Hotdog & Friends

Fig Jam

For the Seattle Mariners it’s a lost season.  Everyone knows it.  They have the worst record in baseball and are last in a variety of offensive statistical categories.  They don’t hit and they don’t score runs.  So now the focus must be on the future.  Evaluating which players should remain on the roster for next season and which players should be moving on.  After having watched 18 innings of Mariner’s baseball in the past two days, I have come up with the following list of players that should return:

1.  Raul Ibanez

2.  Bryan LaHair

3.  Arthur Rhodes

(note: Felix didn’t pitch, but I will assume that if he had he would make the list at #4)

Having sat at Safeco the last two evenings, those are the three players that I have observed that are still interested in competing, and giving 100 %.   LaHair makes the list probably because he is so new to the Majors and is still trying to impress everyone, but at least he’s hustling and genuinely appears to care about the outcome of the game. 

The rest of the team has given up.  They exude indifference.  They are playing out the string on a lost season and counting the days until they can go home for the offseason.  Example:  Jeremy Reed, the centerfielder who started the year in AAA and is hitting .250, grounded out at one point last night.  He came out of the batters box at a saunter, jogged 100 feet past first base after he had been called out, and then slowly walked back to the dugout with his head down.  This from a  guy who is FAR from a lock at the major league level.  A guy who should be killing himself night in and night out to prove that he deserves a look as the center fielder on a team that might be competitive next year. 

In between innings, Betancourt and Lopez stand next to one another as they field ground balls.  Hands on hips, staring around blankly.  They look bored.  Now, I’m not trying to suggest that they should be going nuts out there, fielding grounders like it was spring training, but for gawdsakes they could at least appear as though they were concerned about their positions on the team.  Not to mention the fact that they are getting far more fan support than they deserve, with attendance numbers much higher than the team with the worst record in baseball should have.

It is time for Management on this team to do something right for a change.  Set a new tone.  Do something corny like put up blank stat sheets in the locker room or something.  Anything to get the message across that from now until the last day of the season is an extended tryout.  you will run on and off the field, you will run-out ground balls, you will pay attention during fielding practice, and most of all - you will prove to the fans that you are trying to win games still.  That you haven’t given up.  

For far to long the attitudes of guys like Richie Sexson have been tolerated.  He was released months too late and only after he acted like such a baby for so long that the manager actually couldn’t stand to have him around any longer.  Ditto goes for Erik Bedard.  Going on a radio program in Philly and talking shit about the Seattle media.  Screw you guy.  The Seattle Media treats athletes in this town with kids gloves*. You want to feel some heat for your bullshit performance thus far this year?  Go pitch in Philadelphia and see how the fans react when you blame everyone else for your sub par pitching.  Go treat those fans like crap for a season and see how they react.  Management should have come out the day he said that and publicly apologized, and then had Bedard sit in front of a microphone and apologize.  Anything to let players know that just because they are losing doesn’t mean that tanking and sulking is appropriate.   You think the fans that shelled out money before the season for ticket packages are pleased with the way things have gone?  You think they may feel like they got the shit end of the stick?  They aren’t being paid millions, but they are still showing up and deserve to see a baseball team that busts its ass night in and night out. 

* Note the exception for UW football players, whom the media will destroy even if they are dead.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 9:35 am and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.