INCONSISTENT IN SEATTLE: SEAN BARBER’S STUPID STRIKE ZONE

Before anything else, you should know that Sean Barber’s umpiring career began with a snakebite. Okay, actually an eel bite. Working at a pet store to put his way through Community College Barber was attacked by a vicious eel and sustained a serious bite to the hand. The eel’s fangs went through a bone and […]

ΑΩ: GORDON AND DIAZ ARE THE ALPHA AND OMEGA OF THE SEATTLE MARINERS

For every beginning, there’s an end. The end, no matter if time is viewed as linear or cyclical, can through a change of perspective or a process of amelioration be considered the instigator of new beginnings. Yearly, by day, and by the minute things begin, and others end. Somethings are dragged out and others pass […]

THROUGH NO FAULT OF HIS OWN, FELIX LOSES AND I GO HOME TO WATCH FIELD OF DREAMS AND CRY

My father has the tendency to over congratulate mediocre things. For example, he often goes through a play-by-play of his day with me over the phone, and it usually includes his stop into McDonald’s for a cup of coffee. “Their coffee is really good,” he says. Is it actually REALLY good? I’m not saying their […]

JAMIE MOYER: OLD AGE, TREACHERY, AND WHAT THE KING CAN TAKE FROM HIS LEGACY

By first pitch on September 22, 2003, in Anaheim, CA the Seattle Mariners were two games behind the Boston Red Sox in the AL Wild Card race and four back from AL West leaders, the Oakland Athletics, with six to play. The 19-win, tall and frail looking pitcher who made a career of defying time […]

FELIX GETS NASTY AS THE MARINERS EXCEED EXPECTATIONS IN A 2-1 OPENING DAY VICTORY AGAINST THE CLEVELAND INDIANS

“I hate to say it, but I think Felix is going to get shelled.” There was a part of me that agreed with my friend Mark as we stood in line at a hotdog stand outside Safeco Field. In the last two seasons, Felix Hernandez had started only 41 games and only 17 of those […]

THE PROBABILITY OF CHANCE: MY NUMBERLESS THOUGHTS ON OPENING DAY AND THE 2018 MARINERS SEASON

“Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.” -George Will Speaking of holes, the projections don’t favor the Mariners winning a spot in the postseason. Hell, half the fans don’t either. It’s been a long time […]

PACK ALONG YOUR FRIENDS, DANIEL

It’s hard to not be a fan of Daniel Vogelbach right now. As I’m writing this, the first baseman leads the Cactus League in Slugging, OPS (On-base percentage + Slugging), and is one point off the lead in On-base percentage. In 56 plate appearances, the twenty-five-year-old slugger has walked 10 times, struck out only 9, […]