Comments on: Dog bites man, Armstrong feels team is great and you’re stupid

By: joser

joser — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:40:24 +0000

Well, there were people in the first half of the season who were advocating a “move” of Ibanez to the bench because he wasn’t hitting. Which wouldn’t have been a bad decision; as it turns out, a move to the DL would’ve been more appropriate, but since he was hiding his injury and the M’s coaching staff was too clueless and/or deferential to veteraness to notice, that didn’t happen.

By: Robo Ape

Robo Ape — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:51:20 +0000

Hmmm… this seems a little obstinate to me. Unless I’m reading something wrong here, the dude basically said: “Attendance is bad because our schedule sucks, the weather sucks, and the team sucks. We expect attendance to increase when we play more exciting teams [he mentions the Yankees in the full article], the weather gets better, and we start winning.”
That seems to make sense to me. Of course, he’s assuming the team will start winning; fine if you disagree but, as you say Derek, he’s the president.
As for the rest, he’s just paying the typical business managerial lip service to the tune of: “I support what our staff is doing.” Regardless, I certainly don’t read any contempt for his customers in his statements, everything seems pretty vanilla.

These sorts of critiques of Armstrong have always baffled me. He’s not the GM, nor has he ever had designs to be the GM (even when he certainly could have taken that role in the Argyros years if he’d wanted). The dude’s job is to run a profitable business and that is something he has done very, very well.

By: Ollie in Raleigh

Ollie in Raleigh — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:49:18 +0000

Thanks for the love Chuck. By the way I intend on letting my MLB.tv account expire at months end. And as for the new M’s gear I was going to order after I move to a new address in a few weeks…go on and feel anything but optimistic about that happening.

By: tomas

tomas — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:04:27 +0000

We can only hope for change at this point, but the change won’t go high enough, and they’ll probably hire another idiot like BB and give him five years to try and make something work. At this rate all those season ticket holder won’t even be going to games. It is unnaceptable the the team with the 9th highest payroll is the joke of baseball

By: tomas

tomas — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:01:04 +0000

Patience? Are you kidding me? BB’s been in charge for how many years now?

By: John in L.A.

John in L.A. — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:16:40 +0000

“Who was advocating “a move” with Ibanez at this time last season? Seriously, I’m drawing a blank here. Was it me? I don’t think that was me.”

Could the “move” he’s talking about be moving him from the outfield to DH? Because if so, than… sure, Chuck.

Those two clowns infuriate me. As does their seeming corporate invulnerability. They must be world-class brown-nosers.

By: matthew

matthew — Thu, 08 May 2008 03:00:37 +0000

So, does this mean BB is on the hot seat again?

No. This is when he gets an extension to his contract. That’s how the Mariners roll!

By: joser

joser — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:48:22 +0000

I agree, and I’d pile on but I just don’t have the energy. The top of the organization is an echo chamber where the same half-truths and misapprehensions and completely bogus conventional wisdoms get amplified and repeated like some idiot game of Telephone.

But, I have to stop at this:

seven of Seattle’s top poorest Safeco Field attendances have come this year

He actually wrote that? “top poorest attendances”? Is English actually Hickey’s native language?

By: pgreyy

pgreyy — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:42:30 +0000

It’s really nice to be on a website like this where the average reader and poster knows more than me….

It’s the exact opposite of Safeco Field, where it seems most of the fans who do show up know virtually nothing….

It’s not that the people who go to the games don’t know…it’s that if you’ve bothered to spend the money to go to the game, you WANT your team do do well…in the delightfully irrational way that sports fans do–to participate in that fantasy.

Who wants to pay money to validate what you already know are the failings of the local team?

There are those of us who know…who go…we simply put aside what we know to cheer for the guys wearing our shirts in hopes that they do well (even if that means proving us wrong.)

And then, we come home and log on…to commiserate in with others sharing our misery.

(Except for the idiots who cheer the dancing grounds crew. They still think that wrestling is real.)

By: hub

hub — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:07:14 +0000

But, but, they intentionally bumped up the player ratings on Wii Baseball. Thats not enough for you fickle fans?