This is old news, I realize, but someone made an animated version of the audio when Ellis talked about this game on NPR before he passed away. It is hilarious.

It never has been, and today is a perfect example of why…

First of all, we signed Jack Wilson to a 2-year contract. It may be for a little over $8M, from what I hear in the above link, but the terms have not been disclosed. This fills me full of little-girl-on-Christmas-morning glee. Seriously. I am flat-out stoked about this, provided that we didn’t give him a billion dollars to stick around. I’ll set aside reaction for that later, if necessary.

Secondly, I got a lot of stuff in the mail today; first off, my Mariners Army shirt arrived.  I love custom t-shirts, and make quite a few of them through a company called Zazzle.com. At the risk of running a commercial, it’s a very reasonably-priced place, and they do one-run shirts, as opposed to having to order them in bulk, like a lot of printing places do. They also do high-quality work, so there’s that. If you’ve ever seen anyone running around SafeCo in a black shirt that says “the offseason sucks”, that’d be me. I have several baseball-themed shirts from there, I love them dearly.

The other item of interest that came in the mail today, after ages of waiting to have the money to afford it (thank you, birthday fairies!), was my Detroit RedWings jersey. Because I’m mainly a bandwagoner for hockey, I didn’t want a player’s name on it, so I chose the name of Tom’s band instead. Now I can rock WingMasters in style!

I am eagerly looking forward to the rest of my day; so far, big bad Friday the 13th has suited me just fine.

Because there is no news, and I don’t do analysis.

It looks like Jim Riggleman has finally been pegged for the managerial position with the Nationals.  Good for him. Hopefully, even despite their recent troubles over the past two seasons, it’s a better situation than it was here in 2008. I always felt sorry for the guy, having to deal with that mess. Unfortunately (and I didn’t know this until I looked it up just now), it looks like the Nats did worse this year than they did last by a game or two. While I find the strategy of losing your way to the World Series via first draft pick enthralling, I’m sure some Nats fans would like to see them win some games. Pull it out for the Riggs, guys, come on!

Larry Stone on how the universe might implode if Hideki Matsui and Ichiro were in the same city together, and about how we may still be trying to win a dream date with John Lackey.

Ryan Divish on various reactions to the Griffey resigning.

Derek Zumsteg tears into the Yankees payroll argument some more (love it, love it!)

Jeff Sullivan talks a little about Jack Wilson’s offense in words that I can’t put together on my own, but completely understand. Give Wilson a chance, everyone – he’ll come around eventually.

I’ve gotta say, I am just about dying without baseball. Dying, I say! The next three-ish months are going to be absolute torture, news or no news…

Ken Griffey Jr pulls a Brett Favre. Then again, I guess it’s not a full Favre, as Junior didn’t decide to sign with the Angels or something.

I didn’t know I was going to feel this way until I read about it this morning, but like USS Mariner, I’m a little less than enthusiastic about this move. I really hope that we are not sacrificing wins for clubhouse chemistry. I do think it is possible to do both, of course, and I have no doubt that when Griffey is on, he’ll be on, but this move definitely gives me some pause. All I can do now is relax and hope that chimpanzee can come up with a good commercial for this one. I’m also going to hope that there is something else done this year that boosts this club.

At the very least, we can all take some comfort that this wasn’t dragged out for eternity like it could have been…

In other news, it looks like the Mariners might be trying to shore up some insurance in the event that Russell Branyan truly decides that their offer is not for him. I’m too annoyed today to get much into this concept.  Lyle Overbay projects a little better than Branyan (if I’m reading FanGraphs correctly), and he’s also all ‘local kid makes good’, being from the Centralia/Tenino area and all, so he’s got that going for him…if $7 million is “affordable”, though, I have to wonder what the unacceptable one year price tag was for Branyan, that he would decide to pass a first offer up…

I hate trying to write something when I’m cranky…

So not much news before I left for school, and now a bit of stuff.

Gold Glove awards were announced today. I can say this with 100% truthfulness and absolute conviction; I do not care. I don’t watch the Oscars or Grammys, or any other awards show. I don’t care what a group of journalists thinks about a group of guys that I spend a good portion of the year with. What I care about in baseball is that our guys do the job well. Ichiro’s accomplishment of getting a Gold Glove for the 9th year in a row is stellar, for sure, especially in a world with Shane Victorinos and Franklin Gutierrezs (Gutierri?); but that award doesn’t put baseball on my TV or on the field 5 miles from my house. That award doesn’t win the World Series or even make a .500 season. Sure, one of these bad boys probably looks nice on a resume, ups the trade value, gives an extra nudge when the Hall of Fame vote comes around, but really, the only person they mean -or should mean- anything to is the person who is awarded. I also find that they seem to cause nothing but problems visa vis’ people arguing over who should have gotten what. So while I think ‘hey, cool, Ichiro‘, I’m certainly not going to gnash any teeth over who did and didn’t get one this year. I’m just happy that the Ichiros and Gutierri of this world are ours, and I look forward to seeing them again come March. I also sort of dig the way that Brock & Salk were looking at it earlier today during their show – if Gutz doesn’t have a Gold Glove, then perhaps he looks a little less valuable to other teams, and thus there won’t be so much demand for him. Likewise, I’m thinking that Felix Hernandez should be kept out of the whole Cy Young thing for a bit longer…

It also appears that both Russell Branyan and Jack Wilson gave the thumbs down to the Mariners offers, so there’s that. I’m not in the mood to panic yet about this. For one thing, it just started today, and we’ve got some time. For another, I have no doubt that should both players wind up elsewhere, Jack Zduriencik has the resources to find replacements for them that will more than pass muster. I would like them to stay, but I get what’s going on here, and more power to both of them. You don’t have the first cocktail just because someone bought it for you; find out why first and what you owe them in return. I’d rather have both parties happy than the front office content with lack of spending, and the players resenting their stations for the whole year.

Eh, I guess that’s it. Unless something else crazy occurs, I plan to spend the remainder of my evening watching movies and trying to stay out of the rain.  Maybe I’ll go in search of some rum batter – this weather is miserable…

A long time ago, before the printing press was invented, and when a vast majority of the population didn’t know how to read anyway, news was passed via word of mouth, and gossip and rumors (Jane Austen built an empire off of it!). Now that we have the internet, gossip and rumors no longer count as “news”, a term that has been set aside for more factual, evidence-based method of distributing information – but we do still love our gossip, don’t we?

MLB Trade Rumors.com is helpful for just this reason. When faced with no hard facts, we guess and daydream and…speculate! Delightful, delightful speculation…

Some of the whispers on the wind regarding the Mariners these days, via the Mariners section on MLBTR.com:

• John Lackey! Wait, what?! I can’t say that this would be too terribly disappointing to me. Perhaps I’m just spurred on by the recent playoffs, and the fire that I observed in Lackey, while watching one of our greatest nemeses battle the Yankees. Lackey’s numbers have been good, and he is projected to do well by Bill James, whoever that is.* Obtaining Lackey can only be a good thing, as it would also give Lookout Landing plenty of fuel for posts about how he might or might not smell. If the goal really is to go World Series in 2010, I would not have a problem with Lackey being on our side – it’s certainly better than having to fight against him. That being said, the fact that it even made it on to MLBTR leads me to believe that we won’t touch him, mainly because our FO keeps everything locked down like Fort Knox.
• Jarrod Washburn and Erik Bedard. While it wouldn’t be surprising if we attempted to retain the services of Bedard, it also doesn’t make any sense – and I think about this a lot, especially on Tuesdays, when I only have one class and it’s my easiest one…I would love to keep Bedard, if he remains healthy – but at the risk of repeating myself, it might be too high a risk for a team attempting to compete. The general consensus seems to be that we’ll let him go somewhere he wants to play, somewhere closer to home, maybe? As for Washburn, I’m still undecided, even on a Tuesday. It kind of feels like we upset the balance a little here by trading him; what I figured was a lock for the Tigers and their playoff efforts turned out to be not much fun for anyone over in Detroit, and that is a shame. But perhaps for Wash it really is a matter of being in Seattle with this particular pitching staff in this particular atmosphere. The good news is that his injuries involve his lower half, and not his arm. A bum knee can be a negative, but not as much of a negative as, say, a torn labrum…
• Russell Branyan – yay! You won’t find any dissent on his return here.  I can’t believe that other teams never let him play as much as we did; then again, if they had, we may never have ‘discovered’ his talent. So yay, again!
• Hideki Matsui – sorry, one massive hit in the last game of the season does not a contender make. Plus, the guy’s a little too weird, and tickling might be a bit awkward…All kidding and cattiness (is that a word?) aside, James projects him to do decently in a DH position, his numbers are good, and I think it would certainly give us an attendance boost, if nothing else. I don’t know what his fielding numbers might be like, or even if he’s capable of fielding to any useful degree anymore. I had heard a while back (2007, maybe?) that he had some knee issues that basically landed him in the DH position. A Matsui/Griffey DH platoon** might not be too shabby, now that I’m thinking about it…again, however, since it’s been talked about, it won’t happen. The first rule of Mariners trades is to not talk about Mariners trades…

Speaking of the Griff, they’re still talking. And I’m still waiting for the November 20 deadline on our free agency folks, with much anticipation. In sudden, just-posted-this-morning news, looks like we’ve made some offers to none other than Jack Wilson and Mr Branyan themselves, so that’s a good sign. Keeping my fingers crossed that the offers are either accepted, or that another agreement can be made. I don’t want to lose either player. While I didn’t totally expect it, I’m kind of bummed that nothing has come out so far about any sort of negotiations even being started with Adrian Beltre before the 20th. Do I just need to accept that he’s done in a Mariners uniform? I’ve been holding out, and in massive denial. Ugh.

*I’m fighting the power, relax, I know who it is.

**My grip on the bench situation was not as solid as I thought. Grr. Apologies, didn’t mean to sound like an idiot.

No, they did not beat the Dynamo yesterday in Houston. But they did have a winning season, just like the 2009 Seattle Mariners, and they’re only the 2nd MLS expansion team to make it to the playoffs in their first year (if the information I have received is correct – remember, I’m a baseball fan). So all in all, while not a huge winner yesterday (and man, that game was brutal), the 2009 MLS Sounders have managed a pretty impressive year.

I’ve only watched a handful of matches on TV, where I can see the opposition’s fanbase – but that is enough to know that other US MLS teams don’t have the following that the Seattle Sounders do. Every game I went to was easily either sold out or pretty close, with an attendance hovering around 36,000. Every home game. And that’s without the upper decks being opened, a move that could double attendance! That’s pretty impressive for a sport that doesn’t have a large following in the states, a sport that is generally looked down upon and not taken all that seriously because it’s not American football or baseball or even hockey. There were several members of the ECS that traveled down for this last hurrah, and while I’m sure that going to Texas and not coming home with a victory was not the optimal desired result, those in green and blue were by far and large a better fanbase than the Dynamo’s.  Sitting down during a playoff game? Come on, Houston, you can do better than that.  Other MLS teams wish they had the fanbase that the Sounders do.

I have to give some degree of credit to my newfound Sounders fanship, despite the fact that it’s not as hardcore as my baseball fandom is. Being involved in game attendance has given me a new appreciation for what it means to be a fan of a team – any team – and has completely changed the way that I look at the support of my own Mariners.  I have learned what it means to be there and be vocal and cheer your guys on – and for that, I am ever indebted to the ECS, the Sounders organization , and of course my friends Trish and Dan, without whom I might never have gone to a game simply because I couldn’t afford the tickets.

I participated in game chat on Sounder at Heart, which has taken up new residence at SB Nation, the home of Lookout Landing, Field Gulls, and several other blogs for several other kinds of sports teams. With the new format, SAH has opened themselves up for discussion, live game threads, and other general Sounders-centric fun. Go and check it out. You can also follow them on Twitter.

Here’s to a great next year for my two favorite teams. Up the Sounders, and Go Mariners (as always).

Apologies if any of this sounds disjointed or awkward. I’m starting to feel a bit puny – might be coming down with something – but wanted to give some credit where some credit is due…

Apparently, yesterday’s news from NPB Tracker.com came as a surprise to at least one Mariner. I don’t really and truly believe the front office would deal Ryan Rowland-Smith, not at this point in time. And it doesn’t sound like RRS wants to be dealt, so that works out for everyone…my reaction was more of a ‘oh, hell no’ at the mere concept of not having the Aussie in our rotation anymore. I think I speak for many when I say we’re not ready for that.

The thing I need to once again remind myself of, now that the winter meetings are nearly here, is that our front office is stealthy. No leaks, no rumors, and moves come out of nowhere, ninja-like. If something happens, nobody’s going to know about it until an official announcement is made. I heard through a little bird (ie; Shannon Drayer’s Twitter account) that the Ms FO is interested in a long-term deal with Felix Hernandez. So that’s a bit of a bright spot on an otherwise dreary Sunday.

Now, to get ready to watch this Sounders/Dynamo game on KING. I’ve already seen several people I know on TV; I bet other teams’ fans get tired of seeing so much green and blue in their stands. Too bad. LET’S GO SOUNDERS!!!

Dear Hanshin Tigers;

You will NOT have my Hyphen or my Ostrich! Kenji Johjima has just become a tiny bit more evil…

Erik Bedard, Endy Chavez, and Miguel Batista have all filed for free agency.

I don’t believe the Ms will try to retain Bedard’s services; I could be wrong here, but why risk another season of possible injury and the loss of his arm for a third year? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.  I understand that there are risks involved with just about any athlete, and that injury is a very real possibility even for the healthiest of guys, but sadly, Bedard has been off the mound in Seattle far more than on, and in my way of thinking, it’s just not worth it for the team. If he can find another place to play and an organization that is willing to take him on, then good on him; but I feel we’d be better off looking to an Erik-free future. I’m not happy about saying that, but in this case, it seems the most logical move.

If we’re keeping Jack Wilson and our current outfielding lineup, Endy is no longer necessary, either. I wish him luck. Batista has made no public mention of retirement, and he might make some nice National League team a good relief or setup guy, depending.

Now watch; knowing my luck, they’ll keep all three of them…

Always a bridesmaid, as they say…I’m probably the last person in Seattle to know that the JJ Hardy option is off the table (get thee to Minnesota!), and that Ken Griffey Jr will soon be making his decision. I’ll admit it, the Hardy thing doesn’t make me all that sad, nor does it surprise me much that we didn’t go after him before the Twins did. Jack Wilson was much desired by the front office, it didn’t make much sense to me that they would just toss him overboard after less than half a season; not saying that Hardy is the only shortstop out there to be obtained, I just really think they want Wilson to stay, and I think Wilson wants to stay. I know his bat depresses a lot of people, but he was such a ridiculous upgrade from Yuni defensively, maybe I’m just biased there. I believe in change. Maybe change is rare and difficult in baseball, but it does and can happen.

I’m not going to lie, I’m glad that baseball is over. I’m not happy with the final result of the World Series, but I am relieved that 2009 has finally drawn to a close. Now it is time to get on with, as Ryan Rowland-Smith so eloquently put it on his Twitter account, “all the silly rumors”. The silly rumors are indeed silly, and occasionally nerve-wracking, but it keeps us alive during the bleak baseball-free winter.  Additionally, if you’re feeling particularly snarky about the WS results, Ryan Divish has a captioning contest at his blog. I submitted one…

There has been more mention of Randy Johnson, but not about his restaurant this time; USS Mariner thinks that maybe we should look at him as a viable option for 2010. With every fiber of my little baseball-loving being, I wholeheartedly agree. Seeing Johnson pitch in person for the first time during the Giants game that I went to earlier this year (Felix bobblehead night!), I became acutely aware of what longer-time Mariners fans must have felt while watching Johnson when he was in his prime. Johnson was pitching against Jason Vargas, and frankly, I’m still surprised we won that game (2-0). Getting to take part in the standing ovation as RJ left the field gave me a slight case of the sniffles – however,  it’s a malady that I’d be glad to come down with a few times a year. And can you imagine RJ and Felix Hernandez on the same team? A healthy Johnson would make a lot of Mariners fans pretty happy…

USSM also put our free agent list up earlier today. While there is a rumor that Ken Griffey Jr’s agent will be meeting with the FO soon, I’m super-torn on this. Regardless of the whole intangibles thing that Griff obviously provided this year, having him come back would be strange. The impromptu field march that took place after the last game might feel slightly more hollow, slightly less meaningful if it hadn’t really been ‘goodbye’…wouldn’t it? I can’t say I’m completely opposed to it, but there also comes a point where you cut your losses, accept that you did what you needed to do, and move on. There is a full stop where you just have to know that you’re done writing the song, and any further mixing is just going to suck the art out of it. There are other songs to be written, other moves to be made, other shows to play.

I don’t want Russell Branyan to leave, and will squish my eyes shut real tight and use mind power to make sure it doesn’t happen. Ready, set, GO! Erik Bedard I think I have to be over. When he was good, he was very very good – but when he was injured, he was awful. I’ve gotten tired of having so many broken toys – why can’t we have nice things? I get the distinct impression they’ll keep Jack Wilson, and just continue to work on his hitting, much as they’ll continue to work on Ian Snell’s foot (which did indeed improve his pitching). It’s fairly ridiculous, the amount of confidence I have in our current coaching staff. Miguel Batista feels that there will be a 99.9% chance he won’t be in an Ms uniform next year. Much like Jim Street, I feel he’s being generous. I doubt Mike Sweeney will be back, though there was a certain (very) small faction of us rooting for him to take a third base coaching position after the departure of Bruce Hines; that dream (as crazy as it might have been) has been stifled, as the FO has secured another third base coach already. Endy Chavez I never got around to loving, and am still a bit annoyed with Yuni for that – then again, had Chavez not been injured, we might not have butterfly effected ourselves into the second half of the season as we did. Who knows? I don’t think I’m saying anything groundbreaking or new by wanting Adrian Beltre to stick around.

Also of some interest is the fact that a certain Mr Tim Lincecum got himself a fancy misdemeanor by getting pulled over while speeding with some marijuana in his car. He was not under the influence, it was just there. Not the first time a ball player has done something a little less than bright, but it shocks me exactly ‘this’ much = 0. I am actually a little glad he wasn’t on the Mariners roster when this happened, though it would have been far more of a gimme if he had lived in Seattle instead of San Fransisco. We also might have been the butt of some hilarious jokes. So maybe I could make the sacrifice just this once, because, y’know, that whole skilled pitcher thing…

EDIT: And so it begins. Sweeney and Beltre have filed.

When there’s no baseball, I have the tendency to watch a lot of cooking/food, and travel shows. Fortunately for me, the Travel Channel has combined those in the form of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. The other night, they aired an episode in which Bourdain took a trip across the American southwest. He wound up at Alice Cooperstown. This place is in Phoenix, Arizona, a sort of rock n’ roll sports bar with a baseball tinge to it. The kicker? It’s partly owned by none other than Randy Johnson. The menu items are appropriately named with baseball and 70’s rocker references, but the dish that Bourdain tried when he was there was a hot dog referred to as “The Big Unit”, a dog that is 22 inches long and served on an entire baguette. I know that athletes being part-owners or part-investors in restaurants is nothing new, but I had no idea about this one. I did, however, know about the Pujols 5 Westport Grill…

The recent talk about bringing back Washburn made me start thinking yesterday when I was driving back from school…what if JJ came back? He’ll be available, most likely; after such a rotten year, I doubt the Mets would be interested in keeping him, and they don’t technically have to. He’d come somewhat cheap. I’m guessing his age and recent injury history makes him a risk for closer for the most part, but as set-up for Aardsma? Is this something the club would actually do? Would Putz actually come back, since he seemed kind of annoyed that he was traded in the first place? Is this something I really want? Someone talk me down…

…because I want to write about stuff, but there’s not much going on…

So against my better judgement, I watched game 5 of the World Series last night. There wasn’t much else on, I was caught up on my school reading for the day, and Tom was making my birthday dinner, so I figured why not? Much like a Netflix mistake, I can always turn it off when things start to go terribly wrong, right?

Fortunately, things didn’t go wrong at all; in fact, with the exception of a few scares late in the game, things went pretty decently for Philadelphia. Chase Utley continued his post-season insanity by hitting two home runs, one of which was in the first inning with men on base. That hit seemed to light a fire under the Phillies. The best moment by far came when Raul Ibanez hit a solo blast off Phil Coke in the 7th; so now I will always remember that Raul Ibanez hit a home run during the World Series on my birthday. Pretty sweet.

I don’t anticipate that the Phillies will win this. Maybe that’s the pessimist in me, I don’t know. They took one on New York grass, so maybe this will all be drawn out for longer – or maybe it will end tomorrow. If it ends tomorrow, I won’t be around for it; I have a night class, and while I can always listen to about the first half hour or so, I doubt I’ll be able to finish the game; and that’s alright. I’m trying not to invest too much into it; they’re not my teams, not my city, not my boys. Regardless of how much I would really love for the Phils to win, I have nothing really invested in these games, and I’m going to keep repeating that mantra until this is over. And it’s almost over.

In more Mariners-oriented talk, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this. I can’t even compartmentalize it into sentiment and practicality, because even my practical side is saying ‘yeah, but if he’s back with our pitching staff, maybe everything goes back to the way it was’. I’d like to think that Detroit was just a horrible nightmare as far as Wash’s skillset goes, and that if he was back here, it’d all come back again, and 2010 will be marvelous, and kittens and rainbows would fall from the sky (in this scenario, kittens are featherweight and don’t get killed by passing cars), and then playoffs, and winning, and all of Seattle rejoic- wait, what? Sorry, I got carried away. The truth is, I don’t know. I’m sure someone more handy with numbers could give me a million reasons why Jarrod Washburn should not come back to Seattle. I’m going to allow Mr Zduriencik and company to make that decision for me, and I’ll figure out whether or not I’m happy about it later.

Dave Cameron has a good article up over here. I haven’t been thinking about it a a lot or anything, but at this point, I am not really in the Milton Bradley camp. Bradley has had a colorful history outside of the game, and he obviously is not happy being in Chicago. I don’t know if he would fit well here – then again, Ian Snell seemed to be much happier to be in Seattle, so who knows. As they say on Brock & Salk, Don Wakamatsu is indeed a sort of Dog Whisperer personality, so maybe his calm attitude and dignity would be good for Bradley – because I can’t imagine that being around Lou Piniella would improve things for him. I still hold out a degree of hope that Silva can make the turnaround. His attitude has obviously improved  from 2008 with this last year; I’d like to see us get some work out of him for the price we paid, and I’d hazard the guess that Silva would like to work. Our pitching staff seem to be able to work miracles, and a healthy Silva might be able to benefit from that now that everything has clicked into place. I may be wishing for the impossible, but I’m a sucker that way. Plus, like Cameron says, the trade doesn’t make a lot of sense for the Cubs…I’m already impatient for 2010.

So far, the World Series has not gone well for me. I don’t know what I was expecting, or even if I truly had any expectations for these games, but success isn’t happening for the Philadelphia Phillies, and I have to say I’m finding it a little more disappointing than I expected to.

I don’t think it’s an underdog thing for me at this point. The Phillies are more than capable of holding their own against the Yankees; both teams deserve to be where they’re at, regardless of my personal opinion of either of them. Tonight’s loss was the result of some really shoddy defense on the Phils’ part, and it was at that point in time – the top of the 9th inning – when I decided that if they lost, they just deserved to, plain and simple. Allowing Johnny Damon to steal not one but two bases one right after the other was absolutely unacceptable, and very uncharacteristic of the kind of ball I’ve seen the Phightin’s manifest during the playoffs, and even the other games they’ve lost to New York thus far. My birthday is tomorrow, and tomorrow’s game could mark the Yankees win of the World Series on Phillies soil. I’m debating not watching it, simply because I don’t think I should be annoyed on my birthday, and I would find a Philadelphia loss annoying enough without having to watch it happen. If the Yankees are going to win, they need to do it on their turf in front of their people – they deserve as much, and so do their fans. I’ll continue to debate my course over the next 20 hours or so.

There is also the matter of how long this has been stretched out. I don’t remember things taking this long last year – we certainly didn’t pass Daylight Savings Time in 2008 – and as much as I am loathe to say it, I’m ready for baseball to be done and over with this year. I’m ready to look forward to the rest of the Green Bay season (not having these Favre games hanging over us for the next 8 weeks will be nice), and the Red Wings season, and to see what the Sounders can do with their Houston game next weekend. Most of all, I’m looking forward to seeing what the Mariners offseason holds, and it feels like the World Series is delaying all of this for me. Baseball is eating my food, not looking for a job, and basically overstaying its’ welcome. Enough already.

I went to Goofy’s with a bunch of friends today to watch the Packers get their bells rung by Brett Favre (apparently, he’s the only player on the Vikings, or at least you would have thought as much by how often his mug was on TV), and we caught about 2-plus quarters of the Cowboys/Seahawks game. If there is any team I feel sorry for this year, it’s the Hawks.  With the way they were being talked about over the summer, it sounded like they were going to pull a 2009 Mariners; new front office folks, new coach, new faces on the team and some old ones. After their dismal year last year, it looked like they were primed to come back. Now…I don’t know that much about football, but I know that the Seattle Seahawks are completely and utterly boned for the rest of the season. With the losses of Walter Peyton and  Lofa Tatupu, and the bruises, bumps, sprains, and everything else they’ve had to endure so far this year, I just don’t see any hope for them in 2009. Watching them be so completely dominated by the Cowboys today was sad. They’re not the worst team in the NFL, but they’re nowhere near even the median of the best. I will probably never like football near as much as I like baseball, soccer, or hockey, but having been there last year, I can totally feel for the fans this year. All that promise, all that hope, a flash, and it’s gone.

Why am I talking about football here?! I am badly needing some Mariners news…