Mariners Morsels - aka "Free Adam Moore and Rich Poythress! (George Sherrill is FREE!)"

Unlike many other hardcore baseball fans, I didn't really grow up listening to baseball. I didn't pay much attention at all to the Mariners, really, until about 1986. But when I discovered baseball, I really learned to enjoy it every time I listened to Niehaus call the game on the old white AM radio my dad had. We'd have the game on when my dad was working on the car -- and Niehaus' rosy rhythms and smooth droll provided some interesting counterpoint to my father's terse cursing preceded by the clink-clank of the greasy tool falling into a nearly-impossible-to-retrieve gap, along with that only nut that would fit the last bolt holding onto whatever it was my dad was fixing.

But as I dove into baseball, I grew to really appreciate the game thanks to Dave's skillful game-calling. In 1991, when the M's were winners for the first time ever -- after almost 15 years of being losers and the butt of jokes around the league -- I thought of Dave and how long he'd suffered with the team. And then Dave brought a whole lot of current Mariners fans into the fold with "the Double" and, really, the excitement that drew folks into the team as they made the playoffs for the first time.

Now, as the Mariners revisit the "glory" days of the 1970s and 1980s, on pace for a 100-loss season, and Dave's better days are behind them, the team owes it to him and to all of the long-suffering fans to right this ship and get back to the playoffs, and hopefully giving Dave the opportunity to call history in the World Series.

Labels: Dave Niehaus, Ford C. Frick award, Hall of Fame, memories

(borrowed from BaltimoreOrioles.com)

A couple of quick observations from the ASG tonight:

• First thing I noticed was the 3-day goatee making a subtle appearance. I laughed at George's rebellion.
  
• I timed it perfectly -- I was outside doing yardwork and getting the house ready to sell and came in just as George came out from the bullpen, into the game.
• Leave it to the AL to play like the Mariners and not score the runner from 2nd when no one was out. It was bittersweet that George did his thing and didn't get the victory or the save. Man, what if...
• Twenty-five pitches, 18 strikes. 'Nuff said.
• Definitely deserved consideration for the MVP. Coming in with the bases loaded and getting a 3-pitch strikeout? Awesome!

What a great way to handle the spotlight.

Labels: All Star Game, George is awesome, George Sherrill, Incredible

From LOOGY to All-Star, practically overnight.

Not bad for a guy who wasn't drafted out of college and who had to fight his way into MLB.

I'm sure someone at the ASG can teach you how to bend your brim...

Congrats, GS52! Awesome. Just. Awesome!

(Kudos even further to Deanna who made the above photo, one of my faves of GS52 in the M's blues)

Labels: All Star Game, Bend yer brim, George is awesome, George Sherrill

In the early days of the Morsels, I mentioned that I didn't grow up as a baseball fan. My first love in the professional sports world was the Sonics. I vividly remember the Sonics BOOM! era, with Bob Blackburn, Downtown Freddy Brown, and the Fat Lady singing, long before Kevin Calabro. Who could forget the Band-Aid twins (Johnson & Johnson). It's safe to say that I hated Wes Unseld much more than I dislike Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong today. I loved Freddy Brown and Jack Sikma as much or more then as I like George Sherrill and Adrian Beltre today. I cried when I heard Dennis Johnson died.

I still have the LP where this MP3 came from. I saw the Sonics play in the Kingdome. And long before Key Arena was renovated to become Key Arena. My dad was watching a Sonics game when I noticed our trailer caught on fire in the driveway (and Sonics games on TV were very rare in that day). When the Seahawks were invented, it took us a few years to pay much more than passing attention to them, and again, I paid even less attention to the Mariners (seeing my first game in the mid-80s and finally paying SOME attention in 1986).

I have many fond memories of the Sonics. Again, they were my first team. I'm so disappointed in the news that they're leaving, but my apathy for the NBA was well-established a long time ago. Yeah, there's a chance that Seattle will get another NBA team, but you know what? I honestly hope they don't. I've switched from apathy to hatred for the NBA.

Good-bye Sonics! Don't come back. Unless, of course, another professional basketball leagues is formed after the mess that the NBA has become. You're dead to me. The NBA is a bigger bunch of losers than the Washington Generals. It's almost as big of a kayfabe, at the very least...

Labels: NBA sucks, other sports, sadness, Sonics