There's No "I" In Baseball

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It was a Mother's Day Miracle! We won a game! That felt neat, huh? I turned on the radio just in time to hear Batista get his fifth and sixth strikeouts. Now I think Batista is a really awesome person, and I know he has struggled a lot, so it was especially gratifying to see him find his footing. Same goes for Raul Ibanez. I take Raul for granted sometimes, because I feel like he gets overhyped by the Mariner media and management, plus his defense can make me want to weep. But every time he makes a serious offensive contribution like he did yesterday, the first thing he talks about is the team. Watch his post-game interviews- he deflects any questions about himself and how great he did and instead talks about what a great job the pitcher did, or how the infield made some great defensive plays. He's a real team guy, and it's nice to see that nice guys don't always finish last.

Being a good teammate can take you a long way. Someone needs to let Jarrod Washburn in on this little secret. I've always found it incredibly irritating when a player makes veiled references to how it's their teammates' fault that they screwed up. It's not classy for one thing, and even if it's true, it just makes you look like a jerk. It seems to happen with at least some frequency with pitchers and catchers. In fact, our very own Mr. Jarrod Washburn has been passive-aggressively grousing about Johjima to the press recently.

Asked about some apparent situations during his start Saturday when he and catcher Kenji Johjima weren't in concert, Washburn didn't deny it.
"There's times when you're not always on the same page," he said. "It happens."
Washburn was asked if there was any more of it than normal.
"With Kenji? No," he said. "Read into that what you want."
Washburn has made prior reference to some difficulty working with Johjima. On Saturday, he appeared to bark at his catcher after one White Sox at-bat.

Nice, Jarrod. It's not Kenji's fault my friend, you are simply crap at pitching. You have the highest ERA among our starters, and unless Jamie Burke is wearing an amazingly lifelike Johjima mask at all times, it appears that you are the only one having this "difficulty". (And yeah I know Burke has been catching for Bedard, but don't try using logic on me right now, I'm just not in the mood.) Explain to me how a pitch that never even gets to Joh because it's been smashed over the left field wall is Joh's fault. Jeez Washburn, you yourself have talked about how you don't have an "out pitch" and you can't get a guy past two strikes. So how about working on that as opposed to moaning to the press and making an idiot of yourself? Ya jerk.

I've talked before about that fine line between liking someone as a player as opposed to as a person. I think a lot of the debate about this latest round of Griffey rumors can come down to that. People adore him as a person, but will he make much of an impact to the M's as a player? Is he worth whatever we would have to give up? I genuinely don't know, and I'm probably the worst person to even comment on it. As I've mentioned before, I have no history with Griffey. But it's impossible to deny that the cult of personality is a pretty big factor here.

I'm sorry to see us headed back to Texas- now there's a team that lacks personality. The White Sox were at least fun to watch because they seem like a bunch of fun, nutty guys. Ozzie Guillen is bats, in the most entertaining way possible, and Jim Thome's one of my favorite guys in the game. Man, now that Nick Swisher's a White Sock, the Sox are practically the most likable dudes in baseball. It's kind of lucky they have the insanely malevolent AJ Pierzynski to balance out their good/evil balance.

Posted by at May 12, 2008 4:30 p.m.
Categories: Mariners Win! Mariners Win!, Pitchers and Catchers, Teamwork, Things That Annoy Me

Comments

#128156

Posted by unregistered user at 5/13/08 6:11 a.m.

Well it has started!!Now that we have a little offense going, the pitching is looking ragged. I get tired of hearing what a hitter friendly park Texas has. If you make the hitter hit your pitch then it shouldnt matter.
Oh! I want to add Balentin to the list of keepers from a couple posts ago. He is fun to watch. While Sexson might ask why as Balentin isnt doing too much different than Sexson has. Balentin is young and learning, he is showing a better understanding of the strike zone than Beltre plus he looks good in the outfield. Not sure if Clement was ready but we will see. Oh yeah! Griffey coming back would not make much difference offensively but it might get either Vidro or Sexson benched as Ibanez moves to one of those positions. The bad thing is we would lose somemore of the young talent at a time where they may have the opportunity to again play some major league ball.

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#128207

Posted by 4CornersFan at 5/13/08 9:42 a.m.

Although the outcome was sadly a loss, you have to have enjoyed last night's game with the Rangers; specifically the 9th inning. My Mom and I were watching the game, cheering for a home run in the 9th and voila!there it was. Exciting offense -- now if they could add exciting defense. . .

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#128223

Posted by theedge98074 at 5/13/08 10:33 a.m.

Regardless of what happened yesterday and how neat and great these guys are they still lost yesterday.

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#128329

Posted by 4CornersFan at 5/13/08 2:24 p.m.

Which I mentioned. Too much of the same old, same old. One can still appreciate a good rally, even in a loss.

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#128370

Posted by theedge98074 at 5/13/08 3:27 p.m.

4CornersFan - totally was not trying to come back at your directly. Sorry if it came across that way. On a seperate note, this post has been egging at me all day. Mostly because one reason I beleive the Mariners have not been as successfull as they could be over the past years is due to this "gotta love these guys" attitude. They market this team solely from a Disneyland type of mentality. If they win, (with certain execptions) I go to watch baseball and not snuggly little folks play baseball. This amongst a certain fan base has allowed them to put butts in seats. My opinion but it chaps my hide the way this org has run themselves to cater to the "Hey Now" fans.

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#128551

Posted by 4CornersFan at 5/13/08 10:05 p.m.

Oh, no offense taken. I just didn't want it to seem like I was missing the point of how stinky the result was by my light-heartedness, and needed to acknowledge the loss.

You have a good point about the Disneyland type of mentality in marketing, and I don't think the Mariners are the only team that does that. I also follow the Diamondbacks, and our boards have a lot of discussion of Eric Byrnes being signed to a huge contract because he's "the face of the franchise." He's performing at a very sub-par level, which puts him directly in the line of fan ire. When management puts a player out there as "the face of the franchise", one expects a terrific player, not one who's cute or funny or entertaining in a non-baseball manner. We want results!

Don't you think the rumors of trying to get Griffey back fall into that same attitude? He's not going to make the team into winners all by himself.

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#128605

Posted by theedge98074 at 5/14/08 6:07 a.m.

Fair point about the "face of the franchise". IMHO they go beyond that. For example, I find it hard to listen to the broadcasts as it seems they are discouraged from saying anything negative. Take Rick Rizz for example, he will wax poetic about a game some guy had two years ago. So I think they do take the "face of the franchise" mentality but also let it seap into the depths of the franchise. That combined with the dancing grounds crew, a super family friendly ball park, and shoving seasons like 2001 down our throat.

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#128611

Posted by theedge98074 at 5/14/08 6:28 a.m.

One more thing, I do not mean to be disrespectful of MH but if you are going to call out a pro baseball player I think some constructive critisim is fair. When you use "we" when referring to the M's it implies you are atually part of the team. Understand why you say it, but it can rub people the wrong way.

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#128680

Posted by 4CornersFan at 5/14/08 9:48 a.m.

theedge98074, a little respectful perspective on your comments.

Some time ago, maybe last year, maybe the year before that, "we" as in "we the posters" had a long discussion about whether or not to use "we" when speaking about the team; and whether it implied that those of us posting were actually part of the team. (Oh, would THAT be a sad team! LOL) Long story short, the posters decided that if "we the posters" were dedicated enough to be writing about the team, we could refer to the team and to ourselves as "we". And thereby reserving "they" for the other team, other team's fans, umpires, evil empires, or any other nebulous "they". Consider it a part of sports fandom, maybe?

After reading MH since she began posting, I've found a strong tendency to overstatement, sarcasm, and humor. She doesn't write from the perspective of a journalist, but rather from the perspective of an intense and dedicated fan. So what you might expect in a regular column of the PI or another newspaper is not what to expect here. Sometimes she leaves the constructive criticism to the pros, since, sadly, probably none of the players read her blog. Maybe they should! Maybe the FO should!

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#128713

Posted by Foodeater at 5/14/08 10:52 a.m.

If I think back to the inexplicably good 2001 team, the one that tied for the most regular season wins in history, AFTER A-Rod, Junior, and Randy Johnson left, I think about a bunch of good dudes playing like a team. David Bell, Carlos Guillen, Boone, Olerud, Edgar, Mike Cameron, Moyer...pretty good players, but there was something about their approach to playing together and their commitment to each other that seemed different. I think that's where the "You Gotta Love These Guys" thing came from.

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#128876

Posted by theedge98074 at 5/14/08 4:05 p.m.

4Corners - good feeback, appreciate the respectfulness of it as well. I guess it is more of a personal pet peeve (sp?) of mine to use the we. Yea, I can get over it. But it was also more of the tone of the post that got me. It is that mentality that this FO feeds on.

Honestly, I could care less about the 2001 team now. Fun year but did they achieve the final goal? This FO has ALL THE RESOURCES in the world to get to the WS and they are much more concerned about their image than a championship. They have created this atmoshphere of being satisfied with having a winning season. No, the end goal is to get to the world series. That whole 2001 year was amazing but don't forget, in the end it was a failure. But, we still hear them talk about it, and we have to look at that 116 win banner. All but 4 (I belive) MLB have been there. Most have had resources nothing close to ours. It is time the fans started holding them accountable.

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