crosscut.com : Seattle Mariners

Root, root, root for the away teams

Crosscut — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:44:01 PDT

One of the remaining attractions as the Seattle Mariners run the season into the ground is the chance to see genuine Northwest heroes perform well. Unfortunately, they play for other teams.

The Mariners cut a $15.5 million man

Crosscut — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:24:01 PDT

Richie Sexson during recent months had seemed about as welcome at Safeco Field as Pat O'Day at a frat kegger. The next time (if there is one) he shows up at the Safe, it will be in a different uniform, if not street clothes. The Seattle Mariners finally gave up on the one-time slugger Thursday, July 10, before a series finale at Oakland. The incredible shrinking Big Richie had spent much of the past two seasons hitting in the low-.200 range, kicking up Elliott Bay waves with his persistent whiffing at the plate. M's personnel acknowledged after the deed was done that it had been just a matter of time before team officials felt comfortable eating the remainder of the $15.5 million the southern Washington resident was owed this season.

A-Rod as the new Katie Holmes

Crosscut — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:35:01 PDT

Seattleites like to believe there's something more important than money. Which is why when Alex Rodriguez left the Seattle Mariners for the Texas Rangers and a $252 million contract, people were pissed. A-Rod had said he wouldn't sign just for money, but in the end, that's what he did: departed for a dead-end team that paid him more than he was worth — and more than they could afford. You may remember what Seattle fans did when he returned to Safeco Field in 2001 to compete against his old mates: The fans spewed venom, booed, and dumped baskets of play-money from the upper decks. It was a rare show of resentment from live-and-let-live Seattle. Our egos were bruised and illusions shattered because A-Rod could be bought.

Finally, some good Seattle sports news

Crosscut — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:44:01 PDT

When I edited Seattle Weekly, I issued a ban on soccer coverage. Why edit a newspaper when you can't, very occasionally, act like a tin-pot dictator and shape it to your perverse desires? I left the paper two years ago but hoped the new editor would realize my no-soccer edict was a lifetime ban. Apparently not. There's a new dictator in town, and the moratorium has been lifted. The editor himself has written a column about soccer in Seattle. The good news: He's not buying the hype that it's the next big thing.

As the Sonics leave town, it may help the arts

Crosscut — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:17:01 PDT

In all the reporting about the Sonics decision, we tend to overlook the intense clamoring over a taxing source, the so-called "stadium taxes," that bedevils the politics. A lot of groups want to lay claim to those taxes, which are supposed to go away after the Kingdome, Safeco Field, and Qwest Field are paid off, but are really catnip to politicians for their pet causes. The taxes have two attractions: they are not really an "increase" if you just extend their life, and they fall mostly on visitors, who don't vote locally.

One of the main supplicants is the arts. Thereby hangs an interesting story.

Seattle sports fans look to the bench for help

Crosscut — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:58:01 PDT

It was Tuesday night, July 1, in the press box at Safeco Field, but the talk was about football (would the Seahawks be good?) and basketball (would the Sonics be?). Within hours, U.S. District Court Judge Pechman would adjudicate a certain-to-be-disputed trial pertaining to the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Mariners curse

Crosscut — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:00:01 PDT

Felix Hernandez is injured in a grand-slam game, the first salami by an American League pitcher since 1971. Can this season get any worse? Yes.

Orchids and onions for a new week

Crosscut — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:53:01 PDT

First, orchids:

To Barlett Sher, Intiman artistic director, who won a Tony Award Sunday of his direction of the New York Lincoln Center revival of the 1950s Rogers-Hammerstein musical, "South Pacific." The revival won six additional Tonys.

Duh: Fire the batting coach

Crosscut — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:45:01 PDT

In observing Richie Sexson's new foot-in-the-bucket batting stance during the Seattle Mariners' 2-1 loss to the Red Sox in Boston Sunday, June 8, certain local scribes might've harked back to February 2006. 'Twas then, during the team's annual media-indoctrination morning that precedes spring training, when a featured questionee was new batting coach Jeff Pentland. The droll Arizonan was on stage with manager Mike Hargrove and, among others, Jeremy Reed, who at the time was the emerging star center-fielder of the organization.

Since that day, Reed has spent much of his career either injured or in Tacoma, possibly a redundancy. Pentland has piddled around with the batting (Dave Niehaus calls it "hitting," but there's a significant difference) approaches of a number of the M's. Through it all, for the series finale against the defending world champs, the M's sent out a lineup featuring the following: Adrian Beltre, hitting .234 to start the day, Reed (.243), Sexson (.209), Jamie Burke (.211), and Willie Bloomquist (.158). For the loss the day before, they'd used Jose Vidro (.220), Miguel Cairo (.218), Kenji Johjima (.218), and Vladimir Balentien (.194). That's nine of the team's 13 position players.

For a change, fun at the house that roof built

Crosscut — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:16:01 PDT

The Seattle Mariners won one Saturday, May 31, but the rare victory wasn't even the main novelty of the game. Better than that was seeing Kenji Johjima steal home, watching irritable Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland get tossed, and witnessing hard-luck starter Felix Hernandez actually get run support. Best of all, fans (some 33,000 for a, yes, rare 1 p.m. start) got to see the roof go both east and west, seemingly moving at warp speed compared with ice-flow-slow Joh's pace from third to home.

A game of winces

Crosscut — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:05:01 PDT

Late during what would prove to be the Seattle Mariners' seventh-straight loss on Monday, March 26, second-sacker Jose Lopez seemed to amble toward first base to cover a throw. It was hard to tell for sure from where I was. Maybe he actually moseyed, or sauntered.

"Nah, I had a good sight-line," reported my cyber buddy. "Lopez clearly sidled to first."

In any case, Lopez didn't arrive in time to make the play. It was the second straight game in which such an "effort" at first base would cost the club late in a game.

Take me out of the ballgame

Crosscut — Sun, 25 May 2008 12:25:01 PDT

This is the year to quit. This is the season to kick the habit. No patches, no pills, no support groups. Just say no.

To baseball, that is. It's time to kick it, and the hometown team — God bless their mediocre souls — is making it easy.

The Mariners are in the hunt for an all-league 81-81 season

Crosscut — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:00:01 PDT

So pervades mediocrity in the American League that the M's could be contenders. They head east now to face underachievers Detroit and New York.

The M's need a smarter management team

Crosscut — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:00:01 PDT

As the team continues to occupy the bottom of the standings, it's time to look at who's at the top — of the decision-making tree, that is.

Memo to the owners of the Mariners

Crosscut — Wed, 14 May 2008 08:00:01 PDT

In calling attention to some scathing advice for the team's ownership, penned by USS Mariner blogger and local author Derek Milhous Zumsteg, I'm giving short shrift to a very thoughtful, statistics-rich analysis of the poorly performing Seattle Mariners. But DMZ says what mainstream writers dare not, or at least in a way they would not, and it's worth highlighting the last three paragraphs of his assessment:

Comcast's high-definition baseball asterisk

Crosscut — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:47:01 PDT

Those Comcast high-def customers who flipped to Mojo (Channel 664) Monday night, May 12, after Kenji Johjima smacked a game-tying, three-run homer in the 12th instead saw George C. Scott starring in The Exorcist III.

Perhaps Oklahoma City would also be interested in a baseball team

Crosscut — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:00:01 PDT

OK, probably not — they already have a pretty good triple-A minor league team. So what the heck is going wrong at Safeco Field?

Maybe they just need some home cookin'

Crosscut — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:00:01 PDT

Maybe it's a lot worse than that. The Mariners finish a dismal 1-5 road trip.

It doesn't look like WaMu Field is terribly likely, so ...

Crosscut — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:21:01 PDT

Some great alternative names for Safeco Field are turning up in the comments on Mike Henderson's recent blog post about the implications of the Seattle-based insurance company being swallowed by Liberty Mutual. Among the suggestions: Costco Park, Taxpayer Park, Starbucks Grounds, and a no-brainer: Boeing Field.

The Mariners in the playoffs? What you might miss while obsessing over the Sonics

Crosscut — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:23:01 PDT

Intergalactic visitors, depending on their reference point, might view our old globe upside down. Upon closer inspection maybe they would see that the most viable country just now is in what we dismissively call the Southern Hemisphere. Brazil has no debt, plenty of oil, sustainable growth and — most promising of all — no New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox, much less the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners.