Due to an increased work schedule for the next couple of weeks, prior commitments to my other non-paying job, and my first wedding photography assignment this Saturday, I’m way behind on stuff I’ve been wanting to do for USSM. The Future Forty will be updated again at the beginning of July, and will then resume the first of the month updating that you all have become used to. I’ll also post my annual “who to go see in Everett” preview, giving you some things to look for when you trek north to go see the Aquasox.
Speaking of the Frogs, I’ll be joining Pat Dillon again this year during select pregame shows, and we’ll fill you in on dates you can tune in and listen.
A quick note on the M’s before I go back to work; trade Ryan Franklin soon. His recent surge is going to breathe new life into his value, and a relatively inexpensive contract would make him marketable to teams without big payrolls.
I keep hearing that the Expos weren’t even supposed to be here. The Reds were supposed to play the Mariners and the Expos the Indians (which makes sense, looking at the travel schedules) but the Reds and Indians wanted to play instead, having a regional rivalry and all, and MLB screwed the Expos because the Expos are the easiest team to screw.
I went to all three games of the Expos series, and I have to say that as much as I enjoyed it, I would have rather had the Reds. Griffey’s return to Safeco with a chance to hit 500 against his old club (which has given up a lot of dingers)… that’s historically cool. I’ve wanted to see Adam Dunn live and in person, and the Reds are a competitive franchise with a lot of talent and interesting things. Mostly I just wanted to see Griffey return.
I can’t verify that this is the case — and I’ll be honest, I haven’t applied myself to the question — but if it is, wouldn’t the Mariners protest? They’re astute businesspeople, wouldn’t they see how cool and promotable that would be?
Wooooh! The Mariners beat the stuffing out of the worst team in baseball! Go guys!
I’m serious — I wouldn’t look at the pitching so much, but the Mariners did score early and often against the back end of one of the better rotations in baseball. Keep the champagne in the fridge, but wasn’t it nice to see them scoring runs?
Overheard at the Ballpark, 6/13/04: “Bloomquist has power. He just hasn’t shown it yet.”
Also, I want to point out that having volunteers staff the concessions results in long lines and poor service levels.
This didn’t show up on MLB’s transactions pages so I missed it, but Quinton McCracken signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks after his release from the Mariners (which also wasn’t on the transactions pages). It appears though that he’ll end up getting some regular playing time, at least for a while, given the state of that team.
Rant ahead. Skip to next post for more in-game relevant content.
Tonight was Spiderman 2 night at the ballpark, ending a week of Ronald Reagan Night at Safeco Field. It demonstrated what an enormous tool baseball is.
Spiderman 2 night included:
– Spiderman foam hands for the kids
– Spiderman home plate and pitching rubber, which were both removed before the game
– Spiderman 2 giveaways, which sucked (the “Spiderman 2” DVD pack included a Spiderman 1 DVD, for instace. They did not give away Kristen Dunst, which would have sparked interest
– The U.S. Bank Great Plays Video Vault had a bunch of short clips from Spiderman 2 interspersed with the highlights themselves. At the end of the video they had to show the Spiderman 2 vitals, of which only the PG-13 rating was legible, in order to ensure that you realized you’d just seen a trailer.
It beats every-night-is-Reagan night, though.
Why, last night we got
– a moment of silence before the game
– instead of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” a video retrospective on Reagan
Before I start, I want to make this totally clear– I grew up on Reagan. I loved to listen to Reagan’s speeches, and he’s the first political figure I knew about.
When Richard Nixon died in 1994, baseball didn’t honor Nixon like this. We didn’t get to see his “Checkers” speech in the 7th inning. And yet, Nixon’s accomplishments are admirable: he went to China in a move that had tremendous (if largely forgotten) consequences, the EPA was established, and every one of us in the country is better for it. The DEA… well, I’d argue we’re all worse fot that. Nixon finally got the country out of an unwinnable war in Vietnam (where, and I mention this just as an aside, widespread torture of America’s enemies did nothing but destroy our own morals and turn others against us).
And his failings were horrifying, too. Nixon waged a secret war against Cambodia that killed hundreds of thousands of people and, indirectly, led to the Hmer Rouge killing a million, two million more. And he abused the Presidency in all kinds of ways, yes (“When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal,” Nixon once said, which presages the Justice Department memos justifying Bush administration policy on treatment of captives), and healmost destroyed American democracy. And he liked baseball.
But so did Reagan. We can argue whether he won the cold war, but under Reagan the war on drugs eroded civil rights and introduced the forfeiture laws that addicted police departments to continuing those civil rights laws, he ran a secret government out of the White House in direct violation of U.S. law so he could arm our enemies and finance his own secret war in Nicaragua. Iran-Contra would have gotten him impeached if Nixon’s impeachment hadn’t left the presidency in such awful shape. The debt…
Doesn’t matter. If Bill Clinton died tomorrow (Lord forbid) do you think baseball would have a week of silent moments and video tributes?
If not, why not? No matter what reason you cite, wouldn’t a decision to make that evaluation, to base the time and manner a president is honored on subjective criteria be an endorsement of certain people and their ideology over others?
We come to baseball games to see baseball games, not to see baseball drape itself in patriotism, or honor a particular president. I’ve always only wanted to be left alone to enjoy the game.
But attending baseball is not far away from being like staying home and watching on television: constant ads, video ads between innings and during pitching changes, only with better views, extremely high prices for food, and that stupid Moose. And at home I’d have TiVo and at that point, I wouldn’t go see forty, fifty games a year — I might see four or five.
Notes on tonight’s game
Worst Swings of the Night
—
Innings 1-3: Endy Chavez’s long reach from his timtoes for a Moyer changeup that made Chavez look like he was doing some kind of crazy isometric exercise that threatened to take him out of his shoes.
Innings 4+ Nick Johnson’s half-squatting reach for a low curve on a hit-and-run that sent him spinning around twice. You only get bonus points for that in Tony Hawk Pro Skater there, big guy.
Ichiro’s throw to second on that scoop of a short hop to get Endy Chavez was the most impressive defensive play I’ve seen this year. The hit went up, Ichiro charged — “Maaaaaaaaaybe he’ll get there…”
The ball dropped just in front of him — “Craaaaap, guys at first and–
Somehow Ichiro took the ball on the short hop and threw to second almost in an instant, and Chavez was out. (jaw drop, no thoughts)
I still can’t believe he got that throw off that fast. Endy Chavez is a fast dude (watching him play center… he covers a ton of ground out there) and Ichiro.. man, that was awesome.
So, to try and spark the offense, Ichiro is hitting 3rd. Not that I think this would matter one way or another usually, but in order to accomodate this, Melvin has Winn (.319 OBP) and Aurilia (.301 OBP) hitting first and second. Regardless of what you think changes might do to spark a lineup that can’t score anyways, sticking out machines in front of your best hitter just isn’t very smart.
Fans, remember not to go to the ballpark Monday, June 29th, when the Mariners present Country Music Night at Safeco Field.
Great to see Borders come through and the Mariners finally get a win. This was a perfect Franklin night: he took his lumps and kept plugging it in there, didn’t give up the walks and only had one ball aspire to home run length. The Expos kept him in business, and then Melvin brought in the closer with a tied-freaking-game. I was shocked and overjoyed, and it all paid off. Guardado got through the “power” section of the lineup, and notched the strikeout against the only guy the Expos were going to send up that can seriously rake in Nick Johnson.
Two huge baserunning gaffes tonight — aren’t those exactly the kind of boneheaded mistakes that alert, well-managed players aren’t supposed to make What was Cabrera thinking about when he got picked off, where they were going to dinner after the game? Nobody around me at the game saw what happened until they had him in the rundown because no one in their right mind would think he’d get picked off like that at third with two outs!
And Buntin’ Bob can’t.. stop.. calling.. for.. sacrifice.. arrrghhh.
Weirdest decision though is Robinson leaving Livan out for the ninth. Livan had thrown a ton of pitches, wasn’t all that effective at any point, letting the M’s do the work for him, and the Expos had fresh arms ready in the bullpen. Especially when Hansen pinch-hit: perfect time to bring in the lefty. Melvin’s burned Bloomquist early, and Bocachica’s on the basepaths. There’s no right-handed batter on the bench of any consequence left, so then you’ve got 1 out, 2 on, and if you get Hansen out the worst thing that happens is Borders gets on and then it’s a force-anywhere for groundball machine Ichiro with a really slow dude on first and none-too-speedy Aurilia at second: force anywhere in the infield.
I don’t get it.
The cool thing about Livan though was that 60mph pitch he threw to Edgar in the ninth to get the strikeout. That was straight ballsy, busting that out there, and I tip my hat to him for making it work.