As far as catching goes, I am thinking of the wear and tear, hence my comment at #7 (my first post was a bit of an exaggeration, admittedly). I think starting him in ONE extra game this early in the season when you have a day off the next day could have been huge. He’s great with the pitchers (and Pineiro needed it) and if he had started something, who knows where the momentum might have taken the team. I doubt Kenji suddenly becomes injury-prone or an ineffective catcher by playing 5 or 6 extra games over the year in rare situations like this (where there’s a day off the next day). Sit him in a few series where you are up 2-0 (or down 0-2) to make up the difference. This early, and facing this line-up of teams, it’s huge to eek out another win where you can.

The thing is you can only postpone the day of reckoning for so long- and opening week attendance at around 20,000 for weekday games was the sound of the fat lady warming up for her Declining Attendance Aria.

Regardless, to say the Indians did it the wrong way is pretty ridiculous, given that they rebuilt faster than the Mariners, with a lower budget, and with a much brighter future.

“The Mariners should know full well the tenuous nature of fan passion. All they have to do is look at the attendance figures of the Orioles, Blue Jays and Rockies, all of whom went through a five-year or more stretch of playing virtually to capacity, but now rank 14th, 23rd and 26th, respectively, in the majors.

“I worry about it a lot,” Armstrong said. “Last week in Toronto, I saw it firsthand. Their no-shows were tremendous. That’s why we work so hard at keeping Safeco Field so special.”

Even more ominous is the arc of the Indians, who sold out Jacobs Field for six straight seasons, then fell precipitously after tearing apart the team in 2002. Now they have rebuilt the team to championship caliber on a shoestring budget, yet fans have not flocked back. The Indians rank 24th in the majors this season with 24,457 per game.

Armstrong said the Mariners will not use the Cleveland model of stripping down the ballclub to rebuild. Last winter, the Mariners dished out more than $100 million on free agents Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson.

“It’s incumbent on us me, Bill (Bavasi), the baseball guys to try to get the kind of players that will get this turned around as quickly as we can, as opposed to embarking on the Cleveland approach,” Armstrong said. “Cleveland has such a nice little ballclub, yet we’re averaging 10,000 more a game. We think we have a compact with the fans ownership does.”

Armstrong is fully aware of the perception of some that the loyalty of Mariners fans could work against them. Since the fans keep flocking out through losing seasons, the reasoning goes, the club isn’t motivated to maximize the product.

Not true at all, he said.

“We don’t take them for granted,” Armstrong insisted. “We know we have to put a good product on the field. If we did take it for granted, we would have adopted more of a Cleveland approach and cut back.

And you can’t have a guy on the roster and NEVER play him — he’s got to play every once in a while if he’s going to be ready when he’s needed.

The seating chart would fit nicely in the features colum. Thankyou for the effort and sharing years of trial and error.