SECTION 331

Apparently, Byrnes has a blog at Prolebrity.com, the same site that houses Ryan Rowland-Smith’s blog. There’s nothing on it at the moment, but it has been updated to reflect his acquisition here, so there’s that…David Aardsma has a space reserved there, but that is not updated at all, either. Mark Lowe’s is even less updated than Aardsma’s.

I do wish more players kept blogs, but I totally understand why they don’t. If I lived as busy a life, I probably wouldn’t do this, either. But I’ll update my links and hope that eventually Byrnes decides to post something, as I have the feeling that anything coming out of him is going to be entertaining.

I am so putting off going to sleep this evening. G4 is running a programming segment called Movies That Don’t Suck, but I think the irony is lost on them that they’re currently showing something with Jean Claude VanDamme in it…

Yesterday, of course, was the SuperBowl, and now begins the grinding wait between that last gasp of air by football, and the first day that pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training (I’m probably just going to keep capitalizing that). The SB was good, and being able to watch it with a good friend who has been a Saints fan since childhood was a nice way to finish off the season for a sport I technically don’t really care all that much about. If nothing else, I got my yearly dietary recommendation of Cheez(tm) in, so I was accomplishing something.

Most recent news is Cliff Lee’s bone spur. I made the mistake of reading some of the comments on that article, and they broke my brain. A bone spur is the same as  a torn shoulder labrum? Ok, guy, whatever you say…I’m just glad Lee’s getting this taken care of now so that he can come to ST, rather than waiting until later during the season when it would cause him to miss a few starts. He’ll miss a few days of stretching and some calisthenics, he’ll live and so will we.

I’m fully committed to riding the Bedard train, since it was formally announced a few days ago that it was a done deal. Hearing he wants to be here is great, hearing his contract is more attuned to his physical condition is great, Erik’s great, things are great. If this happens, I’ll be fine with that, too. I’m done being skittish over decisions this year, and I plan to just roll with it. If they decided to bring Brad Wilkerson back, I might raise one or both eyebrows (or it would just give me a heart attack and make the worrying a moot point), but it is so very obvious the front office has no intention of letting us down this year. I’m getting that warm snuggly feeling I got last year when we hit .500.

Funny story, just briefly; Tom is currently on a tour in Europe with his band. As anyone who’s read this for any length of time knows, he’s not a huge sports fan. At one show he was at, one of the opening bands did a cover of Zombie Nation’s Kernkraft 400, and earlier today (late at night in Germany), he and his bandmates were watching some music videos on TV, and Kevin Rudolf’s Let It Rock (my ringtone and Mariners introductory song for a lot of 2009) came on. No matter where you go, you can’t escape the Seattle Mariners!

Mariners Mondays is on tonight, of course. It’s a game in May against the Oakland A’s, and it makes me miss Mike Sweeney, his occasional home runs, and his old-man trot around the bases. Looking back at the fact that it took me a while to warm up to Sweeney, I never thought I’d say that, and it makes me kind of happy.

Everyone else is talking about it, and I’m putting off homework today so…

Seriously, is there any other player that has been on this team in recent years that is quite as polarizing as Erik Bedard? Either you really like him or you just hate him. I’m in the first camp, and some of the reasons for that stem from the fact that I’ve been told so often that I should be in the second. I’m stubborn that way.

But the fact of the matter is, Erik Bedard -when healthy and active- is one of the best pitchers in the game. Unfortunately for us, he hasn’t been healthy and active for the majority of his time here in Seattle. A lot of people choose to hold that against him, and I think those people are silly. Blame the guy who signed him to a multi-million dollar deal without thoroughly checking into his health records (ask an Orioles fan, they’ll tell you he had issues before he got here); don’t hate the player, hate the game. But people will choose to be angry at him because they need something to be angry about, even with all the other improvements that have been made thus far – it completely stuns me, but it’s absolutely true. Fans are funny that way.

I find myself torn with all the recent discussion about signing him to a high-incentive one year deal. I like Erik Bedard – there is little that will change that; but I am absolutely terrified that he will break again, and I don’t know if it’s worth it, for lack of a better phrase. I mean, I know he’s “worth it”, but it seems like a massive risk to me; we’ve gone through this twice now, I don’t know if the third time is necessarily a charm. If Bedard was healthy, a Felix/Lee/Bedard/Rowland-Smith punch would be absolutely unstoppable – and I would love every minute of it – and from what I understand, we’re responsible for his rehab until he’s shiny and new anyway, so he’s ours until May/June whether anyone likes it or not. I find myself wondering if there is anything that our staff could do (ala’ Ian Snell’s foot) that might help him throw differently or hold himself differently to avoid some of the strain he’s been putting on himself to wind up injured to begin with. It seems like our pitching staff has a knack for correcting the wrongs (getting Jarrod Washburn to, as he said on Brock & Salk, stick his butt out a little in the windup to improve his throw), and I’d like to see what they can do with him in addition to the giant pile of awesome that he already is when he’s feeling good.

Well, look at that…I think I may have just talked myself into a ‘yay’ for this idea.

There’s an interesting article and accompanying video here in regards to JJ Putz going to the Chicago White Sox (props to Mariner Central user IWantZduriencik for linking it from Larry Stone). I’m not going to hazard any guesses – I wasn’t there, and neither were you – but right now it sounds like something went terribly wrong for all parties involved last year. What I know about the Mets I know from reading Mets Grrl, and I’d have to assume from some of her recent posts that all is not well in New York.

Obviously, I want JJ to succeed wherever he goes, and am looking forward to the games we get to play against Chicago this year. And I hate to say this, but in the interest of full disclosure, I’m not sure I could take seeing him get battered by my own guys. I’m certainly not going to complain if we win a game against the White Sox, but it’ll be bittersweet.

Also, a lot of rumors lately swirling about Russell Branyan and the Marlins. Since the rumors are either a) that Branyan was made an offer for a year, and b) that he was never offered anything and only called on, I’m not holding my breath, but I do hope he lands somewhere. He may be on my like-forever-for-no-discernible-reason list, like Garrett Olson.

As of earlier today, we’ve added Ryan Garko to the roster, and subtracted poor little Gaby Hernandez. I heard about it in the car, but have no idea what to think. Even after reading both the USS Mariner and Lookout Landing articles, I still have no idea what to think. We are now eyeball-deep in bats, so things could, indeed, be worse; though, like Jeff Sullivan says, if this means a loss of Ryan Langerhans, it will take a while to grow on me. I’ll reserve complaint until later (though honestly, I really hate even the concept of feeling in any way negatively towards this lovely, marvelous group of baseball players and their front office), and just say welcome to Seattle, Mr Garko.

I don’t know that I so much enjoy the idea of going with a smaller bullpen, but that’s just my discomfort with the closeness of some games last year. It seems there are a lot more injury issues to be watched out for now, because while everyone we have acquired up to this point came with great upside, there are also Erik Bedard-like warning stickers on pretty much all of them. I’d love to believe that everyone will stay healthy, but I know that it’s not a realistic way to think. Boo.

Anyway, since I have no concrete feelings on any of this one way or the other, here is a cool video that Scott Weber from ProBallNW.com found on another blog, and I like it enough to share it here:

I am wiped out. Shuffling slowly in a crowd of people is far more tiring than a brisk walk. I think perhaps in the future a one-day Q&A is definitely on the agenda, since it’s genuinely entertaining, and maybe a visit to Last Fan Standing (I like trivia, I’m just not good at it) and the cooking demos, and that’ll have to be it…I say that now, knowing full well that I’ll likely go both days in 2011. All that aside, this is far more an experience post, and a lot less a baseball post.

I’m not going to go into much detail about the complete and utter failure of a human being we had the displeasure of “meeting” while waiting in line today. Long story short, a man who had been waiting in line for “several hours” got uppity at us for simply standing in front of him while waiting to get Jessica and her wheelchair into the wheelchair line. We weren’t “cutting”, as he accused us of doing, we were merely standing in front of him while waiting for the other line because there was no place else to stand, and that was what we were told to do by the staff. The other people around us were kind enough to realize this, and there was a lot of “Can you believe that guy?” murmurs. Further adding to what I hope was a massive amount of embarrassment for him was the fact that he still got into the event sooner than we did, after berating us for holding him up in line. I would wish negativity on him, but I have the feeling that things are already bad enough for someone who would freak out like that on someone in a wheelchair.

Anyway…we got inside, and while Brandon took Jessica to the elevator in her chair, their 10-year-old son Orion and I were guided by the staff to go up the escalator because it would be faster for traffic flow. We planned to meet up at the Q&A area. O and I took off up the moving stairs and took up residence in some seats near the dugout. Brandon and Jessica joined us later. Jess’s injuries are getting better, so she was able to leave the chair at the top of the stairs and walk down with Brandon’s help. Standing or walking for long periods of time is still not an option, sadly. We sat and chatted and watched a clip on the jumbotron of Jack Zduriencik thanking everyone for showing up, and apologizing for not being able to be there while he was in Kansas accepting the award for Executive of the Year (His intro line, “Unfortunately, I’m in Kansas City right now…” got a laugh from Brandon, who is from that area), and then, the first Q&A segment began, and suddenly a ton of people and photographers swarmed the area.

Mark Lowe, Chone Figgins, and Casey Kotchman showed up on the dais to take questions and talk about their respective positions here. A kid who was maybe 7 asked Figgins about being a member of the “haaaaated Angels”. Casey Kotchman looked a little cold and like he had just woken up, and Mark Lowe still looks like your stoner neighbor next door.

I have the feeling it’s going to take a Griffey-load of tickling to get Kotchman to smile. At one point as Lowe was attempting to answer another question about the bullpen’s gladiator helmets (some of which are still in his possession), a train went by (it was a fairly heavy train morning). Several minutes after that when Figgins was attempting to answer a question, another train went by. It almost appeared timed, and seemed to throw everyone off a little. Laughter occurred, more Mariners love-fest stuff, and all around, a good way to start off the day.

After I got the photos I wanted and the talking was over, we headed back up the stairs to get some food. I ran into Twitterer Cary Murphy, and brief greetings were exchanged, but the family and I were desperately hungry, so we couldn’t chat long, apologies. There were no lines that early, and for some reason today’s hot dog was much better than yesterday’s – they got the char on it just right. Delicious! We stood and ate and chatted about the upcoming weeks (Tom’s going to be leaving for Europe this Tuesday, and I’m trying to plan things with friends to keep myself out of trouble), and then walked over to the roof control room tour. This isn’t as much of a tour as it is an information session – not much touring to do in an 8×8 booth with a giant green button and two stacks of server/computery things. But it does afford a great view of the stadium from the center field vantage point, and also gets you up close and personal with the wheels in their tracks, along with some words of encouragement from the Seahawks organization:

There was also this:

Should I be brave? Should I say right now that those flags will be in exactly the same position at the end of the year? Will it jinx us if I do? Hmmm…

I also got a picture of the current street work that is being done to extend a bridge over Royal Brougham to get people onto 4th Avenue and onto the freeway and ease a little of the post-game traffic congestion. I made a crack to Brandon that it figures that Washington state highways were built out of Styrofoam:

We loaded back onto the elevator, took the walk back around the north side of the main concourse, and found another elevator on the northwest side of the field that took us downstairs. Brandon has actually been on a game show before (on the Game Show Network, even!) called “I’ve Got A Secret”. Brandon’s secret is that he has a GI Joe modeled after him – and unfortunately, the panel guessed, so he did not win. But his family does like game shows, so I figured I’d take them down to see Last Fan Standing.

We were each handed raffle tickets (again, I had no intention of using mine, because I’m a giant chicken), and had a seat to watch. The first round none of us got called, but during the second round, Matt Pitman called Orion’s number. Completely taking me by surprise (Orion, like his father before him, is into comic books and video games, and doesn’t really do the sports thing), O popped up and ran to the front, procured his free batting practice hat (“It’s official” he reminded us later), put it on his head, and stood up on the stage with the other contestants. Apologies for the awful photo – I thought it had come out better, so didn’t bother taking another:

The category this round was “Mariners RBI leaders in 2009″. I’m not sure Orion even knows what a “ribbi” is, but the other three people who responded in front of him did not guess Ichiro, so O took it – no matter who you are, if you live in Seattle and you’ve even heard of baseball, you know who Ichiro is. So far so good. Suddenly, the next two guesses were eliminated, leaving three people up on the stage, including O. When his turn came again, he stood there, not knowing what to say. Pitman gave him a little bit longer, and O blurted out the only other name he knew in baseball, if only because of me: JJ Putz. This got a giggle out of the audience, but O was unfazed. Pitman asked the scoreboard if it had JJ Putz, and was met, of course, with a giant buzzing noise. This was when Orion got embarrassed, pulling the brim of his hat down over his face, and, admitting defeat, stepping off the stage and running back towards where we were sitting. The rest of the round ended with a winner of some game tickets, and we decided to go check out the cooking demo. As we were wading through people to get out of the room, we passed by Pitman, who slipped Orion a voucher for 4 view reserved passes to a game before May 31st! I’d like to put that sentence into multi-colored all-caps and have some glitter shooting out of it. I can’t even get over how cool that was, and it immediately took away all of O’s anxiety about what had just happened. So even though I’ve thanked Mr Pitman via Twitter, thank you again, so much; that made the family’s day, for sure, and you made a little boy very proud!

We got into the Diamond Club area to watch the upcoming cooking demo with the D-Club chef, and today it was 3-berry cobbler. It was an amazingly simple recipe to make (everyone got samples and recipe cards), and the demo was over much more quickly than in the past, and we found out why; apparently, SafeCo has partnered with a company called Centerplate to enhance dining experiences at the ballpark, for all ticket levels. There was a representative from this company to answer questions from the audience, but basically what it boils down to is this – there are going to be a LOT more dining options at SafeCo for 2010. Of particular interest to me personally is the fact that there will be a Greek food kiosk up on the 300 level (hummus and gyro at a baseball game? Yes, please!). The rep also mentioned a vegetarian (and fruit smoothie!) booth down on the main concourse, and several other options on various floors (including a prime rib nacho dish at the Club level). This is still in the test run stages – based on fan surveys from past years – and more elaborate food options will or won’t be made available as they dip their toes in the market this year. So bon appetite at SafeCo in 2010!

At this point, I had done all that I wanted to do, and so had my friends, so we escaped down through the Team Store elevator, checked and saw that no, there were no Aardsma t-shirts available yet, and wandered back to the car. All in all, despite the somewhat rough start, it was a good day.

And I am SO READY FOR BASEBALL SEASON TO START!

Wow. Where do I even start here? I guess the best thing to do is just start typing, and I apologize in advance if I forgot to mention anyone I may have met…

I did not get the free street parking that I initially sought when I left home around 10am, and instead figured I’d take the hit and just fork over $10 being advertised to park in the SafeCo garage. I hadn’t bothered to get cash, and there was a man out front collecting money, so the following exchange occurred…Me: “Are you only taking cash for this?” Him: “Well, let me ask you, what are you here for?” Me (pointing at SafeCo across the street): “The Seattle Mariners thing.” Him: “FanFest, huh? Weeeeell…let’s just say that today, it’s on me.”  Turns out the $10 fee was for the people who were going to the Seattle Boat Show. Someone was also pulling out on the main level as I was coming in, so I snagged their spot.  Me=1, Luck=0.

I walked across the street and gave my friend Rob a call. He had just bought his ticket and was walking along the massive (I’m not kidding) line to get to its end. We met on 1st, and strolled down toward what we thought was the end of the line – keep in mind that at this point in the day, it was only 10.15, a full 45 minutes before doors opened – but the line just kept going. It went around the block down Royal Brougham, towards the center field entrance. We made the decision to cut our losses and go across the street to Jimmy’s to have a cocktail and wait for things to die down. We drank slowly, one drink apiece, then a pint of ice water each. We were there for a good hour and change…and the line situation did not improve. Since neither of us wanted to continue to pay over $6 a pop for beer or another cocktail, we wandered back out onto the street, and pondered the line, which now curved almost to the left field entrance, but still wound back on itself along 1st Ave S. So we did what any logical person would do; we went to the Team Store. At first, my plan was just to browse – but we quickly figured out that people were being let in through the upper level, so we had the nice man at the door scan our tickets, and walked right on in! Me=2, Luck=0.

We walked the “SafeCo 500″ on the main concourse, looking for the AquaSox booth to talk to broadcaster Pat Dillon there, and this is where it gets fun, and where my “big news” comes in (drum roll, please)….Mr Dillon has made me the Happiest Little Baseball Fan in America by inviting me to sit in the press booth for an upcoming AquaSox game, in order to write about the experience -which I most definitely will; I’ll even show up with my laptop! So though I need to check in with school first to find out about my externship, I am shooting for the ‘Sox home opener on Monday, June 21st. I wish there were some explosions or something that I could put up for this, but suffice to say, “Wooooooooooooooo!” More about that when it happens – the Sox short season gives me plenty of time to figure it out, and gives Mr Dillon plenty of time to change his mind when he realizes he’s invited a crazy person into his booth!

After departing the AquaSox kiosk, Rob and I wandered down to the Q&A area over the first base dugout just in time to see Dave Niehaus and Don Wakamatsu wrapping up their part of the show:

Sadly, I missed Chone Figgins and Ryan Rowland-Smith by about 10-15 minutes. I am hoping to catch them tomorrow. We camped out in some seats off to the side, and just sat and listened and chatted about what everyone was saying. Rob then decided that he needed season seats, and after trying to get me to cave in and go in on them with him (dude, I don’t have a job!), went to check out the left field bleachers. Shortly thereafter, fellow Mariners Tweeter Jason Simon tracked me down, and we sat and chatted about Mariners new and old between Q&A guests. Su (aka “msb” on Lookout Landing) found us, and when the scouting department came out, we all moved down closer to listen to them talk.

That’s Dave Sims with Carmen Fusco and Pedro Grifol. I neglected to take a note pad with me, which was a mistake. They didn’t talk about anything earth-shattering (though Su informed me later that during the talk with Tony Blengino, they gave the impression that they were not done with the search for the big right-handed bat), but it would have been nice to have had something to jot down notes on, rather than having to rely on my memory during what was indeed a very busy day today. I also neglected to bring my Teixeira baseball for autographs, another big mistake.

Grifol and Tom McNamara.

Next, Mark Lowe, Rob Johnson, David Aardsma, and Eric Byrnes showed up and took questions from the crowd. I liked Byrnes immediately. He is easy-going, quick to smile, and seems really stoked to be here. He was asked what he’d first like to do upon getting settled in Seattle. He said he wasn’t sure, but that he’d already been taken to the original Starbucks, and thought it was really cool. He had a vast amount of praise for all he’d heard about the way the club was run, and was very grateful for the opportunity. I love him already.

One woman in the audience asked Johnson if he was concerned at all about having to catch the first pitch on Opening Day, coming out of Randy Johnson’s arm-cannon. RJ said he was hoping to see Mr Snappy, because he’d heard so much about it from Dan Wilson that he wanted to see it for himself. Having never seen Mr Snappy before myself, I think I’d like to see that, too. This particular part of the Q&A ended with Dave Sims telling Eric Byrnes that he had a “special fan” who wanted to meet him, and that turned out to be none other than:

Because of the kickback on the mics, I didn’t catch why Wak is such a fan of Byrnes, but they both seemed happy about the meeting, and if they’re happy, I’m happy. It was also around this point in time (or so) that Jason introduced me to Gregg Greene, the Mariners Director of Marketing. If you’ve been to FanFests before, Gregg is often standing on the dugout off to the side, wearing a pair of headphones and running a tight ship.

Jay Buhner was the next up with Dave Valle, and Bone took a lot of questions about the 1995 season. At one point, he was asked if he would come out of retirement, and before he had a chance to respond, the people in the sound tech booth decided to have a bit of fun at his expense by playing George Thoroughgood’s “Bad to the Bone”, his old at-bat song. A rather large crowd had formed at this point, and everyone got a good laugh out of it.

After Buhner and Valle were done, Su and Jason and I decided that going downstairs to get out of the cold for a while was a good idea. On the way up the stairs, I met and chatted briefly with Erik (Bart’s Evil Twin, here – nice to meet you!), and then the three of us took the elevator down to Last Fan Standing, which was being hosted by Matt Pitman from ESPN Seattle. LFS is a trivia contest – there is a category given, and 5 fans are picked via lottery (ie; out of a hat) to respond. The categories are list-style, so something like “Name the Mariners RBI leaders for 2009″, for example. Each contestant gets 30 seconds to respond, and it’s round-robin until someone guesses an incorrect name (ala’ Family Feud), or runs out of time, eliminating themselves.  I am not brave enough to participate -nor should I be, with my sad limited knowledge of Mariners past- but it was fun to watch. Jason and Su departed shortly after we got downstairs to get food and listen to the last of the Q&A respectively, but I stayed downstairs to watch the contest and try and warm up a little. Su came back down later, and we said hello to Pitman during a break, when suddenly, awesome photographer, fellow Batista-hater, and Twitter friend Paul Marsh appeared out of nowhere with his son and another kid whose name/relation I did not catch (sorry, guys!), and Shannon Drayer also materialized! It was like I was having some weird dream after eating too much pizza, which was driven even further home when an iPhone light saber battle broke out between Matt and Paul.

We bid farewell to everyone, as everyone had somewhere else to be, and Su and I finished off the day by grabbing a Major League Mariner Dog, and talking about road trips, camping, and of course, the Mariners.

That was definitely worth my $10.

EDIT; I did forget someone, but I didn’t mean to! I was briefly (very briefly, sadly) able to meet Moira Koskey, who used to write the Mariner Housewife blog for the Seattle Times. Unfortunately, there was not time to chat, and she was rocking a mean case of laryngitis, but it was her first FanFest, and I do hope she had fun, since she drove all the way up from Portland for it.

The fun keeps on coming today. We just managed to get Eric Byrnes. I am likely the only one who find it amusing that he played for the Diamondbacks last year – my arbitrary NL team.  You’d think my NL team would be the Phillies, since they are a safe haven for a few former Mariners, and I have a huge man-crush on Shane Victorino (as opposed to the less-baseball-oriented girl crush), but for some reason, the DBacks are the NL team I follow (very) lightly. I do like traveling in Arizona, maybe that’s why…Dave Cameron says ‘yes’, so I feel secure in being happy that we’re nearly done. Byrnes will be joining the FanFest-ivities this weekend, I hear through a Twittery grapevine…

Anyway, I guess he’s a steal for a year, at an ancient 34 years old, and riddled with injury problems. But he’s our right-handed pop guy that Jack Zduriencik and everyone else has been talking about since about November-ish, so he’s our injury problem now. Tommy Everidge, a guy nobody seemed too terribly excited about, was DFA’d to make room for Byrnes, we hardly knew ye. So I’m going to take a stab at it and say that it looks like they plan on platooning left field all year long. Also, he wears tabis:

Photo courtesy Sports Illustrated.

I think we’re going to need more beach.

I neglected to mention something earlier that I found to be a marvelous revelation…I spent most of yesterday listening to Brock & Salk at SafeCo talking to Zduriencik, Don Wakamatsu, Shannon Drayer, and a bunch of other people in regards to the upcoming season, mercifully saving me from having to listen to football talk for 4 hours. I wasn’t able to grab an exact quote, but heard mention of the batting order this year, as there has been some small amount of postulating over who was going to hit where, with both Ichiro and Chone Figgins in the mix now. Emphatically, it was stated that Ichiro was number one, like always, but what I found to be fantastic was that this does not bother Figgins in the least. If memory serves, both Wak and Zduriencik stated that Figgins is only interested in the win, and doesn’t really care what order he’s in. I love this – whether clubhouse chemistry is quantifiable or not, to have this sort of attitude continue on into 2010 just makes me all that much more stoked for the season to begin. Hugs for everyone!

I shall get this evening started by doing what I’ve been long promising a few people I was going to do; saying farewell to Miguel Batista:

I don’t have any champagne glasses, cut me some slack.

See all y’all tomorrow!

It is gray outside and in the lower 50s, but that does not make it any less of an excellent day. I’m already debating hot dog vs. garlic fries during tomorrow’s festivities, and arguing with myself over whether or not hot chocolate or coffee will be the better thing to drink tomorrow in the cold. Per weather.com, it looks like it’ll be raining, and the only thing worse than cold weather in Seattle is cold damp weather in Seattle. I have two Mariners blankets – one is a woven Ichiro throw, the other is a giant pink fleece thing with the Ms logo on it . Though I generally frown on pink clothing in sports (unless you’re under 12 or over 50), that pink fleece blanket is the best thing for cold sporting event situations ever, so I will likely be toting that around, too.

But enough of my inordinate spazticity regarding the upcoming weekend (I am trying not to sound like a loon over how excited I am for the next 48 hours, I really think my blood pressure has shot up a few points today alone), on to some snaps!

I’ve probably used this before during the original game post, but figured I’d use it again. Jarrod Washburn’s last game. It was a nice warm evening, and a gorgeous pink sunset over the Sound. That’s Ichiro sliding back to first to beat the pickoff (and he did, of course), with Overbay’s foot off the bag.

At the 2009 mid-summer USS Mariner and Lookout Landing event. The game was against the Rays, it was the first time Doug Fister set foot on the hill, and despite the fact that we were losing our shirts, the Moose still came up and banged his sign on the railing and led a little bit of cheering. Because that’s his job. Or her job. Its job?

Erik Bedard launches a warmup pitch at Rob Johnson (insert joke here about how a lot of people want to launch things at Rob Johnson). I wish the ball had been a little clearer in the shot, but it’s not really something you can ask for. I got better at taking these sorts of pictures as the season progressed.

I’m not sure exactly what I can/should mention and what I can’t/shouldn’t at the moment, but I may have some really cool (for me, at least) news coming up soon about a future blog post in conjunction with an actual game. I’m really psyched about a discussion I had last night, but need to nail down some further details before I mention anything here, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I hope to see some of you at FanFest over the weekend. I will be rocking my JJ Putz jersey, and around 50 sweaters to stay warm. This will be the best FanFest yet, I think, and I’m super-stoked about it. The 2010 season is getting better all the time. Believe Big! Also, in case it hasn’t been talked about much, there are now Chone Figgins and Cliff Lee “jerseys” (the dark blue t-shirt variety) in the Team Store. I saw a picture of them with my own eyes from Bill Wixey’s Twitter account. Keeping my fingers crossed for an Aardsma…

It’s finally happened.

I really feel the need to point out that I know, I know there is a difference between Miguel Batista the pitcher and Miguel Batista the person. The man writes poetry, for Pete’s sake! He makes great efforts for his country and the people in it, and he’s probably a really nice guy. He was nominated for the Roberto Clemente award in 2009 because of this charity work, and for all I know, he rescues kittens and puppies on the weekends. But unfortunately, as a fan, he was not my favorite Mariner. I am totally willing to admit that he did far better for us in 2009 than in 2008 (and again, I’m trying to err on the side of not holding 2008 against anyone here), but he was a frightening mound presence, because you never knew who you were going to get – good strike-out Batista or really bad Batista. It was obviously frustrating for him – his body language was very readable – and I get that; but as a fan of a team I love, it is hard to watch hit after hit being given up, especially in situations where to have had another pitcher in there for relief might have meant the exact opposite of giving up hits.

A lot of us having been waiting for this to happen. We new he was a free agent, but I personally needed some absolute closure on this issue, and that meant either the start of the season without him on the roster, or another team picking him up, which was what I actually did want to happen. Now that it has, I feel a sense of relief that I also feel just a little guilty for – these guys are still people, after all – but his time there was over, and there isn’t much else to say about it. I could crack wise about how the Nats really must be trying to work their way to the World Series via first draft picks, but honestly, in my little tiny heart of hearts, I wish Miguel Batista well in the National League. I’m sure it’s not fun or pleasant, having people breathing down your neck every time you step on the hill, and it can’t be easy trying to extend your career once you’re past 35, let alone nearly kissing 40, so good for him. I was going to use this photo for something else, but it’s one of my favorite pictures (believe it or not!) so I’m using it here…goodbye, Miguel.

This is the point every offseason where I vaguely start to wonder if the time, energy and thought I invest in the game of baseball is all worth it. The SuperBowl is next weekend, signifying the near start of Spring Training, and FanFest is this weekend, a horrible teaser for the Real Thing, but the hours start to drag, and even with Mariners Mondays, I feel like baseball will never, ever come back to me. I even stop posting its picture on telephone poles in the neighborhood, getting to the point of hopelessness. As much as I enjoy watching the old games on FSN, nothing quite matches up to a game where you don’t already know the outcome. But I try to be focused. Baseball may yet still be found by the police in an abandoned warehouse on the wrong side of town – I have to stay strong. Now, bullets!

• It is by now old news that Ben Sheets signed with the Oakland A’s. They must have been pretty happy about it, as they got him all press-conferenced up as soon as possible the other day, rather than waiting. This signing alone apparently makes the A’s more of a threat than initially thought, so this year’s AL West might be a little more of a nailbiter than it was even last year. I’m not taking any AL West teams for granted, we’re all going to be at each other’s throats. Even with the departure of some of their AL West-winning guys, the Angels are like cobras and must be treated with respect. I think we definitely have made upgrades of course, but I am not as ready as some to call the win this year. If the Mariners could do me the honor of making me a liar, I’d greatly appreciate it.
• Miguel Cairo signed with the Cinncinati Reds. It’s a minor league contract, but good for him for being able to extend his career. I liked Cairo. He wasn’t great, but he was at least reasonably competent defensively from what I saw, and always seemed like he was having a good time, regardless of all the issues that year. My last memory of him in an Ms uniform involved him tossing baseballs to little kids in the front row during one of the last games of 2008, and there are fewer things I find more endearing about players than taking the time out for the kids. Being awesome in the dirt is always great, but recognition of the little guys – literally – is just a nice additional quality for an athlete to have.
• Johnny Damon’s name has been brought up in Mariners talk a few times over the last few days, which I find both alienating and oddly compelling. I keep having to remind myself that we do in fact have some long-term deals with good guys, and that bringing Damon in for a year might not be such a bad idea. It seems to be taking a little longer than I thought it would, me getting used to the transitory nature of the game. To me, Damon will always be a Yankee, despite his residence on several other teams (for multiple years, even!) – but the Yankees allegedly don’t seem to see it that way, so why not be a Mariner for a year, Johnny? We have a nice field, excellent restaurants, and nice sea air; you could do worse. Things have been too quiet for too long, we need another pre-ST surprise.
• The Orioles have designated Dennis Sarfate for assignment to clean house for Miguel Tejada’s presence, removing yet another name I was familiar with from their roster. Technically, there is no reason for me to like Baltimore; George Sherrill is gone, Chad Bradford is gone, Luke Scott’s playing time will be reduced, Erik Bedard will likely be gone from Seattle, severing yet another connection…yet I still cling to this weird fascination I have with the Birds. I don’t know what my deal is, either. Baseball is funny like that. There was brief talk over Twitter last night about bringing Sarfate here, but it was quickly shot down. I guess Sarfate has some difficulty with that whole strike-throwing thing.
• I took a pass by SafeCo yesterday on my way home from school and noticed that, two days from FanFest, Adrian Beltre, Kenji Johjima, Carlos Silva, and Miguel Batista were still on the big west-facing wall (I’ve just referred to it as “The Wall”, for lack of something better; everyone seems to know what I mean, so it stays). I have been assured by Rebecca Hale, Director of Public Information for the Seattle Mariners (whew!) that Cliff Lee’s photo is soon to be up. I’m honestly not terribly concerned, it just gives me something to do/talk about/take pictures of while waiting for things to fire up again.
• Matt Tuiasosopo and Dan Wilson have been added to the festivities this weekend at FanFest. I have this odd feeling that all the players are going to be involved in autographing instead of taking part in the Q&A, but that’s just because my luck is bad like that. Based on previous Fests, I’m guessing that Chone Figgins may come down and bless us with his presence as the new guy, but hope that some of the other fellows do, too. I will be bringing a blanket; sitting on plastic chairs in January gets to be a bit cold, regardless of how many hot dogs one eats, and I’m not showing up under-prepared like I did last year. Brrr!
• I need to remember to mark my calendar with the promo schedule, then try and cough up enough money to go to certain games. Priority games include Ichiro-Designed T-Shirt night (this will depend entirely on whether or not the t-shirt in question is white, though; I’m murder on white), Mariners Beach Towel Night, and possibly the Oktoberfest game, or College Night, though I’m not sure if I will still be in school at that point in time. I’m sure I’ll take in some Family Pack Nights with my friends and their family of three, as my cash flow allows. We get our hot dogs, and supplement them with food from home – and I am glad that the Ms allow their fans to bring food from home; sometimes on a hot day, I just want a cold sandwich, and this is not really a luxury afforded by SafeCo Field in the regular seating areas. The bobbleheads are a little interesting. Little plastic Felix is…uh…dramatic.
• SodoMojo.com is looking for a third writer. One of their writers decided to go another direction with his own blog, and the two that are left feel that having three writers is in their best interest. Follow the link if you have any interest, they have posts up requesting writers, and the type of writer they’re looking for.

So now, I just sit and wait the next 48 hours for FanFest on Saturday. Will have my camera in hand, and return with a full report, as per usual. Brock & Salk are going to be broadcasting from the Diamond Club in SafeCo in about five minutes on 710AM ESPN Seattle, and Don Wakamatsu and some players are going to be making on-air appearances. I have some time this morning before embarking on homework, so I believe I’ll take a listen and see what everyone has to say. It will likely do nothing to quell my excitement for Spring Training, but what can you do? Go Mariners!

I just got done watching a move called Road to the Big Leagues. It’s a documentary about kids in the Dominican Republic, and their overwhelming desire – as a demographic – to become major league baseball players.

The doc interviewed several of the kids, and scouts and trainers at the DR training camps of the Boston Red Sox, St Louis Cardinals, and New York Mets. Also contributing interviews were David Ortiz (the movie was released in 2008, pre-steroid revelation) and Vladimir Guerrero, who is apparently quite the Angel, literally, when he’s not busy putting the killshot on opposing teams’ pitchers. Guerrero spends some of his offseason back in the DR, building schools and helping train some of the kids, giving to charities, and visiting his parents, among other things that make him at least appear more human. The film showed him walking to and from the ballfield, with his trainees in tow, to a house that he built in his hometown. It appears from the outside to be at least more luxurious than most of the other homes in the town, but is rather sparse by US standards, even still. Guerrero also spends a few moments waxing philosophic about what he’d be doing if he hadn’t made it in the world of the MLB. The verdict? Planting okra – the thought makes him laugh the second the words come out of his mouth.

The documentary spends a little time following St Louis Cardinals signee Juan Cabrera, up to the point where he signs his first major league contract with the Cards organization. They demonstrate Cabrera’s training with a man named Machepa, who swings a truck tire at Cabrera to hit with a bat while giving him words of encouragement. Machepa claims that David Ortiz spent some of his formative years training there as well. Ortiz is shown at the camp training with the kids there. Machepa refers to Ortiz as “simple and easy to get along with”, and Ortiz credits Machepa for helping him make it to the majors. Ortiz calls Cabrera’s signing a month before it happens.  Unfortunately, the signing did not stick, and Cabrera has since been released by the Cards – I can’t find much on the situation, however, so I’m not sure why. He has only a 2007 year listed at FanGraphs.

The darker side of DR trainees is also talked about by the folks at the Red Sox camp. Miguel Pegero, a cousin of Rafael Furcal, was a promising player until he was caught lying about his age. As of the time the film was made, he spends his time playing baseball in the DR, and living off street sales and strong-arming of local vendors, basically shaking people down for cash he claims they owe him. While trying to take bread from a local, Pegero and the camera crew are yelled at and pushed away, leaving the viewer with the impression that Pegero is not very good at being a one-man crime syndicate. He downplays the lie about his age, and insists that he was born in 1984 (another certificate claims 1981).  Pegero is said to have a “spark”, but because of the misrepresentation, he may never see an American baseball field.

It was a bit short at around 52 minutes, but a very enjoyable documentary nonetheless, even if only for the spectacle of a smiling, laughing Vlad Guerrero. DR dialect Spanish, with English subtitles. Highly recommended.

EDIT: This has nothing to do with anything, but Tyler Walker just got picked up by the Washington Nationals. Good for him. I always thought he looks like an astronaut.

I watched my first press conference today. In the past, I have been either in school or at work, or just didn’t know when it was happening, or generally disinterested. Today, I was generally disinterested, but I was home and online, so I watched it on the laptop. After my first one, I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to watch another, but I think if I was home and online, I’d certainly have no qualms about dialing it up. So, some general thoughts on My First Press Conference, starring Cliff Lee…

Lee said that (and I’m really paraphrasing here) he didn’t want to give the impression that he didn’t want to be here (and mentioned the local press specifically), only that the trade had been a shock to him. Welcome to the club, guy, it was a shock for us, too. He came off at first fairly dry (must be something to do with Arkansas/Midwest mannerisms), but he does have a sense of humor; when asked about sticking around, he said with a smile that he wanted a ten year deal and $200M (EDIT: per Larry Stone on Twitter, and a few others who heard it correctly, including one reader here, Lee actually said $200 billion. Whatever the case, he’s obviously got a sense of humor, which is good). Otherwise, he seems super laid-back and relaxed. He acknowledged our defensive crew, likes the fact that the Safe is a pitcher’s park, and hopes the fans like him and that he doesn’t get booed. Somehow, I don’t think that will be a problem.

The whole putting-on of the hat and trying-on of the jersey thing during press conferences (or “pressers” as the kids are calling them these days) is far less ceremonious than I thought it would be. Lee and Jack Zduriencik stood for only a few moments while some flashes went off from the press corps. Then Lee put his jersey on (#36!), mentioned it was a “nice fit”, and sat down to take some more questions. Simple as that. Maybe I was hoping for some dramatic music or something, I guess, I don’t know. It was short and sweet. The rest of the show was typical, go-out-and-get-em-Tiger-win-win-win stuff between Lee and the press.

The whole shebang ended with Zduriencik asking in a rather heated tone for fans to stop positing on the Mariners’ payroll. It could have been just the way I read his tone, but he seemed genuinely annoyed that people keep publicly stating that they know what the payroll might be, saying that there was no way that they would release that information anyway, because of competition issues. Having seen a lot of this on fan forums, I know it exists, but cannot figure out why Zduriencik would care whether or not people think they know what they’re talking about, so I believe it was just a misread of his tone of voice on my part – either that, or there is money gossip going on in the press, and that was for them specifically. I for one don’t really care how much money that we have – I care about the guys on the field and how well they play the game. So mission accomplished there as far as I’m concerned – though I understand through a few grapevines that there are still moves upcoming – and this is just fine with me. The more the merrier, and things are pretty merry already!

Anyway, I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy inside now. I think I’ll wear my Putz t-shirt to dinner tonight. Go Mariners!

Photo courtesy Matt Pitman, ESPN Seattle.