Random thought
DMZ · July 10, 2008 at 8:50 pm · Filed Under Mariners
If PR concerns played a part in letting Richie go — and by PR concerns they certainly mean the constant booing — won’t that just encourage booing?
Of Vidro? And, when opportunity presents, other higher-ups in the organization?
We should start today. Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong: Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
One can only hope that this is how the fan base interprets the signal and acts accordingly. This may soon be the only reason to go to games.
I’ve got (had since March) tickets to the Rays series in mid August and certainly will boo myself hoarse every time Vidro comes to bat (if he’s still with the team).
It certainly should. Heck, Ichiro even came out and said as much. The front office should be introduced as a part of each night’s starting lineup. ‘And now, the starting lineup for your Seattle Mariners, as announced by manager Jim Riggleman and constructed by Howard Liiiiiiincoooooln and Chuuuuuuuck Aaaaaarmstroooooooong!’
I don’t have enough lung power to boo all the suck on this team.
Any business that hopes to be successful should always listen to its customers. Speaking of Big Sexy, are the M’s still on the hook for his entire salary if he signs somewhere else? Is he the highest paid pro athelete in Seattle Sports History? Are there no 1st baseman prospects in the entire organization? How is the future served by replacing Sexson with utility guys?
I’m not sure that’s true. Customers always want better product for free.
Anyway — if Sexson’s picked up, it’s just like Frank Thomas’ situation: acquiring team pays league minimum, the M’s pick up the rest.
Well, customers do always want better product, but I think reasonable ones realize there is a cost involved. But I think that as customers of the M’s, we all do deserve a better product than this, especially for the cost to the team (in payroll) and to the fans (in ticket, concession, and other costs).
So… We save 400,000 (or whatever the league minimum is) and then we trade for Craig Wilson, whose salary is probably about 400,000 more than the minor leaguer we traded to get him. So, net loss in salary and we end up with a Sexson clone.
The M’s like sacrifices. They get all those sacrifice flies, and they like sacrificing players/personnel!
P.S. Yay Strasburg!!!
It’s our one vote, the boo. So get out and boo.
But like in politics, change is just another slogan for more of the same thing.
Baseball is bigger than our FO. That’s the only optimism I can muster from this season. I only hope this team’s stupidity averages to the mean sooner than later.
You have a better vote than the boo. You have your dollars. Stay home. I’d like to see attendance fall to 1000 a game.
Successful businesses listen. They don’t become successful by doing whatever customers want but listening is still crucial. Great quote from Henry Ford, “If I gave people what they said they wanted, it would have been a faster horse.”
While the baffling business decisions the FO continues to make are sucking any enjoyment out of this season, I am substantially brightened by the fact that Mr. Niehaus won’t be creeping me out anymore when he talks about “Big Sexy”. It was like hearing a dirty old man talk about high school girls…or boys…
(Other than that, I like Dave Niehaus!)
I can only assume (in the hunt for rhyme or reason behind all this) that they only DFA people after exhausting all possible avenues of trade or any other conceivable return value for them.
Maybe there’s some tease of a rival GM out there, hinting that we could get a Melky Cabrera or some such for Vidro, provided we throw in Felix. So we can’t DFA him yet.
13: So who are the M’s rivals, exactly? The only ones I can think of would be the teams competing with us for the first pick next year… and they want us to be good, not bad.
Paid attendance won’t go below about 16,000 this year, since that’s about how many folks have already paid for their tickets (like me, sigh). But how many show up?
At this point, I think the M’s are on the verge of blowing every last bit of enthusiasm that the first five years of SafeCo generated. They just got out of Oakland – they should look at the empty seats there and realize that’s their fate if they don’t stop sucking. Not on the field, in the front office.
I think they’d better have their new GM candidate lined up and ready for the press conference the day after the WS ends, and it better not be another business as usual type who will continue the same failed approach. Howard or Chuck, in introducing the new GM, really needs to stand up and admit how badly they’ve failed at building an organization, and use the new GM as a signal to the fans that it ain’t going to be more of the same crappy trades, crappy FA signings, failed prospects, and hopeless thrashing. Or they aren’t going to have much in the way of season ticket holders next year. We all got to watch Edgar, Olerud, Buhner, Wilson and Boone play out their last productive games as age took it’s toll. We liked those guys, and it was painfull. We don’t really want to watch a bunch of rent-a-vets who made their careers somewhere else do the same thing for eight figure salaries.
They’ll need a year at least to rebuild, maybe two after the thick smoke billowing up from the Bedard trade finally clears. They can’t try to lure fans back with a promise of wins or playoff contention next year, so they’d better find something else to market. I’d suggest they try “We’ve learned our lesson and are dedicated to a different approach.” That might be interesting to watch.
Aw, hell, why do I care?
I don’t know where to find better information, but I think Wilson is on a minor league contract, which means he’s roughly a wash with whoever the M’s end up sending back in the trade. If he gets promoted to the big club, he’ll get a raise up to the Major League minimum, which then equals the savings they’d get if Sexson signs elsewhere.
If someone else knows better, please fill me in…
Well, since I choose not to “vote” with my dollars because I love going to ballgames so much, my only recourse is the boo. And the heckle, on the rare occasions when I get seats down on the field.
Honestly, I might not go to any games this year, which would be a first for me since 2001.
It’s not so much about “voting with my dollars” or anything like that; I’m just not sure I can, in good conscience, pay $50 to watch this horrible team in person (I can’t abide cheap seats).
I booed Vidro’s every at bat when they were here in San Diego. Just out of principle. I’m sure I got some strange looks, being at Petco in my Mariners gear, booing my own team…
You know, booing truly poor performance, or even true underperformance, isn’t bad fan behavior at all. It’s a fair an equitable response.
Obviously I don’t condone booing injured guys being carried off the field, or Santa, or any of the other undeserving targets for fan ire down through the years.
But booing your own players should be a singularly powerful gesture. It should not be done *often*; last year’s team, say, wouldn’t really have deserved it. But this year’s Ms have some legit candidates for a raspberry.
(I would say “____” cheer instead of raspberry, but I can’t think of a Seattle neighborhood with the storied toughness of the Bronx. And yes I know raspberries are different. Just got tired of typing “boo.”)
If we stayed home and attendance dropped to 1000, then the M’s management would be too scared to pay the bucks they need to improve the team. It is the fact that the fans keep coming to the park, that gives them the confidence to spend the money. They’ve spent plenty of money to build a good team, they’ve just spent it badly. Unfortunately a lot of the money they’ve spent will keep going out the door, for not much in return, for a while.
Felix will always be worth a share of my entertainment dollar.
OK, so 800 people show up every night except Felix Night, when they fill the house. Good enough?
I like booing. But only when it is deserved.
(I can’t abide cheap seats).
Jeez, Jeff. Can’t hang with with Plebs, huh? j/k, of course.
Pretty much, yes!
I’ve tried watching a game from the upper deck, the ball is too small for me to follow what’s going on from that far away.
I usually do spring for Terrace Club though, so I have access to the club-level restrooms. It’s worth the extra money for that alone.
Absolutely. Plus the sandwiches at the pasta bar in RF are pretty good. But Ivardogs are still my favorite…