Game thread, Mariners at Athletics, 9/28
DMZ · September 28, 2004 at 4:58 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Meche v Hudson. Hoooooo boy.
Some people have mentioned this in the comments, but it’s been impressive to see the good work turned in by Atchison in relief this year. Putz put up great numbers since August, too, and it’s some hope to us that they’ll be able to contribute next year as part of cheap, effective bullpen (plus Hasegawa) as the Mariners devote their considerable resources elsewhere.
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42 Responses to “Game thread, Mariners at Athletics, 9/28”
Now why would you be bringing up the bullpen before Gil even starts pitching? A premonition, perhaps?
That “Thank you fans for supporting us when we sucked” commercial has to be the most pretentious crap I’ve ever seen.
What a beginning! Does Reed really have a shot to open up in center next year?
Postgame quote from Hudson: “I guess the Mariners are my daddy.”
Bless that Mariner marketing department, but that text-messaging thing that is promoted a half a dozen time each game is just silly. I guess they really need fannnies in the seats for that last series…
Sportsnet is thoughtfully showing a Red Sox game in place of the Mariners game they’re supposed to be running right now (hooray for inattentive TV controllers!), so I didn’t get to see this, but: Did Winn actually bunt Ichiro over to third in the first with nobody out?
Mike,
Correcto mundo…
Thank God for that bunt, otherwise the M’s might have scored enough in the first inning to put the game away, and made it boring
Not on topic, but I just stumbled on it… looks like DC may have the Expos, announcement tomorrow…
http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3044408
Oh boy! Instead of meaningless interleague games against the Montreal Expos, we will get meaningless interleague games against the Washington Whatevers!
Oh come on, we all know about that bitter intra-training facility rivalry we have with the Padres. Nothing’s gonna top that…
According to the Wash Post one reason that they have to rush this deal through is so the lame duck DC council can vote on a stadium deal before the new council containing anti stadium people enter office. Before you say the DC voters knew what they were doing when they just voted in the new anti-stadium council members, one of them is Marion “You set me up b*tch” Barry who prefers Super Bowl parties to the World Series parties.
Also, tomorrow is the anniversary of the Senators last game in ’71. They should be forced to keep either Senators or Nationals as their name. I expect some cuddly critter will be selected instead.
If Jayson Stark can be believed, the Expos’ sale comes with at least two amazing incentives.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=1888266
Those incentives aren’t THAT bad. I was thinking Peter The Litigator wanted much more. At least they aren’t being moved to the NL like Lee Mazilli was talking about.
Okay, I’ll say it.
Should have bunted.
“Marion “You set me up b*tch†Barry who prefers Super Bowl parties to the World Series parties”
… and prefers cocaine parties to either!
Marion “You set me up b*tch” Barry was at a Super Bowl party one year when DC suffered a massive snow storm. Since Marion was incommunicado no one had authority to order the snow plows to start work. This resulted in a lost day for workers since the streets didn’t get plowed until Marion was found the next day.
Neihaus just said the Yankees have 5 scouts at today’s Oakland game, two more than last night. Do the M’s even have that many MLB level scouts total? He said Tampa has 0 MLB scouts. Hendu said that he ran into an Arizona scout who is scouting Meche.
I had to pinch myself this game as I found Hendu almost interesting to listen to. Anything is better than Ron I guess (err.. except for Valle and Rick)
Neihaus just said the Yankees have 5 scouts at today’s Oakland game
Yankees always need pitching. Isn’t at least one of “the big 3” a free agent next year?
If they were scouting Meche, give them Boone and Meche for one prospect. Dumping Boone’s 1yr/9M option will be worth it!
I had the pleasure of watching the game on FS Bay Area (A’s home station). Their announcers are like Fairly on helium and a Nyquil overdose. More amateur than the announcers for UW games. So rag on Home-boy Rizzo, past-prime Neihaus, and the semi-literate ex-players all you want, but know that it could be MUCH worse. (BTW I grew up with Hawk and Coleman, Murph and Kiner, and even the Schooner. And of course Bob Neumaier who is 1000x better at hockey than track!)
And on that topic, should Kruger get more time in the booth? At least he doesn’t utter bland cliche’s or wish for a longball with every M’s at-bat…
Yankees scouts were probably there to get the early juice on any potential playoff opponents, more than looking at possiblities at FAs or trades.
Mariners win again with Reed patrolling CF for an entire game. 8-3 when he’s starting, counting tonight’s nice win.
I’ve always liked Hendu, at least compared to Fairly and Valle, who I would drop in favor of replacement-level broadcasters.
I think the lead play-by-play guys have the longest average tenure of any position in MLB. I saw Bill King (is that right?), the A’s broadcaster on the M’s pregame show. He’s gotta be 60++, and doesn’t he have 24 years in Oakland or something like that? Niehaus is 65+ with 28 years in Seattle.
Bill King is 70, but way more on top of it than Niehaus, whom I love anyway. Disagree with Big Jim on the A’s TV Side. Hank Greenwald is a shadow of himself (you think Niehaus miscalls play, you should watch Hank), but Ray Fosse . . . well, Dave Valle makes Fosse look like Aristophanes.
Omar Minaya is going back to the Mets to head their baseball operations.
That’s a definite sign that the Expos move is on track. One rumor is that Ripken might be offered a shot in taking over running the “new” Washington franchise.
#21 Cap is correct. The Yankees scouts at the game were there to watch the A’s for the playoffs. They did the same thing in 2001 to the M’s and it seemed to pay off. Again, how many MLB scouts do the M’s have? And especially National League scouts where most of their mi$take$ occur.
Do they do VORP for broadcasters? maybe they should.
oh.. and this from the losing pitcher: “Once we figure out how to pitch to Reed and Dobbs, we’ll be in good shape,” Hudson said. “We’re not supermen out there. All those darn September callups, that’s our Kryptonite, I guess. Five games left and we’re all knotted up. We need to win three of five and they need to lose three of five.”
hmmm… good thing BoMel has owed it to the other teams in the division to field a veteran team that can compete with them… eck!
I have developed a soft spot for Ron Fairly and his specialized subject of stating the bleedin’ obvious. “…and that’s ball three. He needs to throw a strike here; he needs to put the ball over the plate…” I find a certain charm in his old-timer-ness; a gruffer counterpoint to Niehaus’s genial, befuddled grandpa act.
Valle adds nothing of value to the commentary – no insight, wit, levity or enthusiasm. At least Hendu seems excited to be there, but the substance of his commentary is invariably sub-Joe Morgan balderdash.
Rizzs sets my teeth on edge, especially when they make him share the booth with the “Mariners’ Juniour Broadcaster”. You can practically hear him scowling at whatever unfortunate eight-year-old is stuck in there with him. His fondness for kids seems to be on a par with King Herod.
Colm
What to do when Rizz is talking with the Junior Broadcaster? Switch over to the Spanish broadcast and practice your language skills.
Deja Vu All Over Again note in Wed. P-I: “Cha Seung Baek, who threw eight shutout innings against Texas his last time out, is still experiencing a bit of discomfort in his elbow. Before his last start, he got two extra days of rest.”
Hey people…I’ve been checking this site out for awhile now and just have to chime in. Ron Fairly was a customer of mine at the car dealership I used to work at. I get the games down here in SoCal on the Direct TV baseball package. You can’t imagine how many times I’ve had to bite my tounge when dealing with “Red.” He’s really a nice guy, but geez, painful to watch/listen to on the M’s broadcasts. Funny thing is, another guy we worked with in the service department looked and sounded just like Rizz. Same mannerisms too. I’d trip out whenever the guy talked to me, expecting him to bust out with, “Holy smokes!” or “Goodbye baseball.” Okay, well that’s my little story…I’ll go back into lurking mode now. Go M’s.
OK, is it time to revoke Brian Price’s “genius pitching coach” title already?
Sheesh…sore elbow, hold back a couple days, 8 IP, 114 pitches…and what a SHOCK! His elbow still hurts!
I think Ron probably lets fly with a “Holy smokes!” at least five times a day.
At the grocery store…
Ron: “I like this soup. Honey, what about this kind of soup?”
Mrs. Ron: “Yeah, that’s fine. And look, it’s only $0.25 a can.”
Ron: “Holy smokes!”
Mrs. Ron: “Please stop that.”
>>Valle adds nothing of value to the commentary – no insight
You apparently didn’t hear him when he was discussing Olivo’s slump. He was able to use his unsurpassed ability to not hit a baseball to give an insightful dissertation on the nature of slumpage. I propose that they keep Valle around the broadcast booth to come in only when discussing horrible hitters. He could be like the situational left out of the pen. They trot him out to be the color guy when Bloomquist hits.
A sore arm for Baek is nothing new, though. Look at his past health history in the Mariners system. This guy makes Glass Joe from “Punchout” look like a well-conditioned workhorse.
Brent
Coming from another Bay area M’s fan who doesn’t hear the local Seattle buzz, is there any talk of sitting Ichiro on Thursday (if he gets a coouple hits tonight) so he can break the record at home? With nothing else to play for, it would be good for the home town crowd.
Out here in Massachusetts, I’ve only heard the Mariners announcers a handful of times (free previews of MLB extra innings and over at the houses of friends who bought it). Maybe those weren’t representative experiences, but Niehaus in particular sounded as though he might doze off at any moment. It seemed even more odd a couple years ago, when I saw a few Mariners games on extra innings and the broadcast of Niehaus and company was a bizarre combination of sleepiness and smugness. It really surprised me how self-satisfied they all sounded about anything the M’s did. I don’t much care for the regular Red Sox play by play guy (Don Orsillo). He’s incredibly plastic. But at least he doesn’t induce narcolepsy.
For real insight you gotta go to Raul Ibanez. Here is his first reaction to Jeremy Reed when he saw him in Tacoma:
“I was at Tacoma on a rehab option when I saw Reed go up to hit the first time, and saw him kick the dirt in the batter’s box,” he said. “Something about the way he did that made me say to myself, ‘This guy’s a hitter.’
The really funny thing about this game was that after Melvin bunted Ichiro to 3rd with nobody out in the top of the 1st inning, Macha played the infield in. It’s a clash of two tactical geniuses!
We’re wooed into a Mariner daze by Niehaus that is so comforting.
That’s why you’ll find these avid fans – Mariner’s broadcasts are like opium; addictive – but we’re quickly and excitedly awoken by his shouts when a homerun or clutch hit comes along.
A DC team would rock – bring back distant memories of Walter Johnson stories for old people. Feel bad for Montreal, apparently they were excited about their team in the 80’s.
Montréal actually drew pretty well as recently as 1998.
But Loria and then Chairman Bud have sucked the life out of that city Рand they did it soloely because they knew they could never get a taxpayer funded stadium in Qu̩bec (they were probably wrong Рthe federal government will usually buy anything Qu̩bec wants). So they worked to offer the team to any locale that would finance a stadium.
DC took the bait.
The Bronfman family was a good ownership group for the Expos Рbut Loria screwed them out of the team (suit against Loria, MLB, Selig still pending) and then MLB was unwilling to entertain ownership bids from anyone who wanted to keep the team in Montr̩al (where it clearly could do well, as it had before).
This is the second biggest reason why I hate Bud Selig.
For #33, I haven’t heard about the possibility of sitting Ichiro and I really doubt they will. Even if he’s 2 hits away, there’s no gaurantee that he won’t go 0-12 or twist an ankle rounding first. I don’t see how they can risk not breaking this record. If they had 10 games left maybe, but with only 3 more games at home I doubt they’ll have him miss any remaining games.
Brent, sweet glass joe mention!
Laurie from #1, it is not a secret that DMZ dislikes Meche. So there is no way he would mention anything about Meche’s solid pitching performance last night to give him credits. Instead he would talk about the bullpen. Actually that is already a huge step for DMZ. He normally would be able to find somethign wrong with Meche.
It’s true, Derek has a personal hatred of Gil Meche. He also has an east coast bias, is part of the right-wing conspiracy to develop a national draft, and was recently photographed stealing money from children with leukemia to send to Al-Qaeda.