понедельник, июля 31, 2006

Mariner Baseball May 30th-July 30

Wow. Look at that post title. I haven't been keeping anyone up to date on Mariner ball. Well, I don't think anyone reads this blog. If you do please post in the comments. But I should've been more consistent in my posting and more disciplined with my blogging habits.

Ok, I have to pay for it, so here I go...

May 29th to June 5th
This week they played the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals. The Rangers extended the M's losing streak to 6 games, 0-2, 4-6, with the Mariners rising from the mat with a 14-5 win. Good timing. Royals were next, and the M's needed their day of the dead to look alive and remember how to swing the bat, hit thet ball, and run on dirt, so they wouldn't embarrass themselves by making the Royal's look competent. They took three games from KC, letting the Benchwarmers sneak off with a 4-9 loss.

At this point I didn't care much for events in the Mariner's season, with school only two weeks from finishing and the World Cup only days away.

Winning pitchers 5/29-5/06
F. Hernandez
J. Moyer
J. Pineiro
G. Meche
Losing Pitchers
J. Washburn (2)
G. Meche

Week in Mariner ball June 6th to June 11th
This was a good week for the M's dropping only one game to the Twins and none to the Angel's.
M's win 4-2, 10-9 but lose 3-7 in a three game series with the Twins at Safeco field. Then they traveled to someplace kinda in L.A. but kinda not to play the Angels. The Mariners make a three game sweep of this, winning 4-1, 12-6, 6-2. The World Cup had started, my Russian final was on Monday, and I forgot all I could about baseball and the Mariners. For the World Cup, I was rooting for England and USA, but once it progressed into the knockout stages my affection for Les Bleus of France was boundless. Americans think this is gross, but I could not hate Zidane, Henry, Ribery and Gallas.

Winning pitchers 6/06 to 6/11
F. Hernandez (2)
J. Mateo
J. Washburn
G. Meche

Losing pitcher
J. Pineiro

Mariner Baseball June 13th-June 18th
Mixed week, first they were swept by the Oakland A's then they swept the Giants of San Francisco as their interleague season restarted. The A's own the Mariners, as the M's have been unable to win a series against them all season. The A's renewed their Mariner tags with wins of 0-2, 2-7 and 6-9. And the American League likewise owns the National League, and when a team is mediocre in the AL (Mariners) beat-up a team that is good in the NL (that would be the Giants), then they llok a like a Ford's customer whose brand loyalty is respected but whose taste is suspect. M's win 5-4, 8-1, 5-1.

Winning pitchers 6/13-6/18
F. Hernandez
G. Meche
J. Moyer
Losing pitchers
J. Moyer
J. Pineiro
J. Wasburn

Mariner baseball June 20th-June 25th
Mariners continue to clean up in the National League, squishing the LA Dodgers and the San Diego Padres for two wins apiece, while dropping one game with each team. The M's series with the Dodgers in LA go for wins of 9-4, 8-4, and losing 2-4, then they drop their first game with the Padres 1-2, but run off with victories of 9-4, 9-5.

Winning Pitchers
J. Pineiro
J Mateo
J. Moyer
G. Sherrill

Losing Pitchers
F. Hernandez
J. Mateo

June 27th-July 2nd
Mariners take a detour from their Southern California road trip to visit the Arizona Diamondbacks. The M's turn'em upside down and empty their pockets with wins of 11-7, 10-3, 3-2. They returned to Safeco field for a three game set with the Colorado Rockies and fizzeled, losing two games 0-2, 3-4 and only one win of 8-7. The Rockies were the only NL team with a winning record against the M's in this year's edition of interleague play.

Winning pitchers
J. Woods
F. Hernandez
E. Guardado
J. Mateo

Losing pitchers
J. Moyer
J. Mateo

Mariner baseball July 3rd to July 9th
Last week of Baseball before the All-star break and the last week of the World Cup. I shoulda done all this blogging sometime then, but I was getting my head shaved and was on the lookout for Italians. But back to baseball... The M's sneak out of this week with only one win and looked terrible. First they lose the LA Angels 1-7, 6-14, 1-4. WE OWN THE ANGELS, but we lost. Why? Then we lost two straight to AL leading Detroit Tigers *choke*, losing 1-6, 1-2 before winning 3-2.

Winning pitchers
G. Meche
Losing pitchers
F. Hernandez
J. Mateo
J. Moyer
J. Pineiro
J. Washburn

July 14th-July 19th
All-star break came, France had let me down, I was depressed and I did nothing. Actually I did work, but's beside the point, if not pointless.
But the Mariners slowly revived. Well, kindof, they only won two of their next six games, but after that things would improve. First out of the break came the Toronto Blue Jays, M's took the first game 5-3 but lost the next two to the Blue Jays by scores of 6-7, 3-4. Then the New York Yankees took two games 2-4, 4-5, but the Mariners finish the week with a win of 3-2.

Winning pitchers
G. Meche
M. Lowe
Losing pitchers
E. Fruto
G. Sherrill
J. Washburn
J. Mateo

Mariner baseball July 21st-July 30th

Probably Mariners' best week and a half of baseball. Nine games and they only lost three of them, thereby winning the other six. Plus, Adam Jones gets promoted from Triple-A Tacoma to play centerfield, and Carl Everett was traded for a real DH. First, they dropped a game to the Boston Red Sox 4-9, then won 5-2, 9-8. Then they hosted the Blue Jays winning the bookends of the series 7-3, 7-4, while getting hammered in the middle game 3-12. Following this series they traveled to Cleveland to play the Indians. Chief Wahoo and purloined the first game 0-1, but the Seattle's men came back with victories of 3-1, 7-3. Now the Mariners are now playing the Baltimore Orioles. With new faces on board the Mariners are looking good, if they can win their upcoming series against Oakland, Seattle would be in position to win the AL West. Maybe.

Winning pitchers 7/21-7/30
F. Hernandez
J. Putz
J. Pineiro
J. Moyer
J. Washburn
J. Woods
Losing pitchers
J. Moyer
G. Meche
F. Hernandez

воскресенье, июля 23, 2006

I Saw It with My Own Eyes

First things First

Drat you Boston "fans," drat you to double hockey sticks, all ye who jump on the bandwagon!

Yeah, I rooted for em' in 2004 against the Yankees, I even rooted for them against the Cardinals in the World Series, even though I wore my Card's hat every day to school. But seriously, y'all who are still on the bandwagon or even just hoping on, need to get off. Now. The Sox are really no better than the Yanks, with mercenaries looking for bounty, and waiting for a shot to play for the Yanks, do you noobs really want that, 'cause you know, Yankees Suck! Of course none of you live in Boston and care about what the franchise means for the city, after all you're bunch of mercs yourself.

And don't go tramping around the Emerald city and Safeco field as if you were soliders in a freshly occupied land, 'cause you're the ones who are occupied.

Why is it, that out here in the Northwest, we can't get loyalty to our local teams. We're eco-topians with socialistic-esque ideals, but we root like capitalists who wave our arms wildly for the lastest hot stock (kinda like how Enron used to be). This land is our land, so aren't these teams our teams. Seahawks rule football, Mariners rule baseball loyalties, while Sonics and Blazers rule their respective cities. Actually, the Sonics' new owner wants them to move to Ok. City, and according to an ESPN.com writer, people on the tv are saying this move will turn The future Ok. City Sonics into a Green Bay Packers of Basketball. That title is already taken, it's the Blazers, now buzz off.

I say this because I watched the Mariner/RedSawx contest in a sea of red. Most M's fans are probably careless enough to wear the other team's colors. If they were fans from Boston I would in awe of their devotion, but no. These fans were twerps, minor-leaguers, fair weather fanswho don't know any better than to root for the most over-hyped teams.

It seems Mariner devotion is like watching Matlock, only for the old folks, unemployed and the homeschooled. I'm actually serious about the local elderly and their devotion to the M's. For my grandpa, they're like second cousins or something, plus he sees them playing everyday. I may see him once a week if I'm lucky, since I live on the other side of town. And watching someone like the kid Felix "The King" Hernandez pitch on Saturday, he feels pride for a kid getting his shot in life, and for another great player to wear the local colors.

I just remembered, I watched a game yesterday, and a fine game it was. M's won 5-2 thanks to poor Sox fielding, luck and Japan. Ichiro was 2 for 5 with 2 RBI's, and Kenji Johjima was 0 for 4 but set into motion a crucial play when the Sox shortstop miffed a ball that allowed the M's to take the lead. Another hero I have not mentioned was DH Eduardo Perez whom I don't know much about, but with his two RBI's late in the game quietly killed the Sox.

This was my second trip to Safeco field which is gem of a park with its wonderful architecture that gives the stadium an old timey field that doesn't have a bad seat in the house. I know this as I was in the right field upperdeck with only ten or so rows until the roof. I couldn't see the right fielders (I missed you, Ichi!), but when things were still you could hear the ball hit the catcher's mit.

Gosh, really I have a lot more to type about, but that can wait for later in this week.

четверг, июля 20, 2006

I'm Back! (for a little while)

I left all of y'all hanging at the beginning of June and haven't returned. This idea of blogging every week about Mariner's slippery slope year ran into a problem: it's a World Cup year. So every day between June 9th and July 9th I watched and obsessed over the Cup. I shouldn't of been so greedy, and blogged a few of my thoughts on it, but I didn't and I'm sorry. I don't look forward to blogging on this site, having to bring more tales of M woe. That shouldn't have stopped me. I won't update today, like I should've done last week, but next week this site will show some signs of life. College and pro football is coming up and so is the beginning of England's Premiership. So, I'll be updating you on the going-on's of the Golden Helmet league, the Patriots and Arsenal.

My big news is that on Saturday I'll be watching the Mariners play the Red Sox in Seattle at Safeco field, and it's gonna be great!