In calling attention to some scathing advice for the team's ownership, penned by USS Mariner blogger and 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:
If you only listen to us once, just once, take this advice: the next time you’re looking to hire a general manager, at least interview smart people who disagree with you and weigh their approach and plans against what you’ve reaped from the strategy you’ve used for so long. Give them a fair shot, because they’ll win the job and win with the team if given the chance.
You don’t like me and I don’t like you. You want to market to women and children instead of baseball fans? You own a baseball team. Trying to please particular demographics with distractions, promotions, and playgrounds might work for a while until someone else finds something shinier to dangle in front of the babies. Put a good baseball team out there, and you’ll get women fans and men fans and you’ll turn children into lifelong fans.
Do it. Do it or hand the team over to people who can. There are some good candidates in your minority owners. If you want to run a daycare or a Body Shop, go rent some retail space and knock yourself out. If you want to run a successful baseball team, figure out how to do that.
The season is 25 percent complete and a 100 percent disaster. The team is 15-26 (.366), worst in the majors, and nine games behind the Los Angeles Angels. There's also thoughtful analysis of this dire situation by Art Thiel (Ken Griffey Jr. to the rescue — not!) and Larry Stone (his prediction of a championship run was dumb, he now concedes).
