Sweet Lou

The Seattle Mariners were eliminated from postseason contention this past week for the 14th consecutive year! Not only is that pathetic in this country, it's pathetic even by foreign baseball standards, as the Yokohama Bay Stars of the Japanese League made their 1st Playoff appearance in 11 years, so that means that the Mariners have the longest baseball playoff drought in the World! But that is besides the point of this entry, I want to write about the man who was the head of the 1995, 1997, 2000 & 2001 Mariners playoff teams: Sweet Lou Pinella.

Lou Pinella was, is, and always will be, the greatest manager in Seattle Mariners history. Lou managed with a lot of attitude,

players on both sides loved him & of course he had the guts of a burglar when the game situation called for it.

Of course I would be stupid to not mention that Lou threw the best tantrums I have ever seen a baseball manager have, outside of the late Billy Martin, who managed & heavily influenced Lou when he was a star for the New York Yankees. Lou provided Major League Baseball's Archives with more tirades than anyone. For example this one from his 1st year as Mariners manager...

Lou's 1st ejection as Mariners Manager

Finally, my favorite Lou tirade didn't come from on the field, it came during an interview. In 1998, a young, brand new reporter for FOX Sports Net Northwest named Rich Waltz had the very unfortunate task of interviewing Lou after pitcher Bobby Ayala blew a 5 run lead at the Kingdome (Sorry I don't remember who they were facing, I think it was Detroit...) Oh, and did I mention this was Rich Waltz's 1st day working for the Mariners? He asked Lou what he thought of Ayala's performance, and well...Lou just EXPLODED in anger! He started swearing like crazy. It was AWESOME!!!!!!! But wait! There's more! Rich had to give the tape to Executive producer Mark Englebrekt, who just laughed & according to Rich, said "Get used to it.". The next afternoon, after pitcher Paul Spoljaric blew a 7 run lead, Rich Waltz had to go back to Lou's office after the ballgame & here is how that conversation went down...

Lou Pinella: ARE YOU GONNA TALK ABOUT THE GODDAMN F***IN' BULLPEN AGAIN????!!!!

Rich Waltz: No Lou I am not going to talk about the bullpen again...

In other words, I guess he learned his lesson.

Players of the Past: Rickey Henderson

The 1st time I saw Rickey Henderson was when he played for the Seattle Mariners [in 2000]. At that point in his career [at age 41], he was already the All-Time Leader in Stolen Bases with over 1,000, he had 74 career Leadoff Homeruns [the 2nd closest is Brady Anderson, with 43!]. Those credentials cannot be denied. But their was just one flaw in Rickey Henderson's career: He was one arrogant baseball player. But, he had the ability to back it up. Nobody in the history of Major League Baseball could drive a pitcher more crazy than Rickey Henderson could. For instance if Rickey reached 1st base via a base hit or getting hit by a pitch, he'd steal 2nd base on the next pitch & steal 3rd on the next one! I think he stole 3rd base more often than he stole 2nd base! He was just an incredible athlete.  He played not only with the Mariners, but for every other team in the league. He even played in South Korea in 2005! But my favorite Rickey Henderson story was when he was with the Mariners in 2000:

During the playoffs that year, the Mariners were in New York to face the Yankees [who Rickey had played for in the '80's] & Rickey was checking into the team hotel. But he didn't check into the hotel under the name "RICKEY HENDERSON" he checked under the name "RICHARD PRYOR". Yes, Rickey Henderson checked under the name of the legendary comedian who, at that time, had been DEAD for 4 years!

I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!

BREAKING NEWS: The Toronto Blue Jays have acquired Starting Pitcher Francisco Liriano,  outfielder Harold Ramirez & catcher Reese McGuire from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for pitcher Drew Hutchison. I am not going to say I told you that Reese McGuire may be traded to another team. But, to steal a line from sportscaster-turned-political analyst-turned-sportscaster Keith Olbermann: I TOLD YOU BUT YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE ME!!!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME???

But seriously, how stupid are the Pirates? I said that Reese McGuire would be the 2nd coming of Jason Varitek back in my very first entry on this blog. But I do understand that Francisco Liriano has had a terrible season [a 5.46 Earned Run Average] this year & the Pirates wanted to get Liriano's salary off their books, but the Pirates, realistically, have NO SHOT at making the playoffs, unless the Cubs' Billy Goat Curse shows up & the Cubs lose 20 consecutive games AND the St. Louis Cardinals lose 10 consecutive games. There is NOTHING to gain in trading Reese McGuire. In three years, when the Blue Jays have McGuire behind the plate as their starting catcher & is their team captain [like Jason Varitek was to the Boston Red Sox], the Pirates will look like idiots for trading him for a mediocre pitcher [like the Mariners did back in 1997 when they traded Varitek for Heathcliff Slocumb!] & will be thinking what might have been...

Reese McGuire

Why I believe Major League Baseball is rigged against the Mariners

Here are 4 chilling coincidences that may prove to you that Major League Baseball is rigged against the Seattle Mariners. Please read all of these before you jump to conclusions stating otherwise.

1. If you hadn't noticed, every other team in Major League Baseball has gotten to the playoffs since 2002...except for one team: The Seattle Mariners. Although, you can somewhat blame ownership for not spending enough money, they are NOT the only reason.

2. When the Seattle Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers after the 1969 season, the city of Seattle felt betrayed by not just the team owners, who didn't have any money, but by conniving MLB officials who looked the other way as some shady car dealer named Bud Selig bought the team. In response, former Washington State Attorney General Slade Gorton sued MLB on behalf of Washington State calling for a new team in the Northwest & $7 million in damages. During the trial, Bill Dwyer, the lawyer representing the City of Seattle, produced evidence that secret talks took place between the Pilots Owners, and Bud Selig during the 1969 World Series. According to MLB rules, you cannot under ANY circumstances, sell or even talk of selling your team publicly or privately. Seattle eventually did get the Mariners, so this isn't the worst coincidence...or maybe it is, I don't know.

3. When Bud Selig [yes, the same guy who took the Pilots away] became Commissioner of MLB in 1992, it was conveniently mere weeks after the Seattle Mariners hired Lou Piniella, who would lead the Mariners to four playoff appearances [1995, 1997, 2000 & 2001]. Since 1993, MLB has added two new Postseason Rounds [the Division Series in 1995 & the Wild Card Game in 2012] So really it's getting more difficult for the Mariners to get to the Playoffs, let alone a World Series. He also employed the current MLB umpire group back in 2000.

4. Edgar Martinez hasn't made the Hall of Fame

Since his retirement from MLB after the 2004 season, Edgar Martinez has NOT been given the honor of being in the Hall of Fame. I don't believe that it's because he didn't play an actual position, I believe it's because he played in Seattle. If you think about it, if Edgar had played for the New York Yankees, he'd be in the Hall of Fame on the 1st attempt[which, for Edgar, was in 2010, six years ago]. Mark my words: David Ortiz will get into the Hall of Fame before Edgar Martinez. Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong...

The Safeco Effect

Before I start, I would like to take a moment & say congratulations to my mom, who is getting married in 2 hours [as of this writing] in Ireland.

Something occurred back in the 1990's that I think bears repeating...

The Seattle Mariners had a ridiculously good hitting team in the mid to late 90's. They had Ken Griffey Jr, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, Alex Rodriguez, etc. But they were a ridiculously horrible pitching team. Actually, they had three good pitchers who were not just good, they were three of the best in the league while they were with the team: Randy Johnson, Jamie Moyer & [I can't believe I'm about to write this] Jeff Fassero. However, the only problem was that these three guys were acquired in trades. Why is this a problem, you may ask? For years, the Seattle Mariners had not just a terrible track record of developing young pitchers, they were the worst. To be fair, part of that can be attributed to the Kingdome, which was a park that favored the hitters. But if that was the whole problem, then there would be no point in me writing this entry, now would it? The other [& more stupid] part was that the Mariners developed these young pitchers the exact wrong way: They rushed them up to the Majors for no good reason & these young pitchers were at fault for no good reason. The only good young pitcher they had during this time was Derek Lowe & we traded him to the Red Sox along with Jason Varitek for some busted pitching machine.

But since the Mariners moved to Safeco Field [a park that favors the pitchers] in July, 1999, the exact opposite has happened: The Mariners can develop good young pitchers [i.e. Felix Hernandez], they just can't develop good hitters, with the exception of 3rd Baseman Kyle Seager. This is something I'd like to call "The Safeco Effect". This means that no matter how much potential you have as a hitter, you will not live up to that potential in Safeco Field.

Zach Lee: The Newest Seattle Mariner

This past Sunday, the Seattle Mariners traded shortstop Chris Taylor to the Los Angeles Dodgers for pitcher Zach Lee, who was assigned to Triple-A Tacoma, the Mariners' Highest-Ranked Minor League Affiliate. Here are 3 things you should know about the newest member of the Seattle Mariners...

1. He is a freakishly talented athlete who throws, consistently, 90 to 93 Miles Per Hour & has a lot of potential.

 Zach Lee

2. He was the Los Angeles Dodgers' 1st round pick in the 2010 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft out of McKinney High School in McKinney, Texas, where he starred in both baseball [as a pitcher] & football [as a quarterback]. He was considered a difficult signing by many baseball draft experts due to his football commitment to Louisiana State University and dropped in the MLB draft as a result of this. But he signed with the Dodgers, anyway.

3. His 1st start in Triple-A [while with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization] was against the Tacoma Rainiers, where, as I previously stated, he was assigned to when he was traded to the Seattle Mariners on Sunday.

Could Major League Baseball expand in the future?

It won't happen anytime soon, but expanding to 32 teams is in Major League Baseball's not-too-distant future, according to Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred. At a meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors in New York back in late April of this year, Manfred acknowledged that such a gaudy move makes sense both for the league's long-term growth strategy and to the nuts and bolts of scheduling. Based on Manfred's statements on Thursday and in the recent past, it's not out of the question that one, or both, of the new teams could be from outside the United States.

A movement to bring MLB back to Montreal has been in the works for awhile thanks to the efforts of former Montreal Expos star outfielder Warren Cromartie and his Montreal Baseball Project [a subject I have written about in previous posts within this blog] In each of the past three years, Olympic Stadium has played host to two-game exhibition series involving the Blue Jays and various opponents, with many former Expos legends, including Pedro Martinez and Tim Raines, showing up for the festivities; paid attendance at those games averaged more than 48,000 per night [100,000 attendees combined]. But, the biggest issue facing expansion here—just as it was when it came to trying to retain the Expos back in 2003—is securing the funding to build a replacement for Olympic Stadium, which needs more than $200 million worth of repairs & is clearly not a MLB-Caliber park. Beyond that, while Manfred stopped short of calling Montreal MLB's top target for expansion, he did say, "I think, even if I didn’t want to say this, the mayor of Montreal would probably tell you if you walked past him on the street, that I have met with him on a number of occasions. They have expressed a strong desire to have Major League Baseball back in Montreal."

BUT, Montreal isn't Canada's only alternative for expansion. Vancouver, British Columbia ranks #1 as the most livable city in North America, according to Mercer's Quality of Living Rankings. Its well-regarded multipurpose stadium, BC Place—the current home of Vancouver’s entries in the Canadian Football League and Major League Soccer—has played host to Minor League Baseball games & spring training practice games in the past, though a 2011 renovation that included a cable-supported retractable roof also added a central scoreboard whose placement generates concerns with regards to future baseball compatibility. Another strike against this city may be its short-lived history in the National Basketball Association. The Vancouver Grizzlies lasted just six seasons, from 1995–96 to 2000–01, before relocating to Memphis, with bad luck in the draft and poor attendance contributing their demise; the league's '98 lockout, like the 1994 Major League Baseball strike for the Montreal Expos, was the crippling final blow.
Another snag for putting a team here is the proximity of the Mariners, who are roughly 140 miles away in Seattle and have asserted their territorial rights in the Pacific Northwest; they would likely require some major concessions to allow a neighbor. Having another team in this area could benefit the Mariners, however, in that they’re currently isolated enough relative to the rest of the majors that they will log the most air miles of any team in 2016, at 47,704 total. A regional rivalry could lessen the blow to both the Mariners and the new club, since some of their games against more far-off located opponents [like the Yankees] would be replaced by those against their new rivals.

 

Vancouver, B.C. Place