re asses: “We got behind the eight ball again right off the bat,” McLaren said. “It’s hard to explain. We seem to be throwing the ball good and then … it has happened to a couple of our starters. A good first inning and don’t know what happens in the second inning.”

Ummmm…the starting pitcher sucks?

I don’t know if any of you caught the sports segment of KOMO4’s 11pm news, but Red was featured prominently. Also check out the pic today at Lookout Landing.

Seriously, the team should embrace the guy. I mean, Bill the Beerman is gone, it’s time for another hero to rise from the stands and carry the torch. They should get a video of Red dancing (better than this) and put it up on the scoreboard as the M’s rally rouser — whether he’s actually at the game or not. Screw the fries, screw the monkey, it’s Rally Red!

(BTW, Red had his Beltre bobblehead stolen by the guys next to him in the stands last night right after the game while he was down in the mob of fans by the dugout. Fortunately, a regular bobblehead and not the 3 foot one [which would be pretty hard to steal anyway]. Still, that sucks. LL has put out a hit on the two guys in question.)

re asses, I like that. How about this?

re: asses, McLaren is impressed by Jones’ pinch hit home run the other day, but still won’t play him because “his day will come.”

# 21 – I mean opponents batting average against, witch is .288 and should have be denoted as “BAA”, but still bad.

I’m a big Wladimier Balentien fan. (Nothing against AJ, DMZ, I like him too…)

At the game last night I was holding a sign that said “It’s WLAD’S WORLD – we just live in it.” The flip side was simply… “WHERE’S WLAD?”.

Right before the game got underway, I notice the players all pointing at it and laughing, including Wlad. To answer “WHERE’S WLAD”, Putz and Jones both took great pleasure in pointing down to the bench. I pointed the outfield. Wlad just put his hands up, laughed and shrugged helplessly. Then he, in an exaggerated motion, went right down from the railing and plopped himself on the bench and sat there.

Cut to: after the game. I’m waiting for my ride. I see people crowded around where the players drive out. The players drove out (man – three tricked-out Hummers in the first ten minutes!) Nobody was stopping, although everyone was circulating the rumor that “a few nights ago Raul stopped”. This powered everyone on. My sign, which I strung onto myself with a shoelace, still hung from me.

And then an SUV *did* stop for signing and photos. The window rolled down. Why it’s… the SKIPPER! How do, Mr. McLaren? As he posed for photos I stood right in front of him with my big WHERE’S WLAD?” sign. Every photo op had him looking up and smiling… right at my sign. I smiled and waved and gave him the thumbs up on a win.

He looked at my sign. He looked at me. He gunned it and sped off.

Good times!

On a completely unrelated note, every time Beltre gets a hit now, they show Red on the scoreboard. A couple of times they overlayed a whooping and jumping Red with A.B. taking his gloves off when he reached base successfully.
Not since Bucky has a folk hero risen so organically and captured the jumbotron and hearts of so many (except the people standing right behind him,, who looked like they wanted to have him ejected from their swanky section for Willful Overexhuberance and Supportive Leaping.

HoRam tomorrow! Maybe Mac will toss Wlad an inning if Ho tanks early and it’s non salvageable. Ahhh… probably not.