Howard Lincoln’s letter wanted
Update: we got one! Thanks
If anyone got and can scan Howard Lincoln’s no-apology apology letter to season ticket holders, can you kindly email us a copy we can post here? OCR into text is best, as I’m sure everyone’s going to want to hack it up and comment on it.
From what I’ve heard so far, Melvin’s out, Lincoln’s got a secret plan to win the war in Vietnam, and all of that money they slashed this year is in Bavasi’s hands, and not in the team’s bottom line (as the team accidentally mentioned was the case earlier).
The seating audit
I should start a separate category for these Section 101-related posts.
Several readers have commented that they’ve been to games where the Section 101 stands were not present. After an extensive audit of my game notes and pictures, along with some work with the PI’s fine Mariner photo galleries I’ve pieced together the following sketch of Section 101’s presence. In general, “there” means I found a photo or evidence the team was selling tickets to that game in that section. “Not there” means I found a photo where they’re clearly not present. “Believed there” means it’s in my game notes, a reader comment or email, but no photo has turned up yet.
This is made much more difficult by way of Ibanez/LF-of-the-day/Winn making almost no defensive plays warranting a picture, ever. And also the difficultly of finding information on past ticket sales… argh.
April
6-8, v Anahiem: believed not there
16-22, v Texas, Oakland: unknown
May
4-9 v Minnesota, New York: believed there
18-23 v Baltimore, Detroit: not there
31- June 13 v Toronto, Chicago, Houston, Montreal: unknown
June
25-July 1 v San Diego, Texas: there
July
15-25 v Cleveland, Boston, Oakland, Anahiem: believed there
August
10-15 v Minnesota, New York: believed there
23-29 v Tampa, Kansas City: there
September
6-19 v Cleveland, Boston, Anahiem, Oakland: there
October
1-3 v Texas: there
The score then:
There: 30
Believed there: 23
Believed absent: 3
Not there: 6
Unknown: 19
Did I do that math right? It is awfully late.
Or, to sum up: 53 games with the stands, 9 games without, 19 I haven’t seen evidence either way. Even throwing all the unknowns into the unknown, that’s a 53:28 and pretty clearly shows that the Mariners didn’t select (say) only the New York games to put the monstrosities in.
On the other hand, if there was indeed a long early-season abscence of those seats does make the lack of attention paid them a little more excusable, because they were home, away, home… and then there are the stands, just like last year, for a homestand with New York… except after that they’re around almost all the time.
I’m also less angry at the team for selling these as “temporary” even though they’re there for every game after the All-Star break. It also makes for a good excuse for the PFD to not get involved (though, again, it’s clearly their duty — if the Mariners wanted to have “take your seat home” night, sponsored by Home Depot, the PFD has a responsibility to protect their investment, just as they do in upholding the public interest, blah blah blah, as I pointed out earlier).
Anyone who wants to chime in and move those unknown games one way or the other (or dispute other classifications) should feel free to comment. URLs to photos particularly appreciated. Or correct my home/away math.
Yes, folks, the U.S.S. Mariner: where we do a ton of bizarre research because there’s no reason a sane fan should have to (or want to) do this themselves. I’m going to sleep.
Jason Giambi injury outed
The New York Daily News is reporting that Giambi’s been afflicted with a pituitary tumor.
I post this because it touches on something we’ve talked about here and in comments, specifically relating to Michael Morse, his suspension, and the team’s unwillingness to talk about it. This isn’t at all the same issue, but I want to point out that Giambi had entirely valid reasons for not disclosing his condition:
The reason for his secrecy was simple, a source said: After testifying before a grand jury in the BALCO steroid-trafficking case and having to deny repeated rumors about steroid use, Giambi was worried that a pituitary tumor would make him guilty by association, according to a source.
Plus, his treatment course includes corticosteroids, and let’s be entirely honest — there are a lot of people who aren’t going to draw the fine distinction here between corticosteroids and the steroids they’ve already figured he was taking (in fact, how long before someone floats that this whole thing is a coverup for his steroid use, an excuse to get him a valid reason to test positive?) because of his BALCO connection.
It leaked anyway and, as one commenter’s suggested, it’s likely that Morse’s suspension may leak eventually as well. I just wanted to point out that in the context of medical issues, players and teams can have very good reasons to keep injuries or suspensions quiet.
Part of the problem is that I don’t know what Morse’s suspension was for, and I don’t want to know if I’m sworn to not discuss it in order to be let in on the secret. Without knowing, we don’t know if it’s something we should know:
If he’s suspended for some Eric Cyr-like incident, well, I think maybe fans have a reasonable expectation to know a player’s up on rape charges.
If he’s suspended for a positive drug test because he’s fighting addiction problems and is in treatment, and wants to keep that quiet, I think that’s fine.
You see the dilemma. If I’d known the nature of Giambi ‘s tumor, I wouldn’t have run it, for instance.
Even as he gives up another hit — I like Madritsch. I thought he and Rett Johnson and Nageotte were all more or less about the same in ability-to-contribute this year, with Madritsch perhaps having a bit of an edge based on a couple of conversations I had with Dave. Now, having seen most of the Tacoma rotation get an audition, I have to say that if we can’t get Johnson, Madritsch would be my choice to take a rotation slot until someone clearly better and ready arises.
I have no analysis to contribute on this topic yet, I just wanted to post that.
Section 101 and Mariners, liarheads
A reader forwarded us his response from the M’s on Section 101:
Thank you for your comments regarding the new bleacher seats in centerfield. Bleacher seats are extremely popular with our fans as a place to enjoy the game and we have received many requests for these seats in the centerfield ball catch area. With the arrival of summer weather, we decided it was a good opportunity to put the bleacher seats in place. This small bleacher section will be in place for the remainder of the season, but we appreciate receiving your feedback as we will evaluate our decision during the off-season.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us. Please contact me if you have additional questions or comments.
Sincerely,
Frances Traisman
The Seattle Mariners
(206) 346-4458 direct
(206) 346-4450 fax
http://www.seattlemariners.com/
Couple of things to note:
One is that they’re lying: the seats have been there all year — this wasn’t some decision they just made.
Two is that at least they’re pretending to reconsider the idea for next year.
Three is that they’re very popular, which if you’ve been to games and seen how many people sit there, is clearly not true.
Still, the second one is hopeful. If you haven’t already, go on and complain. This may make a difference yet.
Blackley update
After conficting opinions on what was shown in Blackley’s MRI, the M’s have decided to take the wait-and-see approach. Considering that he’s likely to miss all of ’05 whether he has surgery now or in the spring, it’s probably not a terrible idea.
Of course, the rest-and-rehab option almost never works, so surgery for Travis Blackley is most likely inevitable. It just won’t happen soon.
Commenting guidlelines
In response to a request for a more clear statement on what resulted in the first bans, I present this. It’s been through a couple revisions already, and will go through more. Last revision was May 17, 2007, to better incorporate our capriciousness.
The U.S.S. Mariner extremely simple comment guidelines
General Conduct
With the launch of our new site, we added a bunch of cool stuff, including comments. I also implemented fun technology that allows us to ban or moderate commenting from certain people. We did this largely because we didn’t want to spend time and energy on building or deploying a registration system, and wanted people to be able to swing by and say what’s on their mind. We ended up deploying registration eventually.
However, this is not a public street corner. While I am a rabid free speech supporter, your natural right to self expression does not require us to publish your opinion and spend bandwith and resources doing so.
We will ban for any reason and for no reason. In order to ban people who are lame, we will inevitably end up banning people who have done nothing wrong. There’s no appeal process. Bans may be permanent, and they may be adjusted to better target specific people, or repealed entirely.
Seriously: no reason will be given. No explanations will be given on who’s banned, why, or when.
The “no reason” section done, here’s my guess at the kind of things that will get people banned.
Abusive behavior towards others. When you post in reply to people, pretend that you are arguing with an umpire.
“You blew that call, he was safe by a mile.” = Okay
“You blow.” = Ejected
Or, if we had a U.S.S. Mariner get-together, we were all eating pizza and drinking beer, having a good time, would yelling your comment get you punched, then or later?
As with anything relating to tone, this is obviously a subjective and lame standard. It will be applied inconsistently: you may see someone get away with something one day and the next week someone’s gone for the same thing. It’s going to happen.
Possible reasons for deletion or banning
What else… posting illegal copyrighted material, spamming links in the comments, whether it’s your site or whatever. Pointing to other sites is fine, and even pointing to related articles on your own site’s been tolerated sometimes, but “come eat at Joe’s” isn’t. There are some sites we particularly don’t like, and we’re not going to say much more on that. Speculation on any player’s use of steroids, that’s going to be gone as soon as we come across it in almost every case. Speculation about another person’s motives for taking a particular position, particularly in a negative and derogatory sense. I hate first/last/nth-comment posts, so just don’t do that. It’s really annoying. So are “I’m drunk/high/whatever right now” posts. And “test” comments are right out – if you’re not sure if a comment’s going to work, assume it will.
Again, though, that’s a non-inclusive list and is intended for you to get a general sense of what kind of comments get sent to the great message board in the sky. There will be posts that seem to violate these guidelines that are up, and posts that are deleted that seem innocous. If you can’t live with that, then this is not a place you’re going to be happy posting at.
With all that said, this not freep: I do not intend to ban anyone from commenting because they disagree with anyone else, everyone else, or specifcally the viewpoints of any (or all) of the authors. You’re not required to even like me, or Dave, or Jason, or Jeff, though you should like Dave and Jason and Jeff because they’re great guys and I highly recommend them. All you’re required to do is be civil.
On and off-topic comments
If you want to see a link or something discussed posted, email us.
Please, please, don’t just post it in the first thread you come across. This is rude and annoying. It will, almost always, get deleted and make someone mad.
If you’re considering starting a comment with “I know this is off-topic, but–” please, just email the link or topic to us. Don’t hijack a thread.
Except! There are threads where random thoughts, new topics, and events are perfectly allowable. These are the semi-daily game threads during the season. Also, if there’s a thread on, say “news of the day” or “random trade rumors continue” it’s perfectly normal to throw new news or new trade rumors of the day in there. Use your best judgement.
Editing or deleting posts
Comments will be deleted for the same reasons etc. as we’d ban someone. Posts may be deleted but the poster not banned, and a poster might get banned while the comment that provoked it remains up.
Comments will not be altered by editors unless there’s no other way to fix something, and I don’t see how that would be possible.
In some cases, we may edit a post that contains one particularly egregious violation within a larger post that is good enough that we don’t to delete it entirely. This is a judgement call, and we’re going to be inconsistent about it.
Sometimes, we’ll leave a reason for alteration or deletion of the post, in brackets like this:
[deleted, off-topic]
This depends on how swamped we are, and our current mood. Comments are frequently deleted without explanation, particularly in cases when a comment thread has been derailed and it’s unfeasible to do so.
As a courtesy, we ask that you do not fake moderation notes within your comments.
On identification
Fake names are fine. Offensive names and assuming the names of public figures is not, and will get your posts and account deleted. If you’re famous and want to use your real name, email us, and we can work something out.
In particular, pretending you’re a current Mariner player/coach/front office member is not cool. That includes taking their nickname. No “Felix Hernandez” no “King Felix” or anything. If you pick an obscure former non-M’s player, it’ll probably take us a lot longer to get around to asking you to change, since we have more important things on our plates.
Having said all of that stuff about random acts of deletion/banning, I would bet that in almost all circumstances where we have a valid email for your account (which does not show up on the site, please note) and I can drop you a quick note that says “please watch tone” or something, you’re much more likely to get off the hook.
“Why don’t my posts show up?”
There are a couple of reasons. Most likely — especially if you’re a member of a large ISP like AOL or AT&T Worldnet — your comment is sitting in a moderation queue because of a recent spam attack. Or it may be something to do particularly with you: given a couple of deleted posts, for instance, you may be tossed into the moderation queue. There may also be particular one-time characteristics about your post that made the system suspicious.
Either way, a USSM author has to come by, see that you have a comment in the queue, and wave it on into production. Obviously, this is unlikely to happen quickly.
“Regulating tone and civility, especially on the internet, is doomed to failure”
I will not concede this point yet. If I ran a nice sports bar and threw the jerks out every night, I think it’d be a place people who don’t like to be around jerks and want to watch some baseball and have a beer with like-minded people might hang out at. This was our experience without comments: I found the people who read the site and sent us email were almost to a person kind, generous, and intelligent. I have faith that, as at our outings, conversation and debate between our readers can be interesting, civil, and friendly, and if that means I have to hire a particularly aggressive bouncer… well, so be it.
I recognize that at some point if bans are ineffective that the site will be forced to go to registration, or drop comments entirely. We’ll see.
“But I want a good fight with hair-pulling and name-calling!”
Then this is not your site. Major sports web sites have message boards. There are forums all over the place. They offer different crowds and debate flavors, and if this doesn’t sound like your pint of beer, I hope you find one that’s more to your tastes.
Keep feeling elimination…
Reader Mack Shultz writes:
I haven’t seen this in the news but a friend and I have been tracking the
M’s playoff elimination and they were eliminated from the AL West title
chase after yesterday’s results. There’s 20 games left between OAK, ANA,
and TEX and there’s no way to allocate the wins in those games to have all
three teams end with 81 or fewer wins (since 81 is the most the M’s can win
now). So, assuming all scheduled games will be played, the M’s have been
officially eliminated.
Then he goes into a lot of math and thoughts about potential four-way ties I’ll skip.
Hopefully with all the pressure of this division race off, the Mariners will relax and play better. Unless you think Melvin’s too lax a manager now… then things might even get worse.
Outage
Sorry everyone if you came today and found the site down — I’m out of town and didn’t note the site problems until now. We’re back up, though I’m not sure what the cause was and how to prevent it in the future, and don’t have the tools to look into this in detail until I’m back.
Bans
First comment bans today. While I have to say that I didn’t hope that we might see conversations as intelligent and civil as they’ve been, I’m still a little sad I put the blocks up. No big thing though… carry on.