Yay Mariner FanFest yay
Scheduled to appear:
JJ Putz
Felix Hernandez
Yuniesky Betancourt
Not scheduled to appear: Chris Snelling.
Note to fans: please do not bring delicious nachos near Felix. The Seattle Mariners are not responsible for loss of food or injuries to your hand including ingestion of hand by Felix, in the event that you disregard this warning and bring food near Felix.
Dugout Dialogue – Q&A session with Mariners players & coaches, Mariner Legends and front office staff, hosted by Mariners broadcasters Dave Niehaus and Rick Rizzs.
Q: Where’s Snelling?
A: Uh, we found a home for him… on a farm! A big farm, where he can run and play and…
Q: Please explain how Jose Vidro, a busted-up hitter in severe decline, is an improvement over playing Snelling.
A: He’s a veteran presence, a professional hitter, uh… look! The Moose!
NEW – Raul Ibanez Skills Challenge – A series of fun, interactive activities for kids of all ages; see if you have what it takes to be a big leaguer like Mariners left-fielder Raul Ibanez!
Can you:
– be good-looking and likable?
– give consistently good post-game interviews?
– accept contract extensions every time you run into M’s president Chuck Armstrong?
– arrange direct deposit for your increasingly large paychecks?
History of Baseball in the Northwest exhibit – Baseball in Seattle goes back further than the Mariners’ 30 seasons, see how baseball in the Northwest began and how far it’s come in this fun and educational exhibit.
No it doesn’t. Willie Bloomquist isn’t thirty yet. How dare you. Evidence of baseball before Bloomquist is a test of our faith in Willie.
Also, that should be ” see how baseball in the Northwest began and how far it’s fallen in this fun and educational exhibit”
Kids’ Zone – Photos with the Mariner Moose, face painting, kids bouncer, wiffle ball batting cage and much more, all for kids!
isn’t it “whiffle” ball?
There’s a bouncer just to keep kids under control? Is he the kid with the glandular problem who takes out his anger on his peers?
Annnnd much, much more.
I miss Doyle 🙁 Where is the do-over button when you really want one?
Is it safe to say there is juuuust a little bitterness and animosity towards M’s managment at the USSM labs right now?
Can you:
…
– accept contract extensions every time you run into M’s president Chuck Armstrong?
Best line, I love it.
It’s Wiffle.
ah, but Derek …. you can “Tryout the latest Nintendo Wii and DS games!”
No Willie? No Danny? No Buhner? What are the casual fans to do? At least the Moose will be there.
oh, I’m betting that as the time grows nigh, Willie B Will Be There.
lol, I’d love to hear what would happen if someone asked Bavasi, Hargrove, Lincoln, and Armstrong: “Why are you still here?”
isn’t it “whiffle†ball?
Nope. It’s “Wiffle ball”. http://www.wiffle.com/
Also not appearing:
Rafael Soriano
Daisuke Matsuzaka
A real big league manager
A real general manager
A real front office and ownership that cares
Also appearing:
The latest Nintendo Wii and DS games
Ya. . .
You watch, forget all the stupid statistical projections, it’s a team that will struggle to win 75 games this year while having an ownership that only cares about how much of a profit the Nintendo Wii makes.
What’s the bleepin’ point of being excited for this team right now?
We had a chance to be serious contenders for the AL West title at the very least this year if we had made some slick and painfully obvious moves this offseason to improve the team. Now instead it would appear that Chuck Armstrong and all those nimrods feel happy about having a “chance” to compete for winning the title in the weakest division in the American League because they stuck to their stupid $95 million budget that they won’t be flexible about and don’t even know how to spend properly.
Give me a bleepin’ break.
The only way I’ll get excited about the Mariners again is if this team tanks completely this year and every single incompetent loser in this front office either gets resigned or fired so we can try and start over.
When that happens, I feel that this team, which has a pretty good core of young talent, will competing for AL West titles again sooner than most “casual” fans realize.
Until then, they are going to run away with the Kiss My (fill in the blank) title every year and keep seeing the attendance drop.
Good grief.
Thank god I have the Seahawks and WSU Cougars in my life right now. Otherwise I’d just feel totally miserable.
Maybe if someone throws a Wii controller hard enough they’ll sign them to a contract and give them a shot in the rotation.
I assume this is the traveling exhibit that David Eskenazi prepared….
6: Expect to see the Bavasi Buzzcut night coming soon.
For the M’s it’s “whiffle”.
Wiffle ball is what the kids play. Whiffle is the M’s. Swingandamiss!
I’m still looking for info on the 2007 M’s Caravan, so I can see who’s coming to Oly this year. I had fun meeting GS52 last year down here, and pointing out to the Daily Zero writer who he and JJ Putz were.
They had 2006’s schedule up last I checked…
I’d guess some batters thought Moyer was throwing a Wiffle ball.
#16– well, I see that Sunnyslope Elementary in Wenatchee knows they have guests coming January 16, 2007 ….
Yeah, I thought I saw a January 7th date for Oly on the latest FSN M’s special.
Uh … are Cheese Puffs safe to bring around Felix? How about Hostess Ding Dongs?
A Die Hard battery commercial used to run during the Sunday football games. Maybe it still does. A guy gets called out to jumpstart a woman’s car in the middle of the night. As he is walking up to the driver’s window, he’s muttering “This is the LAST time.” Then the woman smiles up at him from the driver’s seat, “Thank you Charlie.” He shrugs, “Oh, any time.” In that spirit, I probably will once again attend FanFest although M’s management and their bone-headed offseason has made me mutter “This is the LAST time.” for being an M’s fan. It’s kinda devolved into figuring out how best to separate parents from their money but if you get there early (I never do), there’s some rather cool stuff too. I loved talking about Jim Presley’s inability to begin hitting before June with the guy at the history exhibit.
They should bring back Pineiro or Moyer to do the whiffle ball pitcher.
I guess Baek could suffice as well.
I just keep seeing that really big kid who stands behind Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies….
There are times when the world would really benefit from save/reload.
#11 – I can “bring it” on the mound in baseball on Wii Sports. My fastball tops out at about 93-94 mph. Where do I sign?
I think I topped 18 mph on the radar gun a couple years ago. Really. I understand Bavasi is interested.
#19. I saw that latest FSN M’s special. I almost didn’t recognize Rick Rizzs.
Some gray hairs can be seen in his hair transplant (and oh, why didn’t he get some hairs transplanted lower down on his forehead while he was at it?) and he’s grown a goatee, also liberally sprinkled with gray hairs.
RE: #10….what does that say about the state of things when the Coug’s make you feel better than Safeco field? I’ll still go to some games, and there will be times when they catch fire for a few games and it’s fun to watch again, but overall, not looking forward ot this season.
That said Go Cougs!
So Rizzs is taking fashion tips from Jeff Cirillo, now?
Evil Rick Rizzs?
You know, I had a blast at Fan Fest last year, but as of yet, I’m not planning to go this year. Too depressing. I might go just to beat people at the baseball trivia game, if they’re running that again.
Also, George Sisler Jr. just died, apparently.
13 – that would be sacrilege…
the one time I paused at a Fox Sonics broadcast this season I was …treated … to an in-seat interview with Rizzs, his goatee & his date.
I can;t decide on Fanfest this year. Is it worth freezing my ass off to listen to the Q&Ss when Derek’s are so much more entertaining?
USSM protest on the street outside of FanFest?
Sisler
So, they’ve replaced Doyle with Goyle?
Are you saying they’ve replaced Doyle with Goyle?
#10:
I agree with some of what you’re saying, but to say that the front office and ownership “don’t care” is absolutely wrong. I’d say they care a lot. The problem is they just don’t know what they are doing. I would never question whether this ownership group cares about the fans, or winning, … I would question their baseball IQ and ability to build a winning team.
Also, and in the same vein, $95 million is plenty of money to spend on payroll to build a championship team. Heck, $75 million is probably plenty. The problem lies in how to spend it. In the Mariners case, they simply have no idea.
The only thing I can think of is it is a Seattle thing. until we can get someone that knows the differance between a head and a butt, we most likely will never have a world series here in Seattle?
#38. Nearly 30 years is an awful long time to behave like the nouveau riche…
(I guess to use that term correctly, since in baseball more than just the Mariners behave that way, I should be saying “the nouveaux riches” … i.e., plural)
Is it true that Bill Bavasi’s nickname is Bevo? If so, that would be very fitting indeed.
Im Bremerton on Jan. 10, we get the “C Team”: Mike Morse, Adam Jones, Rizzs and the Moose. Woo-hoo.
They should have an adult statboy version of this where you get to meet Ken Phelps and Kevin Maas and there are games like Pin The Condemnation On Joe Morgan and the Dusty Baker Milk-Can Pitching Contest where you only get one shot at knocking down the set of milk-cans (because you should always swing at the first pitch) and if you win, you win something very old and useless. The top prize could be Dusty Baker himself!
I’m thinking there could also be a Don Mattingly Hair Violations Contest, in which the person who breaks the most company dress code rules could take home a signed copy of the 1989 New York Yankees team photo. “Yes, son. That really is Mike Pagliarulo. Don’t say his name, son. It only makes you sound stupid.”
So you can catch Jones before he’s traded for a declining DH.
Or better yet, you can catch Ichiro before he goes to the Red Sox in 2008 to join Daisuke Matsuzaka and bring another World Series title back home for the folks in Bean-town
Isn’t Raul’s greatest skill the ability to confound statistical projections and make everyone expecting him to decline look foolish, year after year?
while smiling sweetly?
Well, they finally published the info this morning. It must’ve been the nudge I gave on Corey’s blog…
…who will be coming off the throngs of fans who’ll flood the Capital Mall the prior afternoon. Yippee Skippee! I don’t think I’ll be playing hooky after lunch like I did last year.