in dire straits as of yet, is not as rosy as it was in 2001-2003, and the bottom line has been Lincoln and company's announced primary concern.

If, indeed, this is less nonsense than Mr. Lincoln pronounces it to be, why on earth Pat Gillick?  Did he not make enough of a mess of the team and its farm system when he was here before?  Whyever would he want to come back here when he is busily doing the same thing to the Phillies right now that he did to the Jays, the O's and the M's before?

I doubt that Paul Allen wants a baseball team, since he already has a football team and an NBA team to occupy his time and money.  Mark Cuban did want a baseball team, but he wanted the Cubbies and was shot down on that deal, and now he wants to join in a new NFL challenging football league. But there are a lot of Microsoft and dot com millionaires in this area.  Surely some of them are baseball fans and probably know the game better than some (or most) of the present ownership group. (Is Bill Gates a baseball fan, does anyone know???)

If Mr. Lincoln's "nonsene" pronouncement is just a delaying tactic until a sale is announced, I hope that the current group has better sense than Howard Schultz does, and sells to a local group that is committed to keeping the team in town; committed to IMPROVING the team; and who understands that Safeco Field is state of the art, and in just fine shape, thank you very much, not to mention well on the way to being paid for.

This is NOT a sign I want to see hanging on the doors of Safeco Field, either in regard to the team or the vast majority of the players (now, I am more than perfectly willing to see it applied to Jeff Weaver, and maybe even Horacio Ramirez--unless they switch him to just a sixth pitcher to pitch at home only (where he excels) and not on the road (where he does NOT).

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.

Edgar Martinez, the man known almost universally as "Papi" throughout Mariners' Nation--by both players and fans alike--will be inducted into the Mariners' Hall of Fame on Saturday, 2 June 07.  He has been sorely missed since his retirement in 2004.

His 18 year Major League career was spent entirely in a Mariners' uniform, a rarity in these days of free agency and "disposable" contracts.  Prior to switching to be a full time Designated Hitter (DH) in 1996, he primarily played third base for the team.

Considered by many to be one of the best pure right handed hitters in the live ball era, his career stats are pretty impressive.  Over those 18 years, he:

• Played in 2055 games
• Came up to bat 7213 times
• Got 2247 hits, of which 514 were doubles, 15 were triples, and 309 were home runs
• Drove in 1261 runs
• Owned a career batting average of .312 and an OBP of .418
• Was a seven time All-Star
• Won the Silver Slugger award 5 times
• Won the American League batting title twice, both as a DH
• Drove in the most runs in the AL once, in that all important year of 1995
• Lead the AL in doubles two years
• Lead the AL in RBI once
• Was the third oldest active player in the AL in the year of his retirement
• Won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2004
• The annual AL Designated Hitter Award is named after him

Because he is a DH, most think that he will never be inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in Cooperstown; primarily because they don't believe that DH's are legitimate baseball players, unlike pitchers and position players.  This argument is similar to the one that says that a DH shouldn't be the MVP of the league, because they could NEVER be the most valuable player on their own team, much less in the league (how many years will they keep using that one until David Ortiz finally makes them change their minds?).

Edgar won't even be eligible for consideration for induction into Cooperstown until 2010.  By that time, I hope that things will change and the baseball writers who make the decision on induction will have changed their minds about the validity of a position that has existed for more than 30 years in the AL (and would have existed in the NL, as well, but for one missing vote from the Phillies when the issue was considered by them) and give Papi a really hard look and vote him in. Change is good, setting a precedent is not necessarily bad, gentlemen.

In the mean time, even though the team--by their own policies--won't retire his number 11 until (if) he is inducted into the HOF, I hope that all of the players coming up to the Mariners in the future will respect his contribution to the team enough not to ask to wear that number in perpetuity (or until the team ownership changes its collective mind and retires the number).

At least three former Mariners will make to the HOF, some sooner than others--Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr and A-Rod--but it is unlikely that any of them will be inducted as M's (Ichiro, on the other hand, hopefully will).   So, for both Edgar and the team, I think that he should be seriously considered when the time comes.

Oh how I miss that call of "Edddddddgrrrrrrrrr" during the games when he came up to bat.  It just hasn't been the same since he has been gone, and he has been too busy with his family and his businesses to take any kind of regular position with the team (though he says he will---eventually). 

Congratulations on your induction, Papi.  Come home soon!!

Among the other "off the cuff" things that Sonics owner Clay Bennett (pictured above) has said in the past week or so are veiled intimations that one option for the new ownership group is to sell the team again already.

Before I discuss this any further, let's look at some of the other things that have been going on leading up to this supposition.

In Kansas City, back on Monday (21 May 07), Mr. Bennett spoke at an International Economic Development Council meeting, then gave an interview to the Kansas City Star, in which he said that said city was "very much in the mix" for a relocation venue for the team, due to their new Sprint Center, which would potentially be a better revenue source for than Oklahoma City's Ford Center, where the Hornets played for the past two seasons.

He additionally said that he was, basically, very disappointed in what he characterized as a lack of response by the Seattle community to his last arena proposal, for which the team would have only supplied 20% of the funding.  He cited (and I quote) "No hue and cry, no letters to the editor, nothing by the media or talk on the call-in shows, or no new ideas on how to get it done. No private ideas on the table."

Hmmm, isn't that interesting??  Methinks he doth protest too much, to quote the Bard.  And I can, more or less, prove that theory.

Back in March, Detlef Schrempf (the face of the team for a number of years, if you might remember) had this to say about keeping the team in Seattle.

Well known Seattle developer Dave Sabey has indicated a willingness to provide land for a multipurpose convention/events center, and to assist with obtaining private funding to construct it.  The Muckleshoot Tribe have also indicated an interest in participating (perhaps near their White River Ampitheater).  The article linked above in this paragraph is also the source for the information that the Bennett investment group might be considering selling the team.

Because of these new developments, several organizations and individuals who have been supportive of Bennett et al in their attempt to get the legislature to provide those public funds have now changed their collective minds. 

The blog owner at Supersonicssoul.com has decided that Bennett is a jerk.  Sonicscentral.com has discovered that the team has opted out of the lease at their current headquaters and is moving, perhaps to somewhere from which they can more easily pack the vans and sneak out of town.  Even the 5,000+ member group Save Our Sonics and Storm has become somewhat disillusioned with Mr. Bennett.

A ballot initiative measure is also in the works in an attempt to restrict the group's ability to buy its way out of the lease with Key Arena, that runs through 2010.  The city of Seattle has already said that they fully intend to fight the attempt at an early escape from the city, as well.

None of this sounds much like citizen apathy to me.

According to NBA rules, he is supposed to make a "good faith effort"  to keep the team here before a move can be approved.  How much good faith is it when, in response to a reporter's recent question if the ownership group would be willing to put more than the planned $100MM into the new arena project, he said "Why should I?"

All of that having been said, some people are beginning to think that Howard Schultz and his Starbucks empire weren't such a bad deal after all, not that I am advocating his buying the team back (not that he would, anyway).  But, if there is someone else out there who is committed to keeping the team in Seattle, and doing what it takes to accomplish that goal (including putting in at least 51% of the money it would take to build a new arena, and finding private financing for a significant amount of the balance), I could easily see myself being supportive of him/her/them.

Any takers?????