The Ballad of Bloomquist Continues
Jeff · September 5, 2005 at 7:16 am · Filed Under Mariners
I’m late with this one — sort of a theme for me this week — but Derek’s latest P-I column is a sterling piece of research that answers the musical question, “Is the team really better off with Bloomquist in the lineup?”
Comments
31 Responses to “The Ballad of Bloomquist Continues”
Very interesting (and damning) analysis. Ya better watch out for angry Kitsap County women with kitting needles. 🙂
I am amazed – and SHOCKED – that the P-I let you publish this sacriligious column. Thank you Derek, for breaking through the cone of silence surrounding Willie Bloomquist.
I thought the article forgot the main reason so many fans love to watch Bloomquist play ball for the Mariners. He is a local boy and they like to see a local boy on the team. Since the Mariners will never win, it is fun to watch a local player occasionally. The fans need something to cheer about or they will quit attending games. I thought the timing on the article was awful. Kicking a player when he is injured is I guess just standard fare for a reporter. I cancelled my PI subscrition and sent a letter to the PI editor telling him why. Many friends have done the same.
So you’d rather be blinded by ignorance than know the facts? That’s your choice I guess.
I don’t get why you cancelled your PI subscription though as what you get is the actual newspaper and this article never ran it…
I cancelled my PI subscrition and sent a letter to the PI editor telling him why. Many friends have done the same.
Sounds like an empty, bogus, and uninformed threat to me; like Josh said, Derek’s article doesn’t even appear in the print PI.
jason
Since the Mariners will never win
Why do so many Bloomquist backers root for the team to fail? Why do you hate the Mariners?
Hey #3 – you’re going to cancel your subscrition (sic) to the web only content of the PI?
Interesting article, but it meanders a bit (and it seems to lose the comparison numbers to catchers and shortstops, etc under an ad…)
One positive point that could have been made is that Bloomquist’s defensive versatility would allow a (well managed) club to also keep a better hitter/worse fielder type on the bench because Willie can fill in at so many spots.
Given that most clubs carry a light hitting utility infielder and a light hitting fourth outfielder, you could upgrade the hitting capability of one of them. Of course, that latter player couldn’t be so good that they’d be making a lot of money or displace the existing DH. But I’m thinking that spot is tailor made for Bucky Jacobsen – total liability in the field, occasional starter at DH, big bat off the bench, too fragile to play every day.
#3: If your reason for watching baseball is to see the local kid play, that’s great, and I have a suggestion for you that will fulfill your baseball wishes and your pocketbook as well: Instead of watching Mariners baseball, support your local little league. The little league kids could use your support, they are all local kids, and winning is not that important. The Mariners, in contrast, are (in theory) mainly concerned with winning. Playing the local kid regularly does not help them attain that goal, as DMZs article clearly articulated.
Unless I personally know a player, just wearing “SEATTLE” across the front of his uniform is as good as being local. And I don’t personally know any professional baseball players.
Fly Away:
Willie? Is that you?
I’ve been waiting for the thread on this column.
This is one of the funniest things I’ve read here in a while. Isn’t this the point on Derek’s piece. The team needs to WIN and to do so they should play better players. Do people really turn out en masse to see Bloomquist play? More than they would a former all-star (Boone) or a future one (Lopez)?
DMZ, I’d be curious how much hate mail you’re getting on this and if you’d care to share any of the funnier ones. All you’ve stated is facts — in a lot of playing time, including a chance to play everyday, Bloomquist has shown he hits like a below average catcher — but you’ll still piss of the thousands of Willie lovers.
Please let this subject die already. We’ve got a guy at secondbase who hits to all fields.
It’s ingots of comedy gold, folks, INGOTS, I tell you!
Seriously, I think Willie B. will be firmly on the bench where he belongs come 2006, getting articles about how UNFAIR it all is that he has to sit. Who does he beat out for playing time? Reed? Betancourt? Beltre? Lopez? Anyone we sign for LF or DH?
Yeah, exactly.
I just emailed the PI sports editor in support of the column, in an effort to stem the effect of those like #3 who are probably inundating the PI with hate mail right now. Might be worth it to others who enjoy reading DMZs columns to do the same.
That’s it… I’m canceling my RSS subsciption to this site.
I think #3 Fly Away is one of the most brilliantly crafted pieces of satirical fiction I’ve read in quite a while. Belongs on the “Shouts and Murmurs” page of the New Yorker, if not the front page of The Onion. Let’s give the guy credit for consolidating nearly every pro-Willie argument (forgot “scrappy”, 5 points off!)into one brief paragraph.
“Since the Mariners will never win…” – great spin on rainy, depressed, grunge/flannel/heroin/espresso-craving Seattle stereotype.
Good lord Derek, is there no end to your descretionless behavior? Please don’t try that with Richie Sexson, or try digging the grave of John Olerud, or start telling us why Ron Santo will never be in the HOF. We can’t take any more! We’re already in tears…
Laughing our heads off while imagining the responses. But I’m sure you aren’t… Good luck.
What is kind of amazing is that a google news search for “Bloomquist injury” turns up Derek’s piece as the second hit (an mlb.com article posted today is first – google news gives heavy weight to freshness).
I would have liked to have seen DMZ take a slap at John “I Heart Williebees” Levesque in his column. It would have been richly deserved and not at all inappropriate.
I think you all are just jealous that Willie is a far better baseball player than you will ever be.
I am so angry that Seattle fans would sink so low as to denigrate one of the scrappiest players in the history of western civilization. To express my anger, I’m jettisoning everything Derek. I’ve dumped my copy of “10”. I’ve burned my Derek Sanderson hockey jersey. Ditto my autographed Derek Anderson basketball. I blacked out the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea on my national geographic wall map.
But I’m not totally whack. The Derek and the Dominoes CD stays.
I’d call the DMZ a stretch. Cheater.
So how much better is this guy Lopez just called up from Tacoma? His defense so far isn’t any better. His batting so far isn’t any better. What am I missing?
You’re missing knowledge of what we like to refer to as ‘the past’, Fly Away.
What a nice column, thanks for linking them Jeff. I never find my way to the Seattle dailies these days. It should really be in print because Derek is the only member of the Seattle media to offer this viewpoint and that’s kinda like a strikeout, fascist.
Nice column, nice topic.
But the use of Fermin and Edgar’s ’94 performances was out of place and a bit misleading to the general P-I reader. Felix the Cat wasn’t one of Lou’s favorite players in the mid ’90s. He hit .195 in ’95 in his only other year with Seattle. And Edgar broke his hand in the first game of 1994 off of Dennis Martinez.
Probably should have picked a more recent example for the comparison.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for writing this article. As much as I love baseball, I do love other things in life as well, so I dont’ have the time to analyze baseball to such a degree that I can explain to the people I know why Willie is a waste of a starting position on the team. I’ve just sent them this article and have printed it out and am going to have copies to hand out the next time I go to a game becaue I really can’t take it anymore.
I hate to play something so loaded as the race card here but I have to ask this question because it burns inside of me. Would the Mariners FO continue to prop up Willie if his skin had a lot darker tones?
Forget Bloomie, what about getting a catcher who can hit?
I hear there’s this young stud catcher with the Padres, just arrived there a little while ago, and he’s lighting it up to the tune of .320/.356/.526 (.882 OPS) since he got there. Miguel somebody.
Sheesh. How soon can Jeff Clement get up to the big show? Maybe he can break the Jason Varitek jinx. Until then, ‘catcher’ = ‘hole in the lineup’.
tool, I think you should come with a lot more evidence than one scrappy middle infield before making such accusations. Just off the top of my head, they seem to still be pushing Pokey Reese in the TV ads, and he’s not ever going to play for the team. I’m perfectly willing to leave it at Bloomie getting so much support for being local and scrappy, that’s enough reason right there for the FO/media to push him on us.
THANK YOU DMZ!!!!!
I owe you another Fat Tire at the next outing.
Oh, and where do I get in line to kick WFB? How can he be down? He’s still getting paid, isn’t he? It’d be different if he were homeless as a result of this injury. I don’t like that he’s injured, but I love that he’s out of the lineup. Perhaps it’s a karmic thing? The universe took Doyle from us, and this is the evening out of the cosmic balance?