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Lookout Landing

85-77, Closing Game Thoughts

I'm going to be kind of quick about this, because, I gotta be honest, the high of pumping out your final content of the season is unlike any other and I'm eager to drink.

  • Maybe it's just because none of my teams have ever won a championship, but I honestly can't remember ever enjoying a season's end as much as I did today. I'm not going to try to summarize the gathering on the field after the game. There's no point. I couldn't. There's no way I could do justice to an impromptu celebration that actually made me tear up. You'll just have to see it for yourself, if you haven't already. But...man, for a team that didn't win anything, this one was something special. A year ago, Carlos Silva was the prime suspect when it came to an anonymous Mariner player threatening Ichiro. Today he carried him off the field on his shoulders. Mike Blowers couldn't stop talking about how he'd never seen a whole team mill around like this before. These Mariners were as close as any team that's ever shared a clubhouse, and knowing that they were all enjoying themselves was a big part of what made this season so fun.

    Thanks, guys. You've been a treat.

  • Six strikeouts, one walk, a bunch of groundballs, a bunch of strikes, a bunch of swinging strikes, and a win. Felix Hernandez showed no ill effects from his 121-pitch outing last Tuesday and looked as kingly as ever from the start to the finish. He may not win the Cy Young, but this was a Cy Young-caliber season, and when he told Angie Mentink through laughter and tears after the game that he'd like to spend his whole career in Seattle...Z should just call him up right now while he's still feeling emotional. Also, when the whole team is out there walking a victory lap and thanking the fans, maybe you should wait a few minutes before pulling one of the players away from the rest for a pointless one-minute interview.

  • You always hear about the fan who caught a home run, or the fan who caught a foul ball. You never hear about the fan who caught a ground-rule double. I wonder what happens to that fan.

  • I know a lot of Mariners fans. Not one of them has ever gone to a baseball game with a rally fries sign. Which makes me wonder if there have ever been repeats. Has anyone won rally fries twice? Griffey tried his hand today but didn't luck out, which is just as well, because one more handful of fries and I don't know if Tui and Langerhans would've been able to lift him.

  • In the top of the first, it looked like Bill Hall dove for David Murphy's double and missed by 15 feet, but replays showed that he just fell down. Bill Hall, everybody. I urge you not to get too down on him, because he's very clearly been injured, but by the same token, Christ, Wak, why did you have to subject us to so much of this guy? What was there to be gained?

  • Adrian Beltre led off the game with a sparkling diving stop on a grounder to his left, and later pulled off another one of those spectacular off-balance barehands on a swinging bunt the way only he can do. Though Beltre went hitless and struck out in his final at bat, this final homestand saw him display every part of his skillset, and my only complaint about this whole afternoon is that the crowd didn't give him any recognition for everything he's done. I'm sorry, Adrian. I am deeply sorry that so many people just don't get you. I hope you end up somewhere that you can feel loved, because few people deserve it more than you.

  • Attendance for the home opener: 48,514. Attendance today: 32,260. That's up about 5,000 from a year ago and 2,000 from 2007, but, really? Either a lot of Seattle felt they'd shown Griffey enough love, or a lot of Seattle doesn't believe that he's going to retire.

  • It's fun to end the season with a win. We've done it four years in a row. Three of those years we've directly prevented the Rangers from the same satisfaction. Suck it, Texas.

  • Mike Blowers, paraphrased, on Hank Blalock: You have to be careful, because he can still turn on a good fastball. You hear this about a lot of guys, but I don't get what it means. Of course Blalock can still turn on a good fastball. If you can't hit a fastball, you can't be a position player in the Major Leagues. That's like saying, you have to keep on your toes around this hockey player, because he knows how to skate. If Hank Blalock couldn't hit a fastball, he'd be listening to announcers talk about guys who can hit a fastball on TV.

  • The second-to-last pitch of the game was a high fastball. Rob Johnson dropped it.

0 recs  |  437 comments

Comments

I stood up for Beltre after that last at bat. About 10-20 people around me did too, but that was all I saw

It really is sad how under-appreciated he is. He’s absolutely awesome.

Shoot, I missed the end of the game.

I sure hope the FSN replay will show it.

Hmmm...

I actually screamed louder for AB’s final AB than for Griffey’s.

But that had nothing on the booing I gave Beluga…

We stood up through Adrian's entire at bat.

The small child behind us kept yelling that Beltre was going to strike out.
That child was thisclose to losing his voice box.

He also demanded we sit down.

I gave him a good ten second glare after the game and he went and hid behind his dad. I should have punched his dad for letting him be such an obnoxious little shit.

Glaring at a small child probably less than one third your size is uncool

I mean it’s just a small child.
And great as Beltre has been on the field he has struck out in chances way too often chasing junk pitches.

As great overall as he has been, I wouldn’t pick on small children for thinking Beltre’s been pretty bad with the bat.

Little punk sounded like he was acting up so he deserved to be glared at.
OK, I wasn't there so don't know how loud/annoying he was, so maybe I shouldn't comment

I just meant that small children don’t know better, and it isn’t like the child was dissing Felix’s pitching or something really ridiculous.
Getting death glares from adult strangers can probably be pretty scary to a small child.

The world is a scary place

They should learn to deal with it

I hope he shit his pants.
He was at least ten years old. He can deal with it.
I hope he gets back spasms.
They should be seen and not heard

Ever.

They need to learn one way or another that certain actions are not acceptable.

If they learn by being glared at, great. It could have been a much harsher lesson down the road.

I would have slapped him with my dick if it wasn't so bloody cold out.
Dude. It wasn't that cold out...

(not that I’m advocating you dick-slapping a kid).

He would have liked it when he was older.
I had to rec this
When did looking at a child become picking on a child?

It’s a lesson the kid needs to learn and it’s more effective than actually shouting back and picking on the kid.

ugh

what Robert said

Well if his parents aren't going to enforce positive behavior then too fucking bad.

Just because you are a kid doesn’t mean you have license to do and/or say whatever the fuck you want. If attitudes like yours were to prevail the world would be full of nothing but entitled shitbags so I’m glad that there are plenty of people like me that believe that living in a society entails behaving in a certain manner.

It’s not like he was three, and if he didn’t actually know better than to smart of to an adult and now he does, then I did the right thing.

I liked how he started singing the Tulip Casino theme song to annoy us and I just game him a death glare till he shut up
Seriously, what the fuck?

If I had pulled something like that when I was his age my mom would have either slapped me or let whoever I was being a brat to slap me.

I hate Safeco so much.
I love the park but it's the fans I hate.
I got complained about for being too loud.

Three times this week. I got complained about to ushers about 5 times this whole year. End of the season crowds are annoying.

Do the ushers ever tell you to tone it down?

I’d hope not.

My usher is on my side. Sometimes a "head honcho" type usher says something.

I think if people have problems with me, they should tell me directly, but, alas, Seattle is Seattle. I also never curse or anything like that. I don’t know what’s up people’s asses.

I just cannot fathom asking someone to be quiet at a sporting event.

Unless they’re just yelling randomly for no good reason or being drunk and obnoxious.

I was tempted by the guys behind us on friday

Visiting Canadians who had already had a very big alcoholic headstart on the beers they were holding, and one who was loud and idiotic … when they started ragging on Saunders’ choice of snack on the DiamondVision (“Yogurt, only a fag would pick yogurt”) I did helpfully point out that Saunders was our Canadian player.

HA!

Why does it not shock me that there were shite-drunk Canadians in SafeCo Field?

I think this falls under the umbrella of "drunk and obnoxious"
One thing I've noticed is that children have always sucked and now they're allowed to run the family

It’s really annoying.

Yup.

I feel like an old fart saying this, but Jesus Christ kids these days tend to be awful little shits.

As if you weren't
If I did what that kid did to acblue at that age, I would've been in huge trouble.

Kids have always been little shits, but good parenting usually drives it out of them. Allowing them to do whatever they want enables them to go from being shitty kids to shitty adults who believe the world owes them something.

If I had behaved like that at that age my parents would have laid down the law.
Yes how dare he stand and cheer
My parents actually expected be to behave myself in public and there were consequences when I did not.
Bring back corporal punishment.
I was always a big fan of Klu Klux Klam
I didn't hear this

It is perhaps fortunate as I probably would have ended up being thrown out of Safeco

I heard the kid chant that Beltre was going to strike out.

I gave him a death glare after the at bat, until he noticed me and shirked back.

This is somewhat more amusing when you take your profession into account.
A well-honed and properly deployed death glare is a vital weapon in any good teacher's arsenal.
He also told me that if Griffey hit a home run to the seats in front of us, children were going to be taken out.
I can't even begin to imagine a Robert Death Glare
I heard some greater-than-average applause for Adrian when his last AB ended.

It wasn’t stop-the-game level applause, but it was enough for me to get the sense that at least a few people “got it.”

Yeah, I saw a lot of people stand up.

It was hard to applaud for him when he got up because of the left over Griffey applause that outweighed it but he did get something at least afterward.

The four seats in front of me consisted of 3 different groups of people

One group left in the 3rd. The next group were apparently a transient family whose seats were somehow taken. The people whose seats they actually apparently belonged to shwoed up in the sixth drunk and douchey and one guy in a Yankees hat waved goodbye when Felix left the game. Yay Safeco.

I probably have audio on my video of you guys...

I should’ve turned the camera around, stupid me. Grrr…

This is going to be a fun offseason.

Please bring back Erik Bedard!

He's out for 2010.

Or at least until August or September.

What? I hadn't heard anything about this.
Bedard had surgery a couple weeks ago on a torn labrum in his shoulder.

It will be a 6-9 month recovery period, if not longer. In Bedard’s case, you are likely looking at 9+ months.

Heck.

Thanks for the information.

I recomment this comment, and I think you know why!
As much as I love Griffey

I actually hope this was his last year. How do you go out on a better ending like that? Carried on the shoulders of your adoring teammates in front of thousands of cheering fans. Tough to beat.

So now that there is no more M's baseball now what...
Seahawks!

: (

-

=\

Sounders?
Wooooooooooo!
There we go!
Futbol!

I’m not the biggest American Football fan as I was raised on Baseball, Hockey and Futbol/Soccer. I still love the Football Sundays though.

Huskies Football?

And soon to be Bball?

Couger footbal!!!

Hahaha, just kidding. No seriously, we stink out loud.

The Arizona Fall League starts up in nine days.

ACKLEY!

The team finished 8 games over .500.

And wouldn’t you know it, that’s the highest mark of the season for this team.

They performed better than all but two teams coming off 100+ loss seasons in the last century
Can we get a gif of when Sims and Z were talking about Dave's Fangraphs article?
To be fair they just called him some guy
Griffey and Sweeney for 2010!

They make the team better by just being part of it.

And their combined offense has probably been better than what we’ve had out of the DH spot these past several years.

Jose Vidro in 2007 was better.
BABIP-driven!

Sigh. You’re right.

Man am I going to miss Jeff's awesome game recaps for 6 months. He's like a drug
It is a testament to the quality of our outfield defense that I thought

the Gutierrez ground rule double was going to be caught.

Bummed by treatment of Beltre

Here’s Adrian Beltre following his last AB (sorry for the image quality…max. digital zoom):

This made me sad. I know the team was distracted by the big Griffey moment, so i suppose it’s understandable, but I didn’t see anyone in the cluhouse or among the fans show any recognition of what was likely Adrian’s last at bat as a Mariner. I don’t blame the team, but it must have sucked to be Adrian at that point.

Oh, on a personal note, when I told my eight-year-old that Griffey might be done playing baseball forever…she actually cried. She really wants him to come back next year.

Depressing picture.
Unless they know Adrian, and that he would like a moment alone at the time ...

hard to know.

Or unless they know

Something we don’t….

Watching it on FSN just now

Adrian finished his at-bat, then went to the dugout— I highly doubt everyone in the dugout stood at the rail and turned their back to him as he came down the stairs, as even when someone screws up mightily they get a back-pat.

Langerhans then had his at-bat (which is what the guys on the rail are watching) and Beltre sat himself down on the bench— probably pissed at his AB against Wilson :)

Yeah

Maybe he’s just upset with himself…I can’t imagine this team annoyed with HIM, but stranger things have happened. It just seems so contrary to the rest of the game, so there had to be a reason for it….

There have been times I've stood back to capture an entire image of a moment.

He kind of has that same look.

I would just prefer to think

That it’s not as bad as everyone seems to think it is….

One shot of an instant is not the whole picture, and furthermore this seems pretty straightforward to me

As msb said, looks like he’s simply probably pissed at his own AB against Wilson.

I don’t think it’s a given that Beltre is gone after this year like everyone is saying, and if he does depart it will be on his own decision probably choosing the better (higher paying) deal.

That's a really telling picture.

Thanks for sharing man!

That picture makes me extremely sad. I stood up and applauded him after his last at bat!
Me too!

…and I felt about as alone as Adrian looks in that picture. Everyone in my section was clueless.

I was doing a decent job of holding back my emotions

but this picture made me cry.

This is the saddest thing that I have seen in a while
Gosh that looks very sad...
This has ruined my night.
I hate it too. I'm overly sentimental, and this kills me.
It is sad like one of those Life magazine pictures of something bad.
I want to hide this comment :(
What if we all flag it for distressing us?
This picture could have been site logo material had this year not brought us Z, Wak, King Felix's Reign.
<3

I need to remake this
Wow this is JI quality

Truly the 8-track of gifs

Outstanding.
It is. Not my work though.
I love Dancing Adrian
Agree!

One of the best ever.

I think this was around the time I fully flipped the switch to LOVE ADRIAN.

He looks like a cartoon dog
You rang?
Dogs don't have phones
Dogs can dial 911 if you have it on speeddial
So dogs can dial 1
You have to take the phone off the hook
Dogs sound pretty fuckin worthless
They're the fucking worrrrstttt

I hate them

Not when you have peanut butter.
This is an underrated comment.
I know it's like die already
If they hold it down long enough.

But that’d just get the dog my voicemail mailbox.

No you are a regular dog
For all his defensive awesomeness

I think this might be my favourite Beltre memory.

I'm awfully fond of him mocking Griffey
I have that giffed too but don't want to overwhelm people
Actually you might be right

Just thinking about his little arms chugging away makes me giggle.

Yes!
Fine, twist my arm

YES. I was at that game!
I missed this completely!
No one is better than you, Jeff.
Do you have any of the Beltre appeal?
Somehow no
Oh well

You provide enough gifage. He has many amusing idiosyncrasies but the self appeal is the best.

Time to undercut the stupid dog

Was that gif altered? If not, the first base umpire only made a gesture in response to Beltre.
Altered to make it smaller
Ahhhh

That’s the stuff.

I was a born .giffer
It ain't easy
And I have at least 10 GB of .gif on my hard drive.

I can never have too many. Thanks.

Recently they've gotten smaller!
I've rec'd so much stuff tonight.
One of my favorite gifs of the season

Had forgotten all about it

I can't see it
Can't blame him for staying away from his teammates

I wish there was a way we could all tell Adrian directly how much we love him.

That works better than 1/40 of the fans standing up and applauding. :(

Now I'm going to cry again.
Ohhhh, can we keep him?

Baker: Saying goodbye to the 2009 season

During the post-game press conference, when about 50 reporters, cameramen and technicians stood crowded together in the interview room listening to Don Wakamatsu, I felt something at my feet. I looked down and saw Sweeney, on his hands and knees, inching along the floor. Then, I saw the ice cream pie on a plate inching along with him and knew what was up.

I elbowed Larry Stone, standing to my right, and signaled him to step back so Sweeney could progress. Only Ryan Divish of the Tacoma News Tribune stood between Sweeney and a clear shot at Wakamatsu for Sweeney.

“Divish!’’ I whispered.

He looked, then followed my eyes downward and knew what to do. He stepped forward slightly, so Sweeney could ease around him and use him as cover before pouncing.

When a reporter asked: "Don, how much fun have you had this year?’’ Sweeney made his move.

Wakamatsu was about to answer when Sweeney splattered the ice cream across his face in full view of rolling cameras.

“I think that answers it,’’ Wakamatsu said.

That was the end of the press conference. Wakamatsu said he had a beer shower to attend.
I heard the laughter on the radio and Wakamatsu's last line, but couldn't figure out what happened

Thanks for relating the story, or the quote.

So is it true that

Felix was quoted today as saying he wants to play here his whole career, and Adrian was quoted today saying he wants to come back? I know it might not mean much, but still interesting if this actually happened

Alex Rodriguez once said he wanted to play his entire career in Seattle.
Hence the "I know it might not mean much"
Alex Rodriguez is a rotten cheat, and a dirty liar.

Felix and Adrian are much more credible.

They’re as good as back!

He did say it.

Who knows what it means.

He was very emotional at the time. I wouldn't put too much stock into it.
This year satisfies me

Im the greatest pirate hunter in the world!!!
Greatest 3.6mb I've ever uploaded
Sorry for mentioning it elsewhere.
Enjoy your rec
I don't understand this.
Watch more pornography.
Or more specifically the Armageddon of Porn
I went there this weekend!

No porn! But bourbon-barrel-aged Santa’s Little Helper stout and a growler of Carnavale is a decent replacement.

No one ever wants to go with me =(
I'm lost here too.
Evan Stone is my hero.
I stood up and clapped for Beltre before all of his at-bats.

It was great to see him make a few of his signature plays one last time. I’m going to miss seeing him at 3rd next year.

Not to mention his dances.

As it stands right now, I’m going to miss Beltre more than I will Griffey.

That's kind of random

I know the cop in the rally fries picture

Just watched the game replay on TV

there was definitely a noticeable upturn in the volume of applause as Beltre went back to the dugout and Langerhans came up, and I don’t think that a ton of M’s fans have an irrational love of Ryan.

Ryan Langerhans is beyond compare
I noticed the same thing

And was cheering too…it’s unfortunate it had to end like it did for him today, but I really don’t think that photo is what it looks like. The atmosphere there was just so contrary to that, a polar opposite. Maybe Beltre’s just upset about the at-bat…

That was my thought-- he is so hard on himself

and the shot is obviously when Langerhans is in the middle of his at-bat

I choose this angle.

No point in getting upset since we don’t know.

They are at the final at-bat in the game on the FSN replay
Sweeney appreciates Adrian.

He got not only a hug, but a Sweeney kiss, as well.

Plus Felix practically weeping down his neck :)
Adrian coming back

I’d like him to come back, too, but I guess it’s up to Scott Boras now. How much is a fair contract for a great fielding third baseman with little to no power? And would Boras accept it?

Little to no power?
Little to no power in Safeco?
He had a bad year, and Safeco is a bad park for him, but I think that's a little extreme.
eight home runs is eight home runs

considering the promise he had coming here, it’s not just Safeco. I think Adrian can be a clutch .300 hitter again. The guy has had moments of breaking out. It’s just those darn outside sliders he can’t seem to lay off of…

He's been worth his contract.

Not sure if you’re trolling, so I’m going to be nice! “Clutch .300 hitter” is a myth. Adrian is an actually good — measurably good — baseball player who has earned his money.

but it's the Mariners money and a bad economy

I don’t see much out there, if anyone, to improve on Adrian at his price level. So, I’m hopeful he’s back.

Somehow we went to agreeing with each other.
yeah, when you look around

there isn’t really anyone out there that can replace Adrian

Thank God for MLB The Show, where Adrian is a goddamn idiot and will re-sign for dirt!

I’m going to live in this world for the night.

He does the same in BBM except that in that game he sucks ass at defense
It's almost like the games have accurately marked his intelligence
They should give me money to fix everyone's ratings
I wonder how easy it would be to trick him into signing here
We did it once before and that back when he was good!
Love is in the air.
The 8 HRs are easily explained by the freak injuries.

He showed 25 HR 40 double power in 2007 & 2008. I’ll take that any day.

Ultimately, it's not up to Boras.

Clients let their agents do the dirty work, of course, but Adrian could come back if he thought it were in his best interest. But it probably isn’t, and he’s not an idiot, so I’m not holding out much hope.

We should bring him back instead of Wilson :(
I say this after drinking please don't hold me to it if it's stupid
Maybe we should bring Wilson back and sign Troy Glaus to a low risk incentive based contract
I agree, but I'm sober so I don't have an excuse if it's stupid.

Re-signing Beltre and extending Felix at least +3 years is a successful offseason for me even if we pay them too much.

Like you could extend Felix for just three years
In my perfect world you could
For Felix, 4 is borderline and 5 is more likely
+3 meaning past the arb years, but I'm an idiot so I phrased it ambiguously and/or wrong.
I'll drink to that.
The Adrian - Felix hug was definitely one of the more touching moments
Correct, sir.
So... are we gonna have playoff threads here?
We made the playoffs!?!?
Of course
Awesome.

And more gifs, too, I presume?

If I'm watching!

I hate this playoffs though.

I don't see why
It's awful.

The Angels are the only team in the playoffs that I truly hate, but the other seven are horribly underwhelming.

This changes if the Tigers make it, though. I like the Tigers.

Rangers would've been fun
Absolutely.
I don't want any new teams to win it before the Mariners win the pennant
Rockies never won it
Go Cards!
After 2004 I am bitter of about any non-fan support
I couldn't care less. We deserve our misery.

And it’ll make it that much better when it ends.

The only reason I want a new team to make it to the WS is because it gives me a reason to post the shot from the NFC championship game where they crossed the Seahawks off the virgin list.
Won't happen this year
If they don't, I will root for the Cardinals.

LaRussa is annoying and all that, but I like the team enough to root for it.

The longes tplayoff drought I've has since 1995 is two years and now its over!
Which also means I am 1-11 lifetime
Dogs don't live that long
Goddamn fucking dog
I was living in dog years
There's only a ~40% chance of the Tigers making the playoffs.
Oh.
Sorry =(

I don’t know who would have a better chance against the Yanks, though. My gut instinct is the Tigers, but looking at StatCorner it seems that the Twins have a better 1-3 for their rotation and obviously a better playoff bullpen.

I hate that the Twins are good. Because I hate them for unexplainable reasons.
I hate the Tigers but Detroit could use a break
Kinda where I'm at.
I want Mauer to win the MVP, but the Tigers could conceivably start Verlander twice and beat the Y ankees
True, but the Tigers third best pitcher this season by pRAA is some unknown guy by the name of "Lucas French"

I don’t even think he’s on the team any more.

If you shorten their rotation they're better than the Twins, but then again the Twins bullpen doesn't suck ass, however the Twins are still playing Delmon Young and DHing a back up catcher...
Delmon Young suddenly turned good of late.
Yeah its wierd

You think they’d DH Young and play Gomez but ok

He's turning into their Jose Lopez
Actually Kubel, my word is Kubel terrible

put him back at DH

Yeah Kubel is slow as hell. Good thing the Twins have tons of high K pitchers.

Wait…

He actually has legitimate power
25 homers so suck it
He's a homo and you know it
So he'd like it if you sucked it
No you are stupid
It's pretty close. Baker/Slowey vs Verlander/Jackson is pretty even.

Slight tip in the Tigers favor. And I’d take Pavano over Porcello any day.

Their tRA*s are pretty similar

and Verlander can shut down a team like no one can, so in a short series I would really side with the lights out power pitcher

Both teams seem pretty fucked against the Yankees, anyway.

Last I checked the Yanks were like 35% to win the WS.

If Slowey were pitching, I might change my tune about the Twins.

I absolutely ADORE Kevin Slowey.

Holy crap.

I knew someone was missing. I’ve been to the bullpen for the past 4 nights, and have not seen French, like at ALL…..

He was there yesterday, saw him on tv.
Was he?

OK, now I just wonder if I’m glossing over him. He sort of became invisible to me the minute he was no longer starting. :/

He's in your Griffey-Ichiro video

at around 1:43, on the left side/top left corner of the frame for about ten seconds.

Ok

That’s cool. I literally just lost track of him after he was sent to the pen – he never really pitched after his last start…

Yup. The way I see it, making it to the one-game playoff should be enough to get any fence-dwelling dipshit to give his vote to Mauer.

He got his team to the kind-of-playoffs. And it’s really, really hard — even for a moron — to blame Mauer for them not winning tomorrow, should it happen. So now that that’s taken care of, go Tigers.

I'd like to thank Brett Favre for bumping this game to Tuesday!
Recommended.
I have Tuesday off, so I wasn't being sarcastic!
Well I had a high school teacher who bragged about her Tigers all the time.

To see them melt down completely and know she is dying inside is a pretty sweet personal victory for me.

Fair enough. We all have our reasons.
have the Twins even beat the Yankees this year?

Why couldn’t we be in the dang central. We could beat the Yankees in 5…

Really? I hate all the other AL Central teams more for unexplainable reasons.

I think the AL Central is my most hated division, though. NL East is a close second.

The Twins are too much like the Angels for me to not hate them.

And unfortunately, that’s a compliment. They develop their own players, the play shitty hitters because they bunt well, they steal when they shouldn’t, and the stadium is a gigantic orgy of awful. But they win, so hat’s off to them, but I don’t like them.

Interesting take and I understand it.

I really don’t like either the Twins or the Tigers but either is so much better than the other AL teams.
I never thought I’d be rooting so hard for the NL to win the WS.

I like them because I like the city.

Also, fuck the Red Wings

I've never been other than the airport.

This is going off on a weird tangent, but what do you like about Minneapolis?

Well, I like POS and I don't think I listen to any music from Detroit, so there's a reason from me.

Who you weren’t asking.

I'm a big fan of Motown and Eminem, so we might be on different wavelengths.
And they are a hub for horrorcore rap, most of which I don't like, but there are exceptions.
What is horrorcore rap?
Hold on I'm checking wiki.
Oh wow that bullshit?
Most of it is bullshit, absolutely.
Think Dr. Octagon.

(Even though he has nothing to do with Detroit.)

Wikipedia lists like ICP and other clowncore or whatever.
ICP and friends are the worst.

I don’t mean to say this is great music. I hate most of it. But there a few albums I’ve loved, and some of the inspiration comes from Detroit music.

This was a poor discussion for me to get into and I greatly regret it. Please don’t mistake me for someone who likes ICP. Please!

Impossible to mistake you for such a person.
You're a sweetheart.
I think ICP is funny

This is all off topic

I got trapped.
They are funny. In a terrible way.
I'll allow some degree of off topic on the last day of the season

And it’s definitely a “Really?” sort of humor.

I finished a growler of Carnevale today.
I have a bottle! somehow
I've decided I need to go there every weekend.
And I have time to join you!
This is me inviting myself into your plans
The whole right-side bug is so fucking annoying.
I agree with you and hopefully they're abel32uhrm sdo9f8hus,oe4hcser8hbc,.
The idea is funny.

But when you realize that they and their fans take it seriously, it makes me question the state of humanity.

But Kool Keith! Geto Boys!

Certain people can make violent, awful topics into fantastic music.

Ah, I didn't take you for one of them, don't worry.

I listen to very little hip-hop so I’m not familiar with the terminology like horrorcore.
I don’t see the similarities between ICP and Eminem, though.

Also the Stooges, MC5, Amboy Dukes, lots of great early garage and punk stuff.

Great music city.

Dirtbombs!
It's way less industrial and thus nicer to look at.

It’s a pretty green area what with all the lakes and water.

Also, the people there are, stereotypically, nicer.

Yeah it's a pretty shitty one overall.

3 teams I hate in the AL playoffs (not too surprising because I hate probably more than half of AL teams) and a couple I hate in the NL (surprising because I don’t hate many NL teams).
So… Go Cards and/or Rockies!

The other strange ond wonderful moment in the walkabout

was the sight of Ian Snell and Ichiro poking each other and giggling like fiends.

Ichiro seems like an awesome guy to hang out with.
I am having trouble reconciling the two Snells.

Though I really hope that he’s able to start pitching well so he can be productive in addition to happy.

That was awesome.

Everything was fucking awesome.

That about sums up my feelings.

This was the best birthday I’ve ever had.

Next year you should ask for Mariners playoffs for your birthday
And sec331 noticed that Lowe was in the parade, as well

That's pretty cool
Should have doused his uniform in cancerous ashes
Not the Angels.
I really wish Mentink had waited to talk to Felix.

She didn’t have to talk to him while his teammates were still celebrating. Aw well.

Epidemic these days it seems.

I dislike it as well. Give the guys some time, we don’t care about their immediate reaction, they haven’t had time to compose themselves and they won’t say anything meaningful.

Some coaches will!
Only the hot-heads.
At least Angie looked hot
Oh, good.

I have to sit through Favre to get to the tiny baseball portion of SC

Russell Branyan played for us this year
So did Chris Woodward and Guillermo Quiroz
I thought Quiroz played for us back in 06
Nick Green played an important role on a playoff team
WHY DO THEY ALWAYS GET BETTER WHEN THEY LEAVE
Should have listened to Gomez
Griffey got worse when he left and even worse than that when he returned
Jarrod Washburn got worse when he left
So did JJ Putz
Jose Guillen too
But Carlos Guillen! Scott Spiezio! Willie Bloomquist
Spiezio was the only one that became a World Champion
No, that was just regression doncha'know?
Twins better hope they don't regress on Tuesday!
I think Morneau is out the whole season, so it's pretty unlikely.
I hate when I regress

I’d rather just stay above average.

If you leave an IPA out for too long it regresses like a mother
I have left a smoked beer on the mantle for the last 2 months because its gross and I'm afraid to touch it
My mother died from regressing :`(
She must have been pretty damn awesome when she was alive!
Also, if you leave unhopped wort out or too long it regresses into deliciousness.
Time to bring back classic gifs!

So good. SO SO GOOD
This is easily my favorite gif of the year!

I laughed so hard when this happened, and I still laugh at it.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
In addition I cannot believe this didn't get more play re: Randy Messenger

I'm the only one who likes him and I've never seen that movie
YOU DON'T NEED TO SEE THE MOVIE TO GET IT
I'd need it to know of its exsistance
I'm just going to trawl for all the recs I missed with overlooked comments in the past
Trawling for recs you say?

Come home :(
I don't think they like bad defenders in Cuba, that's why they kicked him out to begin with.
Holy crap that's funny.

Took me a minute to get the “Randy” Messanger connection though.

He keeps roofies in the rosin bag.

His locker is full of Axe a Grey Goose. He is lobbying the team to let Ed Hardy design new uniforms.

We won?

I was sure this was Fogel too
I wonder if you can .gif a box of Gobstoppers
Hot crackers!
What is this?
It looks like a cat celloing
Looks like a fiddle to me
You place a fiddle under your chin
It is under his chin
Dogs can't make rational arguments
What a great season it was

Even though yeah….we have probably all ripped on those that value team happiness and chemistry over actual talent on the field, it is hard not to feel an emotional connection to a team that so clearly had such a great time together, while playing decent baseball.

I've seen and been to a ton of Mariners games in my day

and I’ve never had as much fun in a non-playoff situation as I did at Safeco yesterday. At the end of the game, as they were milling around the dugout, I was explaining the way that most Premiership teams do a lap of honour after their last home game of the season, to thank the fans for their support, and I was thinking that it’d be cool if the M’s did the same thing. And then they did. The carrying off of Ichiro and Griffey was just icing on the cake of awesomeness.

Anybody that views this season as anything less than an unqualified success story just wasn’t paying attention. I’m not sure it’d be possible for me to feel better about this team than I do today, and a year ago I was not sure that feeling even existed any more.

Thanks Z, thanks Wak, thanks Beltre, Griffey, Ichiro, Felix, Gutierrez, and all the rest. And thanks LL for making this one hell of a fun place to spend the time I should be working for a living.

After seeing yesterday and rewatching these videos

I’ve made up my mind and decided that I am completly fine with Griffey AND Sweeney coming back next year.

I’ll gladly sacrifice whatever productivity having those two roster spots given to them.

I know Jeff/Graham/Matthew and co like to downplay to role of team chemistry, but there’s no doubt that the players are all happier with this type of a clubhouse. Even if it doesn’t lead to one single extra hit, let alone bring wins, it makes this team so much fun to watch.

The guys are having fun, and as a fan, moments like this make the season worth it to have followed, playoffs or no playoffs.

Having these guys on the bench next year might cost us a couple wins, but I’ll gladly shed a couple wins in exchange for watching this type of a team. Chemistry means it’s more fun for us to watch, regardless of it actually effects performance.

If you asked me before Sunday, I would have told you Griffey and Sweeney should retire… and now, I’ve come full circle. Both are welcome back in 2010 as far as I’m now concerned.

I would respectfully disagree with your opinion

I love having a team that’s fun to watch, don’t get me wrong. But I’d have much more fun watching this team be in the playoffs, and I don’t think you get there with Griffey and Sweeney on the 25-man. There’s got to be a way to make Griffey a bench coach, and Sweeney has already said he wants to play somewhere next year so he’s pretty much gone; let’s fill those two roster spots with guys who can hit the ball and I guarantee you’ll have fun watching the M’s while they push for the playoffs.

I think the Griffey and Sweeney niceness would wear off if it lasted for an other year.

I think most people could tolerate their below-par production on the understanding that it was for one year only and that this team realistically wasn’t winning anything this year.

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