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Quick!
Was this a statement game? Why or why not?
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Twittah
I think it was a statement game, but the statement itself could have been a number of things.
The statement could be, choose:
1. We’re determined to go for the record in killing elderly/ bad ticker fans with heart attack finishes.
2. We’re pretty good as competitors, and have a bit of talent….even if the mental aspect of our game seems to take lengthy vacations.
3. Although we know trades will likely happen, nobody on this team wants to be traded to Minnesota.
4. It torks us off to see that much red in OUR stadium.
I spent two years as a kid in Belfast, Maine (although I was born and essentially raised here)….you learn very quickly you must hate pinstripes. Boston doesn’t do “casual fan”.
I made a point to hit Yankee Stadium before it closed. It was a much different experience seeing people cheer in certain situations (2 out, 2 strikes), without being prompted by a video screen.
But, guess what? That’s what 26 world championships will do for a fan base. I gather it’s about the same for Sox fans as well.
The Seattle fan base is filled with many casual fans who are plenty entertained by hydro races and the wave. Why? Because there aren’t crazed fans beating down the Safeco box office desperate for tickets because there’s a chance every single season to see a winner.
That’s going to be our culture until the team gives fans reason to be excited about the product on the field. Although, let me remind you that you aren’t the judge of fandom.
I keep score, and get nervous in high leverage situation. Someone else does the wave. Big deal. I feel, if you’re as into the game as you claim, other people taking pictures with that flea infested moose shouldn’t distract you.
You can also go to a concert in Seattle where nobody stands up until the encore.
I like that it’s that laid back, though.
Hi!
This is rank ignorant bullshit, which entirely and forever establishes that you weren’t around for the playoff-contention Mariners, or that you have a hearing problem or memory loss.
M’s fans are fine cheering, given any reason or motivation to do so. That you don’t think they’re loud enough now does not equate to a lack of ability.
There no such thing as a statement game. Good teams don’t need them, bad teams claim to have a dozen of them over the course of a single season and still manage to not make the playoffs. Or, make the playoffs and then look back to try and find that statement game, so that the radio jocks have a couple phone-in segments to kill time.
Quick, what was the statement game in 2001? Was it the first sweep … or maybe the fifth, or maybe Win 116?
What does a statement game even mean? Who are we trying to convince with a statement? Is it a matter of psyching yourself up? Each member of the Mariners roster is a professional, their bank accounts should provide all the motivation, if it doesn’t, the manager should do whatever to compensate for it. Do the fans need to be convinced? Why? If the attendance at the Mariners games improved 5-10% over the rest of the season, does the team get an incentive of some sort? I’m sure the execs would be happy, but it doesn’t affect the game’s outcome. Are the Mariners trying the psych out the opposition – “look at how we made a statement last week, you better be ready for a beating, hombre!” Well, the opposing players are supposed to be just as professional. Is the team trying to impress the ESPN talking heads? Who cares what they say?
What makes baseball different?
There are no statement games in soccer. Liverpool beat Manchester United 4-1, yet that wasn’t a statement game, because Manchester just hoisted the trophy, and Liverpool couldn’t do anything about it. If, on the other hand, ManU would have faltered and lost more points, and Liverpool could get the title, is it all of a sudden a statement game? Of course, some will say. But what has changed? ManU was responsible for its performance, Liverpool for its, that game was history the moment the ref signaled the end of the game. There was no statement, only an illusion of importance in retrospect post future performances.
There are none in basketball. At what point in this season did Cleveland have a statement game? They were simply a better team most of the year, and no win should stand out.
Are there statement games in football? No, in a 16 game season, a win is a win and a loss is a loss. If a team starts 7-0, then beats the only other undefeated team, is that a statement game? What if that team then goes on to lose the remaining games and miss the playoffs? A game is a game, its importance is purely statistical for the benefit of a accounting a winner.
The reason baseball has statement games is because Softy needs a segment to fill, and this is the first thing to pop into his thick skull.
A good team will make the playoffs, regardless of statements. A bad team will not make the playoffs, regardless of statements.
[Niehaus, Rizzs]
If this is a statement game, then the statement is “We are a .500 team because we play a crapload of coinflip games.”
/minor correction:
The reason baseball has statement games is because the season is 162 games long, and Softy needs a segment to fill after each game, and this is the first thing to pop into his thick skull.
A statement game? Probably not. But:
1. There no better place to be than Safeco Field on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
2. I can’t believe that we threw 3 starters named Jakabauskas, Olson, and Vargas and ended winning 2 from Boston.
3. I wonder if Ken Griffey is finished. That first fly ball flew off his bat and then didn’t even reach the warning track.
4. What is wrong with Adrian Beltre? And why is he batting 4th?
5. I love Franklyn Gutierrez.
6. There is no where better than Safeco Field on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was worth repeating.
No, there is such a thing as a statement game.
There’s only one, though. And that’s when you win the very last game of the season.
Yes…. IF
1. They prove to be ‘righting the ship’ and ending the suckitude of the first half of May (and last couple days of April).
2. They can now figure out how to beat the Rangers and Angels.
3. The can beat the Red Sox with a healthy Youkilis.
Bottom line: It’s only a ‘statement game’ if they prove to gain some momentum and prove to have stuff figured out. They’ve gone 5-11 so far this month, losing to KC, TX, MN and now face LA and OAK. It was reasonable to expect a slight ‘settling’… However, I think they gotta break even or slightly ahead this month to have a realistic shot. They have 13 more games to expand on today’s (and Friday’s) ‘statement’ and even out the previous half of the month. I worry that 7 of these 13 are against the Angels. Today’s game was great… However, we are in danger of being cellar-dwellers again.
I think there are statement games but they usually involve throwing at an opposing batter and bench clearing brawls and have little to do with the game of baseball being played on the field.
[Niehaus, Rizzs]
and yes,
Rizzs
Niehaus.
Rizzs.
Niehaus.
I was thinking about it (contrary to what the caption of this post encourages) and I decided that while it’s a very good win against a tough Boston club, any real statement would probably be limited to: “we can compete, and when we fire on all thrusters, beat the heavyweight teams”.
The real statement would be in beating Texas the next time we face them, provided we can keep within spittin’ distance or even (dare I hope?!) gain ground.
If we want this division this year, we’re gonna have to prove it to them.
Yes this was a statement game!
The statement was as follows:
“On May 17th, we beat the Boston Red Sox 3-2, because of an error made by the back up shortstop.”
IF there were such a thing as a statement game…and IF today were one of those games…then the statement would be that the Red Sox miss Manny more than their annoying fans want to admit.
You forgot a third, and probably the most prominent, “Sox fan at an average M’s game”: the douche who’s never been to Boston and/or who started watching the Sox in ’04.
This type of person usually likes the appeal of being apart of “Red Sox nation.” Sometimes it’ll come from a hatred of the Yankee’s and as a result of ESPN/Fox’s over-saturation of the gradually less-interesting rivalry. This is the person who’ll go to the game and buy a Sox shirt from the guy selling them on Occidental an hour before first pitch. The is the person who will cheer for Jason Bay just because he’s on the Red Sox, not because of his on field accomplishments in Pittsburgh, the same casual fan that if the M’s had traded for him last year wouldn’t have cheered for him because they wouldn’t have cared who the hell he was. (This is no knock on the M’s fan base)
I’m sad to admit it, but my cousin is this fan, his AIM screen name contains the word “Poppi,” he owns about 10 Sox hats, and has never been to Boston, or anywhere near the east coast. To top it off, his facebook profile picture is the Red Sox logo, and has been for over a year.
If there weren’t a bunch of the aforementioned fans, then every large market team with a significant fan base would be showing up in masses at Safeco for a lot of series. Also, I don’t think New Englanders immigrate to the PNW at higher rates than say, Californians for example. Also, you can’t tell me that many Bostonian’s chose to take a vacation to Seattle in the middle of May…
We had injuries, they had injuries. That’s baseball.
In 2001, the Cardinals were missing a healthy Mark McGwire and brought up a raw rookie to take his place. Only he was Albert Pujols. Stuff happens. The Rays had a way today of dealing with the manager’s stupidity that had their pitcher batting third.
Oh absolutely. With this game, we’ve made the statement that the Mariners are a mediocre team. A team that plays good defense. A team with an adequate rotation and a struggling bullpen. A team whose offense is pretty weak that could use some lefties. This is a team that, given a little luck and continued injuries and underachieving from the Angels, As, and Rangers could win the weakest division in baseball.
Basically, this game made the statement that all the things we knew before the game are still true.
Statement games are both real and quantifiable. The value of a statement game victory is worth 1.2 wins; a statement game defeat deserves its own column in the standings.
@dingla: no noticeable delay on the radio when you are at the game. It’s startling how much there is no delay. It’s got to be under a second cause right at the crack of the bat you are seeing you hear [RIZZS RIZZS HOW MANY COMMENTS DO WE HAVE TO EDIT ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGHHHHH] or Niehaus calling it on the radio. That speed of light really working out there. 🙂 Figure they’ve got some sort of a hard line directly to their station which is in Seattle and then it gets broadcast out at the speed of light; so just delay in the relay process I suppose where the signal gets sent to the station and processed there.
I would think TV would have a greater delay due to the massive amounts of more digital data having to be routed around. It’s surprising the delay there is only 4 seconds or so. It seems like it could be a lot longer, such as with MLB.TV and the about 1 minute delay or gameday audio and the 30 second or so delay.
It definitley makes the games more enjoyable to listen while you are there though; especially when you are surrounded by a lot of “typical idiot fans” which often happens if you go to enough games.
If not for the radio, my wife would never come to the 30 or 40 games we go to a season. Especially because i have strict rules about talking anywhere but between innings / pitching changes / etc. 🙂 I mean, if i’m at a movie I don’t try to gab to someone while the movie’s playing and I expect the same courtesy at the games. 🙂 If you are talking, it means you aren’t paying attention. 😉
“you can’t tell me that many Bostonian’s chose to take a vacation to Seattle in the middle of May”
I can attest to that as a full season ticket holder. Pre-Boston being consistently good there were significantly less “Boston” fans at the games.
Pre-2004 it was even somewhat bearable to go to a Boston/M’s game (though still a good number of “Boston” fans who interestingly seem to often know nothing about the Redsox).
After 2004 is when I had to stop going to Boston games. The baseball snob in me just couldn’t take it. 😉 I don’t mind the real Boston fans as much (they can often be pretty obnoxious, but they are so few relatively speaking in Seattle that they can be easily ignored). The fair weather variety though are just as obnoxious (if not more) and there are many thousands of them everywhere at Boston/M’s match ups.
Sorry, you’re just not going to convince anyone that there aren’t an enormous number of bandwagon fans in “Red Sox Nation”.
I was at the Pike Place Market Sunday morning and it was packed with people wearing Bosox gear. Based upon this (admittedly anecdotal) sample, I suspect there are a good number of Bosox tourists in the city who planned to catch a game while out here anyway.
Now, whether or not these tourists are actually from the New England area is another thing entirely.
Actually, no, I didn’t:
Personally, I think y’all will forget about us when the Yankees fans roll in, since they’ve been douches at least as far back as Reggie Jackson. But the Sox and Yankees are as close as there is to sports royalty, and there’s going to be a douche factor there. (And props to the M’s for milking everyone for $5 extra/ticket.) Just wait until the Cubs finally win one (if you live that long), and you’ll thank your lucky stars the M’s are in the AL.
BTW, it’s 46 and light rain in Boston. So yeah, 70s and sun in a nice new ballpark (and a retractable roof just in case) is a tourist draw. Just like $45-70 box seats, vs. $90-125 at Fenway. Or $150-375 at Yankee Stadium.
God. The Yankee games are gonna be crawling with tourists. Someone please slap the first guy who stands up and yells DAY-O. I think that’s something we can all approve of.
Sure there is a statement game. A team’s 4th win in the world series kind of says it all, doesn’t it?
We can’t send Yuni all the way back to Cuba, but we could ship him to Miami. Let the Marlins add any two players of their choice from Tacoma. All we want in return is Hanley–someone to hit #3 or 4 for us who would actually hit his weight. Ramirez is wearing out his welcome down there, so let’s solve their problem and ours, all in the same deal…
I’ve been going to M’s games all my life (21 years), and I don’t remember there EVER being as huge a Yankees turn out as the Sox have had in recent years, usually the large numbers seem to be there in order to boo the Yanks, or because they are a draw for the home fans. That may be attributed to the fact that back when the Yankees were really good, the M’s were also really good. Also, more fans boo the Yankees at Safeco than will ever boo the Sox, because they are the evil empire. What I was saying is that people liked being in the Red Sox nation, they were the underdog, and were supposedly cursed. It was easy to be on their side, to be apart of the struggle, then came ultimate success. Sox fans didn’t used to be douchey, they had nothing to be douchey about, but now since they have won it twice in the last 5 years, they are huge douches. There’s always been a hatred of the Yankees in Seattle, especially since ’01, so people naturally started rooting for the Sox building their fanbase in Seattle even more.
Honestly I like Yankees fans better than Sox fans. They don’t seem as bandwagony and douchey. They at least have a long history of immense success in which to root their fandom.
Hmm, been here since ’99, as I said; made no claims as to earlier or later arrival.
“Rank, ignorant bullshit,” huh? Sure am glad I voluntarily contributed money to this site. Such a cheery welcome when observing something that many of my Seattle-local friends have also noticed when compared to many other sports locales.
But, at least I’ve got no hearing problems and no memory issues yet 😉
I see, so they’re only able to cheer when they’re winning (or at least strongly contending for) the playoffs? That sounds fairly weak to me. Actually kind of sounds like the “bandwagon-ish” behavior of which everyone’s accusing Boston fans.
I’ll go refund your $10 since you’re now dissatisfied with the site.
Did I say I was dissatisfied with the site?
(And please don’t make it sound like I asked for a refund.)