Clean Sweep

As expected, the Mariners lost their 9th straight game today.

Raise your hand if you didn’t see this one coming.

Anyone, Anyone?

To continue the reference,

9 times.

Oddly enough, that’s exactly how long they’ve been away from Safeco Field, where supposedly, Mariners players can’t hit.

Great. What a pleasant thing to look forward to, come Thursday. The Mariners will return home after three days of not losing, and promptly commence to not hit.

I had to make myself watch the game today. I had to force myself to keep interest in the Mariners, rather than the MLB futures game or a documentary on Laura Bush, or Gulliver’s Travels.

Because they were interesting.

I’m not at all interested in seeing Jamie Moyer give up 3 home runs, to the worst hitters on the White Sox roster. Sure, it was not that bad of a day (CG loss, 5 hits, one walk). But a loss is a loss.

I don’t want to see aging icons swat at balls they know are outside the zone, because they’ve been watching them from the other angle for five years.

I don’t want to not want to watch.

I remember bad years. I remember baseball so bad that it was useless to get angry. I’m angry now.

Because it doesn’t have to be this way. 2004 may be the most exciting year for MLB in a long, long time. And 29 teams are taking advantage of Baseball’s renewed popularity. One is not.

One leaves talented prospects languishing behind aging, slumping veterans. One chooses to overpay for free agents in whom no-one else is interested. One chooses to sign marginal players past their prime to multi-year deals.

One plays in Seattle, but soon, no-one will care anymore.

And that makes me angrier. I’ve been wearing my Raniers cap for days now. I’m not sure I’ll be taking it off anytime soon, except to put on my Aquasox cap.

Plenty of good seats left.