Winning Isn't Everything, But ... 3

=== Resistance Is Futile, Dept. ===

Jerry Kramer was a guard on all five of Lombardi's title winners.

In Instant Replay, he wrote with a straight face that "We never lose a game.  Really, we never do.  Of course, once in a while the clock runs out while the other team has more points than we do, but we know that if we kept playing, we'd eventually win."

That was the way with the 2011 AL West race.  If the race were played forever, eventually the Mariners would have lost to either the Angels and Rangers.  They were better in 2011.

That's okay.  Only a coward refuses to fight until he's the favorite to win.  The Rangers and Angels have now won, but it was a whale of a fight.

***

On an angle far deflected from any consideration of bullies and cowards ...it was Taro's judgment that the 2011 Rangers had a reeaalllll good baseball team.  His judgment turned out to be right.

Taro always loved NPB star Colby Lewis, and many of us have loved C.J. Wilson from some years back now, and when the Rangers solved Alexi Ogando's off-field problems they came up with 90% of Michael Pineda.  Also, the Rangers have the same kind of young BOR starters (Holland, Harrison) that the M's are looking for with Hultzen and Paxton.

Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Nelson Cruz, Michael Young etc. mean, as Taro put it, "The Rangers have both the arms AND the bats."  They are riding the 10-game winning streak that Taro expected them to rip off, so fine.  That's the five-run rally in the 6th that decides the ballgame.

Taro-nator's record in the 2011 SSI Smackdown, by the way:  14-and-0.  He's up three games on the second-best team, SABRMatt's, which is 11-and-3.  Only one other team is better than 8-6.

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=== 2011 Objectives in the 2H, #1 ===

There are three big ones, not just in my opinion but also in the Mariners':

Keep the clubhouse and maintain the winning culture.  The Mariners' self-image now warps.  They will now look at themselves as losers.

By that we mean, they realize that if The Other Guys play their best, and We also play our best, then we will lose.  We're going to need for them to slip up, going to need for them to lose, to let us win.  

That's the mentality of a loser.  In this case it's not pejorative.  If Jeff Clarke plays tennis with Martina Navratilova, he's going to lose.  There are certain objectives you set when you are outmanned and outgunned.

It is at this moment that the griping of, say, a Chone Figgins, begins to contain a drop of poison.  Other guys in the clubhouse simply give it more ear, after their hopes are dashed.  There is less to gain by resisting negativity, and more to gain by finding a vent for your own frustration.

***

SSI predicts, gingerly, that this griping won't get far in 2011.  ... Lou Piniella was always able to carry a lost season past the clubhouse snipers.  Lou did this with the force of his personality, his sincere passion for winning, his personal charisma and credibility.

Wedge doesn't have the same Yankee championships, celebrity photos, ROY awards etc. that carried Lou, but on the other hand he's 21st-century competent.

I think the clubhouse will be fine.  Check me on that.

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