State of the Mr. Magic Closer
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(That's Robinson Cano behind Rodney. Cano slugged 5.000 during the WBC. The Mariners also have Hisashi Iwakuama. And Michael Saunders. And I bet James Jones hit six homers for Brooklyn.)
("Mr. Magic Closer," a term that Dr. D has used for 20 years to deride the weird ideas that have developed around baseball's 9th inning.)
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White Knuckle, Bab-Eh. And Lovin' It
You guys know where the scouts sit in the stands at Safeco, right? If they're not behind the plate, they're (often) back on the concourse, directly behind home, where they can see the ump and the tiny monitor they've got. Like Dr. D, they keep one eye on the players 150 feet away, and one eye on the CF camera.
The Mariners keep those five seats clear, in case opposing scouts want them. In addition to the tablets and/or scorecards, they're usually wearing giant badges that say, proudly, ML SCOUT. Hey, man. Small enough props for a life's work. Give it up for 'em.
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So Iwakuma blisters the Royals for 8 innings and then blithely informs McClendon that he's out.
Dick Williams (M's manager in the 80's): never speaks to Iwakuma again, other than to sourly take pot shots walking by.
Lloyd McClendon: "Having a legit #2 like that is like having your feet in a warm pair of bunny slippers." Or something.
Give Lloyd credit. He's done a whale of a lot of things right, too.
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Back on point. In the 9th, there were three scouts sitting back there in Row 32, the most I've seen.
