Perfect Day Ruined By Mariners Game, Larry the Cable Guy

Yesterday I attended my second Mariners game of the season and while all the events surrounding the game were fun the game itself was one of the worst M's losses I've ever seen.

Meeting up with my friend Pat, I was crazy excited about going to the M's game. The game I had attended earlier this year I had been with a bunch of friends and co-workers so I didn't get to watch much of the game. This time I was sure to be able to focus on the action all the field. This proved to be my undoing.

Everything was going fine prior to the top of the 9th inning. We had brought in some delicious Tetsu Hellfire ramen for lunch from Samurai noodle that we ate while periodically heckling players. The flask of Crown Royal served to keep us warm in the overcast and drizzly weather.

The game had been fun. Yes, Jason Vargas had been lucky to give up no runs. He had men on in scoring position almost every inning he pitched and that was damn nerve wracking. But somehow he managed to get through it and the M's held on to a 3-0 lead. The ballpark seemed to be kind yesterday as it allowed me to see Jose Lopez hit a dinger out to left field. I've been to many games where the most exciting part is the hydro races. The ballpark also gave me a great driving catch by should-be-all-star Franklin Gutierrez. There was a sense of universal euquilibrium that hung in the air. Another series win seemed imminent. Then the 9th inning happened.

David Aardsma came in to some crazy montage on the big screen and it felt like the game was over. I mean the win expectancy was somewhere in the mid 90's. It's just you never know when that ~5% of failure will strike. Earlier in the season Aardsma's appearances inspired more fear in M's fans than the entirity of the Sinestro Corps. His command had been suspect and the atkins diet of all fastballs seemed to be a portent of looming failure. However, recently Aardsma has cleared up his walking ways and been damn near dominant. I expected him to come in and dominate. How naïve of me.

Out of the gates Aardsma's comman was off, getting behind in the count to the 7-8-9 batters. A fly ball dropped in, then he issued a walk, at which point a line drive single was scorched to the gap in right center. Bases loaded, no one out. Still I remained optimistic. A strike out and a double play could end the inning and the game. That was not to be.

To be clear this wasn't the terrible walk the world Aardsma of earlier in the season. Yes he gave up one walk, but the other two men of base got their via surprising luck. The same luck would be his undoing as the next 6 of 7 balls in play were groundballs, a pitchers friend, an omen of a possible double play. Not for the M's. Adam Jones singled to third base and Chris Woodward not being Adrian Beltre was unable to make a play on the ball and get an out, run in. Then a sure double play ball was hit to Jose Lopez, who picked a terrible time to play like shit. Jose dropped the ball on his was to second for the first out. Still no one out, still bases loaded, 3-2 now. A force out keeps it at 3-2 now with one out. Then a succesful pick off attempt got Aubrey Huff for the second out. A groundball single up the middle scored one more and the game was tied. It very well could have stayed there if not for Jose Lopez again. This time he rushed his throw to first baseman Russel Branyan and skipped the ball to him, still 2 outs.

The entire crowd was in shock. There had been glimmers of hope in that inning and Jose Lopez chased them away. The crowd had been lively before now they sat stunned as if 2girls1cup had been played on the big screen. The inning ended with The M's down 3-5. Little hope remained with Wlad and :(edeno as the first two batters of the inning.

Normally when a team is down in the 9th inning by a managable margin the scoreboard operator puts on some hackneyed montage of inspirational clips from movies like "Rocky", "Hoosiers", or even "Animal House". While not very orginal or fun they at least are not maddeningly offense. That was not the case at this game where a video of LARRY THE FUCKING CABLE GUY(!!!!!) was shown to the crowd teling the M's to "Git r dun". More than anything in the innings prior this pissed me off and saddened me the most. This is what we have come to for inspiration? Racist faux truckers with an insipid catch phrase and a overly managed "every guy" image" are now replacing the cliché but sensbile movie montages? Sweet merciful Zombie Jesus eat my brains now so I no longer have to watch my country devolve into a bunch of morons spouting out tired catchphrases like "Git r dun" and little John's "Hohkaay", as they are fresh and orginal. "Idiocracy" wasn't a great movie but as the days go by it seems more and more prescient.

Wlad and :(edeno made two quick outs as expected, pushing us to the brink. There was a rumbling in the crowd, a feeling that rose up to our superstar and pleaded with him to do something, anything, to keep the game alive. They were saying "Help us Ichiro Suzuki, you're our only hope!"

Ichiro did his best by lining a double into the gap. The crowd came back to life when it was revealed that Griffey was coming up to pinch hit for Chris Woodward. The fans started to clamor as hope filled the void that had been created by Jose Lopez' ineptitude. As much as I wanted to believe that there was something magical that could happen, I just couldn't. I knew better. Everyone around me saw Griffey as he was years ago when he played here, a once in a lifetime talent that could make a pitcher pay for a mistake. I however, saw a sad old man unable to catch up to a low 90's fastball. That sad old man hit a soft roller to second on the first pitch he saw. Game over man, game over.

This was twice in the past two games that the bullpen had fallen apart like a post-Evander Mike Tyson. Many had warned of regression from the pen. It still hurts when those warnings come to pass. Luckily Dave Cameron of USSM says that there may be help on the way. Though until those options come through it is hard to know how many more cock punch game like the last two the bullpen might dole out.

Jarrod Washburn Flirts With Perfection. Perfection Tells Him To Tuck His Sack Back. Wear Some Rouge

All manner of improbable things have occurred this week for the Mariners.

 First, they acquired a damn good outfielder, Ryan Langerhans, to replace the injured Endy Chavez for practically nothing. Then, they managed to go 5-4 on a road trip against the best teams in baseball in some parks that should spell death for our pitchers.

It was a road trip over which fans expected the M's to go 2-7 or 3-6  . That they managed to come out with a winning record revived hope presumed dead in April. Then came the return home against a tough pitching match-up against a hot Brad Bergenson and Jarrod Washburn who's results belied his peripheral stats. Not did the M's manage to mount some decent offense against Bergenson but Jarrod Washburn threw a one hitter. The one hit was the only thing keeping Jarrod Washburn from a perfect game.

Part of me is happy he didn't get a perfect game for a few reasons. First, I wouldn't have been able to see it and that woulda been a bummer. Second,  Jarrod Washburn has been a miserable acquisition prior to this year. High paid and poor performing, Washburn blamed his struggles on the poor pitch-calling of his battery, Kenji Johjima, which doesn't sit well with me. I'd rather the benevolent King Felix, throw a perfect game. It would sit better in the soul of this life long Seattle fan.

Despite these petty misgivings, a perfect game is a perfect game. When a pitcher is close you always root for the magic to continue. Plus, the accomplishment would have increased Wash's already elevated trade status,which could have have meant an even better haul for the M's in trading the soon-to-be free agent.

Right now the M's need to sell high on Washburn. He is an improved pitcher this year but, like I linked earlier in the post, his recent success is far more luck-based that skill baswed. The M's should trade him before that luck trends south.

I'm pretty sure team like the Phillies would be willing to give up some pieces to have Washburn shore up their injury-riddled rotation. Guys like Jason Vargas, Ryan Rowland-Smith when he comes up from Tacoma, and Garret Olsen provide the same profile of a pitcher with extreme fly-ball tendencies who rely on outfield defense to make outs.

Same goes for Erik Bedard. Sure he's been great when he's healthy but Bedard and health get along like The Sham-Wow Guy and hookers. Even when healthy it's not as if Bedard has gone deep into games. The best to hope for is for him to string together a few good starts so he can be traded before the deadline.

It's nice to be excited about possible trades to keep us in contention. At this point last year we were 18 games under .500 hundred. To be 4 games over this year and only 3 1/2 out of first means my summer banter can have a qaulity sports tinge to it and not just be about the badassness of the Black Lantern Corps.

US loses 3-2 To Brazil In Confederation Cup Final. Americans Make Collective Wanking Motion

After much hype and hope had built up surrounding Team USA's advance into the Confederation Cup final for a rematch with Brazil the end result demonstrated to burgeoning American soccer fans what the rest of the world already knew. The US has a long way to go before being on the same level of the elites of the soccer world

Many pointed to Team USA's victory over #1 ranked Spain to advance to the finals as a a soccer equivalent of the Miracle on Ice minus the cold war implications that made that game so poignant. The truth is to even be allowed to play Spain the US was afforded an absurd amount of luck. After being dismembered by the far superior Brazilian team the US not only needed to defeat Egypt by 3 but needed Brazil to kick the shit out of the Italians by at least 3. Somehow both these improbable events transpired and the US had it's shot at#1 ranked Spanish team.

Many people, because they lack originality, are dubbing Team USA's toppling of soccer powerhouse Spain, "The Miracle on Grass". Personally, I feel that title is more fitting for Michael Phelps. I barely have the motivation to put on pants when I am high and yet he managed to win 8 Gold medals? THAT'S impressive. Anyway, more than skill or tenacity or teamwork or any of the other horseshit the media throws out as the cause of the worst defeat of Spain by the Americans since the Spanish/American War there is only one reason Team USA came away with a 2-0 victory. They were luckier than Longshot holding a four leaf clover with a rabbit's foot shoved up his ass. The US team had all of 2 shots on goal and magically they both went in. Meanwhile, Spain had 11 shots on goal and failed to score worse than me on prom night. So yes, the result was a nice shiny win but the idea that the win was somehow a defining moment that would propel the team on to better things was wrong. You play that game out with the same amount of shots on goal and I bet 9 out of 10 times USA loses.

Truthfully I expected another beat down at the hands of the Brazilians. They do so many things better than us it's not even funny. Better waxing, better women, better movies about street gangs, better plane crashes, you name it they do it better. So it only made sense that their soccer team would be far superior as well. The first time these two teams squared off the disparity between the teams was evident and the US went down 0-4 to Brazil.

This time though the confident US team came out and kicked some Brazilian ass, going into the half up 2-0. Coming out of halftime the Brazil team woke up and realized that they could beat the US team drunk and high. They then proceeded to score 3 goals in the half to win 3-2.

Here in Seattle, where soccer is the new hip thing to like, this years fixed gear bikes, there were people who actually cared about this loss. The rest of the country made a dismissive wanking motion and either went back to watching NASCAR or baseball or drinking heavily, as it should be. Soccer pundits try to pump fear and say that one day America too, like the rest of the world, will bow to almighty deity of soccer. Good thing that'll never happen. Because if I know one thing it is this, Nobody Likes Soccer

M's Continue To Flirt With .500. Heavy Petting Expected Soon

The M's came into the series against hated rival San Diego their Catholicism looking to pick up a few more wins before they head out on the hellish 9 game road trip that takes them to the home run heaven of the new Yankee Stadium, minuscule Fenway Park, and out to Chavez ravine in East LA. Today was not a good start to the series.

Garret Olson showed why he is a back end rotation starter/long reliever by taking the M's Win Expectancy down below 10% before handing the game over to Roy Corcoran to add another 3 runs to the Padres lead. Corcoran has been less than stellar in his small amount(10 2/3 innings) so far this year. His line drive percentage is at 27% compared to last years 10.2%. Combine that and a walk rate of 10.13BB/9 innings and you got a dealy mixture like Codeine and Promethazine. Hopefully as he gets healthy he'll start pitching better, until then I'd like to not have him in while the game is at all still in question.

The M's decided to show itself later in the game with both Griffey and Branyan homering do satisfy the crowd with requisite dingers to keep them distracted from the loss. Griffey's homer was the 5,000th HR in M's history. Rather fitting he be the one to hit it.

Scoring 7 runs and only losing by 2 stings like a mofo. Many fans will blame Corcoran for not stopping the bleeding by letting the 2 runners he inherited score but then adding 3 earned runs of his own to the mess. In reality Olson put is in the tough spot by giving up so many runs earlier. Over 90% of the time the M's lose that game with just the 4 runs that Olson gave up in his 5+ innings of work.

No matter who was to blame for the runs given up there was no excuse for the M's offense to only awaken once the decidely mediocre Chad Gaudin left the game with the best line of his career. Same old story I suppose. Right handers with a pulse are the M's kryptonite. It's really sad.

Tough loss against a pretty terrible team. We do it again with Morrow starting again(I know WTF?!) and then Washburn to close out the series. Hey M's try to not to lose the series to a terrible Padres team. PLEASE.

Seahawk Fans Must Be Jizzing In Their Pants Right Now

Star wideout for the Denver Broncos, Brandon Marshall, has requested to be traded. Apparently his want for dismissal has something to do with him feeling that the team hasn't been supportive of his recent relationship issues. And by relationship issues I mean his repeated beatings of his girlfriend. Although, I'm sure having his up and coming QB traded away to Chicago for a neckbeard doesn't help matters.

Normally when I player asks to be traded the team feels no obligation to indulge in his wishes(see: Boldin, Anquan). The player is under contract and if they choose not to play they don't get paid. For some reason Bronco's GM Pat Bowlen fails to understand the concept of leverage and will be giving into Marshall's demands.

As I Seahawk fan I have a huge hard-on over this development. And not just the schadenfreude variety, though I do love how they kicked out ol' Leatherface Shanahan and his succesor has managed to fuck things up in the few short months he's been there. But this hard on is one that derives from fantasies of a top 10 pick in next years draft, quite possibly a pick in the top 5.

With Cutler gone and Marshall on his way out this Bronco's team looks like it has the potential to break the lions 0-16 records set last year. Going 0-18 would seem impossible with a 16 game season but with the ineptitude on display from Bronco's leadership anything is possible. The fate of the Bronco's season lies in the DT shaken hands of a drunken neckbeard, a rookie running back, and a piss poor defense. Sam Bradford here we come!!!

I have to give McDaniels credit for such a Machiavellian scheme of ineptitude. He truly is the brightest of all Belichek's pupils. Crennel, Weis, Mangini, they all took years to ruin their respective franchises and and alienate themselves to their fan bases. McDaniels, ever the wünderkind, has managed to surpass his predecessors in mere months. Papa Belichek must be so proud, y'know, if he wasn't really Ultron in disguise and actually felt emotion.

Right now the idea of two first round picks(one possibly top 5) in a loaded draft next year has me riding a wave of euphoria similar to what David Carradine must have felt in his final moments. The return to respectability in the NW is coming about sooner than expected.

This whole debacle make me happy for many reasons but among them is that this clip is relevant again.

In America, First You Get The Money, Then You Get The Power...

Donte Stallworth is a lucky son of a bitch. He was given his sentencing today, a little over 3 months after the Cleveland Browns wide receiver was arrested for vehicular manslaughter and DUI after mowing down a pedestrian like he was living out "Death Race 2000". The results, in my mind, further the idea that the OJ trial was much less about race and much more about money. I feel that in today's society people like OJ, Paris, or Donte aren't getting off because of race or celebrity, they are getting off because they are rich as fuck.

At the time of his arrest, given the witness reports and his .126 blood alcohol level, it seemed a forgone conclusion that Stallworth would be serving a LONG time in the pen. The normal sentence for non multi-millionaires for this crime is a decade and a half stint on the big house. Donte Stallworth received 30 days in jail. Granted he also is under house-arrest for two years, has to complete 1000 hours of community service and in on probation for 8 years. But compared to 15 in the slammer all that is a slap on the wrist. Plus he'll only do 2/3rds of the time if he's a good boy.

His ability to escape what seemed to be certain hard time in the pen is a feat more impressive than David Blane freezing himself in a block of ice. Though, unlike Blane's trick one does not need any sort of experience to get themselves out of such situations. All you need is a healthy amount of cash money.

The exact terms of Stallworth's plea agreement that allowed him to catch the bullet of prison time like Ozymandias are unknown. What is known is it must have been a fuck ton of money to be able to convince the court system to drop a sentence from 15 years to 30 days.

In his ability to get off relatively free, Donte Stallworth exposed something that is known to anybody who has ever gone through the court system, you get what you pair for. It doesn't matter what you do murder your ex-wife, drive drunk, kill someone while driving drunk, rape somebody, all you need is a lotta cheese and you are off like Mister Miracle, Scott Free. Money is power, like you needed me to remind you.

Look at Leonard Little, whose case is eerily similar to that of Stallworth's. In 1998 he was driving home hammered when he ran into Susan Gutweiler, mother of one, killing her. For his actions he received 90 days in jail, 4 years of probation and 1000 hours of community service. As if that wasn't bad enough in 2004 Leornard was pulled over for speeding when the cops noticed he had bloodshot and watery eyes, and reeked of booze. After failing three field sobriety tests he was hauled in for DUI and speeding. This would seem like a clear cut case and that Little was going to be going away for a long time. But Leonard's copious piles of cash had other plans. He got off with just a speeding charge.

So while many people are rightfully outraged about this whole thing, they seem to lose sight of the fact that Donte is merely living out the American dream. You can have the best of anything if you are willing to pay for it, here in America. Legal counsel is no different. So try not to act too surprised the next time some athlete/celebrity type gets off with minimal consequences after paying more than the GDP of a small banana republic. That's the American way.

Why Losing Leroy Hill is Not as Bad as People Think

The Seahawks have taken the franchise tag off of Leroy Hill making him a free-agent. Since this announcement many fans have been losing their proverbial shit. They seem to be under the impression that losing Leroy Hill would be akin to when Hutch decided to leave Seattle. This is simply not the case.

First, it's not even certain that Leroy is gone. There is a real possibility that he could test the free agent waters and come back to a reasonable deal with Seattle. His value is about as low as it could be right now. All teams that needed a linebacker have filled that need through free agency or the draft so the market for Hill is limited. Of the teams that do want him I'm not sure how many are going to a) be contenders and b)offer him the kind of money he wants. But supposing a deal doesn't happen I don't believe fans need to be too concerned and here's why:

-Hill can competently replaced by a linebacker platoon. DD Lewis can play most downs and be subbed out in obvious run situations or more pass rush is needed. David Hawthorne showed flashes in limited action and could be the thumper half of the platoon. Will Herring might not be a bad choice either.

-Given that the Seahawks are moving to a more Tampa 2 style of defense Hill's abilities might not fit what The Seahawks are trying to do defensively scheme-wise. I love the way Hill gets after the ball carrier and blitzes but that maybe required less next year and the price Hill would want wouldn't be justified for what we are asking him to do.

-Aaron Curry has the tools to be even better than Hill. This is projecting a little bit but I think many experts would agree that Curry has better tools with which to work to become a helluva linebacker. Curry posses better coverage skills, better ability to track the ball down downfield not just in the backfield, Curry should be almost as adept as Hill and attacking the blocker and getting to the ball carrier, and with Curry's athleticism it would not surprise me if he doesn't turn into a pretty damn good pass rusher.

-It's not financially viable to have that much money tied up in one position. That was part of the reason we got rid of Julian Peterson his hit against the cap hindered the ability to sign free agents. A perfect example of this type of situation is the Chicago Bears. Lance Briggs whined like a little girl missing her teddy and got a huge new deal. But Brian Urlacher, feeling like he'd been putting in work longer and harder than Briggs, wanted a new deal as well. Chicago doesn't have the money to pay both what they feel they are worth. It's a shitty situation and best to avoid it if at all possible.

-Great Linebackers are helped to be that way by their d-line. Look at Ray Lewis. In Stabby's Superbowl days he had a pair of monstrous lard-asses keeping him clean from blockers in Sam Adams and Tony Siragusa. He suffered a decline in production until Haloti Ngata was drafted and now he has enjoyed a resurgence. Urlacher became elite and helped that team to the Superbowl only after Tommy Harris was added. In 2007 The Packers Linebackers were great at hitting the ball carriers like they were Rihanna, when their line was playing great. In 2008 when the line fell apart the Linebackers looked less threatening than Uppum from "Saving Private Ryan". Antonio Pierce and Kawika were nobodies until Justin Tuck, Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, and Fred Robbins dominated the opponents line.

-A good defense does not need great LB's. Take Philly for example. That team has ran out whiteys like Mark Simoneau, Chris Gocong and Stewart Bradley on a regular basis and still managed to be a damn good defense. This is because brings enough pressure to crush the Beyonder and he doesn't need his LB's to be great.

-If another team was to go and sign Hill The Seahawks will receive a 3rd round compensatory pick. Wikipedia on compensatory picks:

In addition to the 32 picks in each round, there are a total of 32 picks awarded at the ends of Rounds 3 through 7. These picks, known as "compensatory picks," are awarded to teams that have lost more qualifying free agents than they gained the previous year in free agency. ...the placement of the picks is determined by a proprietary formula based on the player's salary, playing time, and postseason honors with his new team, with salary being the primary factor. So, for example, a team that lost a linebacker who signed for $2.5 million per year in free agency might get a sixth-round compensatory pick, while a team that lost a wide receiver who signed for $5 million per year might receive a fourth-round pick.

-Lastly the Seahawks save a ton of very precious cap room if they don't sign Hill. Having cap room effectively allow the Seahawks more freedom during free-agency as well as being able to resign their own player. Given that it is highly likely we have a top 10 pick next year-SUCK IT BRONCOS! DIE DIE DIE!!!-that extra cap space could help sign the QB of the future for this franchise.

Losing Leroy Hill this season may not be optimal and it also very well might upset some fans. I don't share this concern. I think that for the reasons I listed above this club could lose Hill and still be just as good as if he was on the roster. So worry not Seahawks faithful for the fear you feel, this too shall pass.

Ichiro and the Autobot Matrix of Leadership

Too often the American public and the sports media become infatuated with this romanticized ideal of leadership. They clamor for a gruff and weathered player to lead the way. They ache to portray a player as a gritty vet, a John Wayne type who will help the younger players through the trials of a rigorous 162 game season. They want a General Patton type of rousing and epic speech, words that'll get the troops ready to kill. The same type of speeches Ichiro satirizes in his yearly address to the AL All-Star team. There is an expectation on loquacious speeches and wild gesticulations that goes unmet and is unsettling to some.

Ichiro is quite the opposite of the gung-ho leader. He is stoic in his regimented dedication to baseball. There is a singular focus to Ichiro and that is to work to become the best player he can be. The need to to tell Yuniesky Betancourt to go easy on the ho-ho's is absurd to him. In his mind all should be as dedicated to bettering themselves as he is. After all they are all professionals being paid a shit ton of money to play a game. So if Carlos Silva feels like ingesting the entire lunch buffet, table and all, it is not Ichiro's job to tell make sure he gets in the proper cardio to burn of his snack.

When Ichiro seeks to lead by example through his hard work and dedication to his task it is puzzling to those looking for a "win one for the gipper!" speech. "Where is Ichiro's Autobot matrix of leadership", they ask. "And in our darkest hour of the 2008 season why did he not pull it from his chest and light the way to a division title?" They fail to realize, games are won on talent, not leadership.

The 2008 season of The Seattle Mariners was a 50 car pile up, a spectacle so gruesome that I could not tear my eyes away from it. Dreams of competing for the AL West were crushed under the foot of cold reality as The M's were 20 games out by the All-Star break. From the pile-up of the lost season one bloody and battered horse of a topic emerged from the carnage, staggered, collapsed and died in plain view. This was the horse of team chemistry. It was then jumped on and flogged until the end of the season.

As the season decayed in the summer heat, more and more complaints and shots were aimed at the teams best player, Ichiro. He was called a selfish primadonna who cared only about achieving his hallowed stats, team be damned. He was accused of not giving enough effort to win games, not diving for balls, not changing his approach at the plate in key situations to drive in runs and other such bullshit. Essentially he was being called a shitty leader for not somehow magically granting washed-up Richie Sexson access to the fountain of youth. He was chastised because he couldn't lessen the gravitational pull of team fat asses Carlos Silva and Yunieksy Betancourt.

So, imagine the shock when the Japanese team, ostensibly led by Ichiro, went on to win the WBC again. How could this selfish prick, who cared only for himself and was a terrible leader, will his team to victory on a world stage? This was one of the many questions asked to him by, enemy of the blog, Geoff Baker.

Baker was the reporter most responsible for beating the shit out of the dead of horse of team chemistry and stoking the anti-Ichiro fires. It was he who provided anonymous quotes at the end of last season divulging the news about certain players threatening physical harm to Ichiro. And he was the asshole who thought that he could pull that rotting and putrid dead horse and ride it for one last furlong and "allow Ichiro to respond to his detractors".

Ichiro was rather surprised about Bakers line of questioning but answered the queries anyway. Ichiro told Baker that a team leader is not important. Per the WBC team

"I did not think or feel that I wanted to be a leader for the Japan WBC team,'' he said. "And at the end, I was not a leader for the Japan WBC team. And something I'd felt, this thought of mine, became even stronger after playing with this Japanese WBC team, is that to have a leader -- who is a leader? -- that's not important.

"What is, is to try to group together a group of individuals who want to improve themselves for what they do. We're baseball players, so, who want to improve themselves as baseball players and also want to improve themselves as human beings. That's what's important. Although, trying to get a team together and pointing out a leader and saying 'Everybody follow this leader' sounds very easy and like a simple thing to do, if you go with this style, there are manholes.''

With the M's Ichiro told Baker:

"This is major league baseball,'' he said. "We're all professionals here. Is it really at a level where I have to explain to other people what the reasons are that I do some things? We're all professionals. It makes me feel like..that's like the level of a Mom telling a child 'This is why I do things."

These comments agree with my view that leadership in baseball is rather meaningless. A team leader yelling at his teammates to get them pumped up won't allow them to hit the ball any better, or if they do make contact not have it be caught. It won't somehow allow a pitcher to pitch better or really anything else necessary to to win the game. Leadership and chemistry are immaterial bullshit that beat writer feeds readers to justify and outcome e.g. "He showed his leadership by coming through with a clutch hit because he didn't want to let his team down." which sounds better than "His BABIP(batting average for balls in play" had been extremely low lately combined with his career success against lefties meant he was due to get a hit."

The reason the 2008 M's were so terrible was because they were a poorly constructed team without a lot of talent. A portion of the talent that team did possess got old quick and became useless.

The reason, I believe, the 2009 M's will win is because Jack Zduriencik has accrued a good amount of talent not because of intangibles like leadership and team chemistry.

Ichiro Destroys Korea

Ichiro, the new secretary of partying down

Watching Japan destroy Korea's hopes at world baseball dominance in the final round of the World baseball classic I realized something. Ichiro put the Japapnese team on his back and carried them to victory over their hated rivals, despite an less than stellar showing over the course of the WBC. In fact, on this night, Ichiro did more to sully the image of Korea more than Kim Jong Il and Chan-Wook Park's revenge epic, Oldboy, could ever hope to. That's right, Ichiro did more damage to Korea's image than either a megalomaniac dictator and a hyper-violent revenge flick that ended in ignorant incest.

In his final nine pitch at-bat I could see the determination in Ichiro's eyes. He was not about to let his team fuck away a 2 run lead in the determining game of the WBC. Pitch after pitch that the Koreans tried to feed him was in vain. Hoping Ichiro's agressive, swing-at-anything style would cause Ichiro to get himself self out, the Korean team attempted to serve him pitches all over the strike zone but to no avail. In the end, after many fouled pitches, Ichiro finally connected with a pitch he found suitable and drove it up the middle for the go-ahead runs.

Ichiro, being the selfish prick that he is, decided that a two run lead was not enough, he needed more adulation. Almost immediately after arriving at first Ichiro stole second with speed that'd leave Wally West flat-footed. This surely was done to pad his stats, not because he wanted another run as insurance. The stolen base was definitely was not a result of of Ichiro's desire to win. Ok, maybe it was after all.

I'm not a huge believer in "clutch" hits or other such nonsense, for the most part. But it was hard not to feel that Ichiro didn't focus his strength and determination through his bat, like Hal Jordan, to will his team to victory.

In a WBC where Ichiro's off-the-field antics have fueled more headlines than his on-field performance the stats would argue he was due. This isn't an untrue statement, though it feels like it is incomplete. Watching him chip away at the opponent's confidence with each fouled-off pitch, one could sense the grim determination focusing Ichiro's energy in his bat, wielding it without thought, like an extension of his being and know that determinism is real, you can't escape fate.

When Ichiro came through with that seemingly inevitable hit, Korea's fate was sealed. Again, their stellar baseball team would be second to Japan. Ichiro's single locked them into second place.