There were many baseball fans, myself included, who thought that the Mariner’s were the real day. Who wouldn’t? They showed vast improvements in 2009 and they made a bunch of moves to get even better. The fact that the Angels looked pretty weak only help the Mariners’ chances. Oh were we wrong.
This team can’t hit, can’t score, and can’t hit home runs. It doesn’t even matter that they can’t hit home runs because there’s no one on the stadium to catch them. What exactly went wrong?
Baseball is a sport unlike others when it comes to age. If you’re 40 and a basketball player, you’re done unless you have extreme ability or are just playing a few minutes a game. If you’re 40 and a football player, you’re either retired, a kicker/punter, or Brett Favre.
Regularly though, ballplayers will play well into their 40s, and play well at that. Julio Franco hung around forever, as did Nolan Ryan.
There are currently ten ballplayers over 40 who have been active this season. How many will continue their trend and play until 42, 45, even a bit further?
Thank you ESPN. Thank you Seattle newspapers. Thank you Mariners fans. Thank you radio talk shows. Thank you sports world. Oh yeah, and thank you Kevin Gregg.
I say thank you to all of the above because you have awoken one of the greatest baseball players of all time from his slumber.
Throughout this season, Griffey had been criticized day in and day out on how he should retire. People have said he’s too old, doesn’t have the same bat anymore, and simply cannot perform at the Major League level.
Maybe they are right. Maybe he is getting older. Maybe he doesn’t have the same bat speed anymore. Maybe he doesn’t belong in the big leagues.
Maybe. Maybe not.
With the tying run on base in the bottom of the ninth, just two outs away from the club’s sixth loss in a row, Ken Griffey Jr. was called upon to save the day.
On a 2-1 pitch, Griffey lined a base hit to right field to deliver the game winning run and perhaps becoming the spark that the Mariners needed to turn this thing around.
On a night where all hope seemed lost, where the Mariners were just two outs away from another disheartening loss, the Kid came through with a clutch hit that will shut critics up for at least one night.
Every athlete has a mean streak in them that when tapped into, they become one of the most dangerous players on the field. A man can only take so much criticism before he starts to do something about it.
Being the leader of this team and the face of the franchise, its up to Griffey to help salvage the season.
Although he is only hitting .191 with no home runs, and as a team the Mariners they are ranked 28th in the entire league, you have to feel that the wheels are slowly turning in the Mariners’ favor.
So baseball world, sit back, relax and enjoy because I think the Mariners are on to something.
Oh and some advice on bashing one of the greatest players ever:
Don’t sleep on him.
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Ken Griffey, Jr. is a first ballot Hall Of Famer. That is obvious. Those Hall Of Fame skills are long gone, though. He was bad enough last year. Here are Griffey’s 2009 stats: .214/.324/.411. That isn’t good. Today, though, he flat out stinks. Check out his 2010 line: .191/.252/.213. Ouch! This isn’t new, either. Ken Griffey has been a below average player for years.
With all of that said, he is still very popular in Seattle. Griffey gets a big cheer when the lineup is called out over the PA system before the game. When he comes to the plate, people get off their butts to cheer for him.
It is not Griffey’s responsibility to bow out gracefully. The Mariners must take the bold step of cutting him. Here is why.
The big story of the start of the baseball season would be the great starts by Tampa Bay, San Diego, Cincinnati and Washington.
The other big stories are off the field tales of Hall of Fame players napping and teens getting tasered.
The big debate is about parity. As of right now, there are fifteen teams that are .500 or better. That is great news for those who argue that parity does exist.
I hope that the Tampa Bay Rays cool off and are not in contention for the World Series.
MLB looks terrible when the team that wins it all has to dismantle due to their revenue shortcomings. The end is already on the horizon for Tampa Bay as Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena will be leaving next year for the big free agent money.
The Rays are a nice story, but they are also a sign of what is wrong with baseball. Parity does not exist because small market teams have to win in certain windows and then return to the pack.
A salary cap and salary floor would give this TampaBay team a shot at running off a few titles but they will soon be like the Florida Marlins of 1997 and 2003.
That is if they win the World Series. If they don’t win it all then they will be like the Cleveland Indians from 1995-1999 and 2007.
The Yankees might be trailing the Rays but they are a playoff team. Whether they win the division or take the wild card, does anyone want to face their three man rotation Of CC Sababthia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Petitte or Phil Hughes?
It took three last year to get them the title, they might go to a four man rotation for the 2010 playoffs.
The Red Sox Nation is wondering if it is too early to panic. The two best teams in the American League are in your division in the Rays and Yankees. The shift from offense to pitching and defense has been a slow transformation.
Their offense is still solid and the pitching and defense should come around. Having a healthy center-fielder would help too.
After one quarter of the season, panic should not happen. There is room for improvement though, that is fair to say.
The Twins are a tough minded, competitive team and the loss of Joe Nathan didn’t worry me. Joe Mauer got hurt too and they just plugged in another prospect who played well.
They are the team to beat in the AL Central.
The White Sox, like the Red Sox, wanted to shift to a more pitching and defense approach. It has not translated to a good first quarter of the season.
The White Sox have a good offense and solid pitching. They should be able to catch the Tigers in the AL Central. The Twins might be able to runaway and hide though.
The Seattle Mariners were thought to be a dark horse team this year but they turned out to be a horse apple team.
They will have two stories this summer:
Ken Griffey possibly napping through a pinch-hitting appearance and that story is already winding down.
Which contender will trade for Cliff Lee.
And now onto the National League.
It is very hard to watch a baseball player of Hanley Ramirez’s stature dog it like he did against Arizona.
If you are too hurt to play then sit but if you are out there then please give more than token effort.
And for him to take a stand on an apology is absurd. Say you are sorry and play the game right from this point on.
The Marlins and Mets are close to Philly but does anyone really think that the Phillies will stay close to the other NL East teams?
The Nationals are above .500 and they also have their phenom pitcher on the way. For an obscure franchise like Washington, they could not have had a better first quarter of the season.
The Reds didn’t come out great at the start but they have weathered an average start to rise to first place in the NL Central.
Another nice small-market story where the team has drafted well and their young players are producing. Can they compete with the mighty Cardinals all season long?
Now in the NL West, the Padres don’t have a big team on the block to contend with so they might have a shot to stay in this race all year long.
All in all, this has been a very nice baseball season so far. This is the high point of parity though as the number of teams playing out the string already, like Cleveland, Kansas City, Baltimore, Houston and Arizona, will only increase.
Is it really parity when a small market team like Cincinnati competes for a few years then has to rebuild for a decade? I don’t think so when a team like Boston can struggle mightily then add pieces in the off-season while Tampa Bay will have to draft their replacement for Carl Crawford.
It is not true parity rather the illusion of parity. Illusions can come to be but it takes more than a quarter of an MLB season for that to happen.
I am pulling for the Pittsburgh Pirates to finish at .500 or better for the first time since 1992. They peaked at 7-7 but are six games under .500 right now so they are going to earn it if it happens for them this year.
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Nothing like the popularity contest known as All Star Game voting to drive an attentive fan crazy.
The All Star game is meant to be for the fans, so logically, the fans should get the right to choose who they get to see in the game. As a result, many times a “fan favorite” makes the game despite lackluster performance, thanks to the fan vote.
While the differences between good and bad have become more clear as the years have gone on, there are still plenty of whoppers on the ballot. Factoring in different categories, like current 2010 performance, recent season performance, and the like, here are the top 10 worst All Star candidates.
As a lifelong skeptic, I am the first person to downplay a small sample size of excellent statistics.
When Mike Sweeney tore through spring training and earned a roster spot with the Mariners this year, part of me said ‘good, I’ll take an able bat on the bench,’ while another part of me said ‘why are we wasting a roster spot on a non-fielding designated hitter and pinch hitter when we already have Griffey filling that role?’ I was skeptical, but willing to give Sweeney a few weeks to prove me wrong.
When Mike Sweeney went 1-14 to start the season (a tidy .071 batting average), I was one of the first to demand he be sent out to pasture. As previously mentioned, we already had Griffey to fill the “veteran leader slash clubhouse presence slash non-fielder slash decent pinch hitting option slash past-his-prime hitter” on the roster, and an older Mike Sweeney who couldn’t even bat the Mendoza line had no spot on the team in my opinion.
Not even two months into the season, Mike Sweeney is starting to prove me wrong.
It all started last week, when a friend and I had a discussion over who we would rather have as the everyday DH, Sweeney or Ken Griffey Jr. The nostalgic part of me leaned towards The Kid, but I was arguing in favor of…Mike Sweeney.
This was before sleep-gate , before Griffey’s silent demotion from the DH role, and before Sweeney strung together a few starts at DH this week, but I still endorsed him over Griffey. Why? Because, unlike Griffey, Sweeney seems to actually have some pop left in his bat.
As I mentioned before, I am generally skeptical of small statistical samples. That being said, it is interesting to look at Mike Sweeney’s statistics both after his 1-14 start (April 25 to present) and starting at DH this week (May 13-15).
Since his 1-14 start, Mike Sweeney is 10-31 (.323) with 3HR/5R/5RBI. In three starts at DH this week, Sweeney is 5-11 (.455) with 3HR/3R/3RBI.
Obviously, Mike Sweeney’s recent numbers will not continue all year (Sweeney’s last .300+ season was in 2005), but he has shown promising results for a team desperately lacking power. His most important statistic may be his four extra-base hits (three home runs and a double) over his past four starts at designated hitter. It should be noted that since April 25, a stretch where Mike Sweeney is hitting .323, Ken Griffey Jr. is a miserable 6-35 (.171) with only one extra-base hit.
As the baseball world speculates over whether the Mariners will pursue a better designated hitter via trade, one must wonder whether Don Wakamatsu is willing to let Mike Sweeney have the job for the time being.
If the last three games are any indication, the job is Sweeney’s to lose.
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The Seattle Mariners have entered a world they may eventually wish they hadn’t. In the wake of the Ken Griffey Jr. “sleeping in the clubhouse during a game article,” the Mariner players have decided to boycott the newspaper in which the article appeared.
The Mariners are now refusing to talk to or grant any interviews to the Tacoma News Tribune.
Why, exactly? Because apparently, they feel the reporter who wrote the piece, veteran Mariners beat writer Larry LaRue, was irresponsible for publishing it.
Some have even gone as far as to call him a liar. LaRue went with “anonymous sources” for the piece, indicating they were two younger Mariner players who did not want to be identified.
According to LaRue, several players have approached him and tried to get him to tell them who the players were. He has refused. This refusal to give up his sources is what some Mariner players view as proof that he is lying.
Why would a veteran beat writer of 22 years would make this piece up? They don’t seem to have an answer.
After Tuesday’s game in Baltimore, Mariner pitcher Cliff Lee was in the process of addressing the media, but he abruptly stopped and said he could not continue until the reporter from the News Tribune left.
ESPN has reported that other players have done the same thing while conducting interviews in front of their lockers.
This is a dangerous road to go down for the Mariners and their players. LaRue had every right to print the article, and he has every right to not give up his sources.
Was it the best idea to publish it? Perhaps not. What was there ultimately to gain?
However, that was LaRue’s decision. It seems unprofessional and even a little childish of the Mariners to react this way. And where do they draw the line? What if the Seattle Times comes out in support of LaRue? Do they then boycott the Times?
Can a team floundering like the Mariners have been this year afford to not be talking to the local media?
And speaking of childish, there is also the behavior of Seattle Mariners DH Mike Sweeney to consider.
Apparently the Mariners held a players only meeting Monday night in Baltimore, and, according to Fox Sports, Sweeney demanded that the players who made the Griffey sleeping comments to the reporter stand up so he could beat the crap out of them.
No one stood up.
This has led Sweeney to the logical conclusion that since no one stood up to get beat up, then there were no players who talked to LaRue and he made the whole story up.
Sweeney told Fox Sports, “Nothing is going to divide this clubhouse, especially a makeshift article made up of lies.”
The chance of it being a lie (the fact that two players told LaRue the story) is unlikely. But even if it were, even if for no reason LaRue decided to concoct the whole article and publish it, it doesn’t matter.
The Mariners are in no position to isolate certain aspects of the media. They need the media, and the media needs them. This is not a reason to stop the relationship, even if it is just one newspaper.
The Mariners are trying to sell a product to the people of Seattle that, let’s be honest, isn’t really all that good. This is no time to climb up on your high horse and start picking and choosing who can cover your clubhouse. You better be damn grateful anyone is covering you at all at this point.
Although Mike Sweeney is apparently ready to go to battle, maybe he isn’t the general you want to follow into the front lines. Might want to think about that first.
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The Mariners’ hitting is, to be blunt, very bad.
As an Indians fan, I think of my team’s hitting, and think to myself, it could be worse. We could have the Mariners’ hitting.
They are last in runs, home runs, and slugging percentage, and nearly last in batting average, hits, and other categories.
So the question is, how do we fix this?
Clearly, the Mariners are still in the hunt in a tight AL West, so they aren’t out of it, and can afford to make some changes.
Here are five guaranteed ways to lift the Mariners’ spirits and get them back into things.
Note: The following list is satirical, and not a list of serious suggestions. Their minor league team isn’t hitting well either, so they don’t have many options available for modifying.
With each passing day, the events surrounding Ken Griffey Jr.’s alleged mid-game snooze are becoming less clear in the eyes of many within the sport.
Seattle Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said Ken Griffey Jr. was not asleep in the clubhouse in the eighth inning last Saturday night.
He was indeed on the bench and available to pinch-hit, contradicting parts of a story that appeared in The Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune on Monday.
In case you yourself were napping and missed it, The News Tribune story quoted two young players, who spoke off the record, saying that Griffey was asleep in the clubhouse during the game Saturday night.
When asked whether he was asleep in the clubhouse, Griffey was vague. He didn’t answer the specific question but said, “I wish they [the unnamed players] had been man enough to talk to me.”
Upon being asked if Griffey had been asleep in the clubhouse during the game Saturday night, Wakamatsu said Tuesday, “He wasn’t asleep. He was available to pinch hit, and I chose not to use him as the manager.”
Before Tuesday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles , the Mariners held a players-only meeting. A club source said the meeting was organized by Mike Sweeney and “was 100 percent about Griffey” and was designed to support Griffey.
The source said that Griffey was upset and hurt by the story, and cried briefly during the meeting.
Sweeney chastised the anonymous young players for speaking about something that had happened in the clubhouse, in essence challenging the clubhouse “Deep Throats” to a fight, according to the source.
And therein lies the rub.
If Griffey was indeed NOT asleep and available, then where was the need to chastise these younger players?
What clubhouse incident were they relaying to the world that justified this admonishment?
There is absolutely nothing that makes sense in the team’s statements, and the whole thing smells fishier than the Pike Place Fish Market .
The incident continues to make waves as each day goes by.
After the Mariners beat the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night, winning pitcher Cliff Lee started to address the media, then stopped and said he could not continue until the reporter from The Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune left.
Other Mariners players followed suit with the newspaper at their lockers, according to Seattle-area media reports.
Look, I don’t want to admonish anyone for being a good teammate and looking out for one of their guys.
The sanctity of the clubhouse is one of the values held most dear across Major League Baseball, and the Mariners can’t be happy that two of their teammates allegedly violated that trust while creating a big media controversy in the process.
But from all appearances the events outlined in the initial report seem to be in all likelihood fairly accurate , meaning the Mariners are doing nothing more than killing the messenger here.
So Seattle’s management, keep giving your contradictory statements. Cliff Lee, go on blackballing the reporter who wrote the piece. Mike Sweeney keep offering up “stitches for the snitches.”
All y’all just keep doin’ your thing.
But if your trying to sell me that there is little or no truth to the initial story, just know that I’m not buying it.
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