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I like baseball (duh), but major league baseball is really angering me. I went to the game last night. Big TV screen, biggest I've ever seen. Think they would use it to show interesting replays? Like a squeeze play? Forget about it. Instead, I crane my head and look at a tiny screen in a box on the second deck, a screen smaller than my iphone. How close did Ibanez get to catching that ball? Who knows? I was at the game, 600 feet away, and I have a giant TV screen telling me to yell charge, or that Brendan Ryan likes Led Zepplin.
Then, bottom of the 7th, and the M's down by 2, and they work to load the bases. Looking good. Texas brings in a lefty to pitch to Ibanez. Heh, we got em right where we want them! Pinch hit Bay. Hah! Screw you Texas! But no, Wedge is the only man in the entire stadium who believes the Raul will do anything other than strike out. Why? He explains in the post game interview that Raul has hit lefties before in clutch situations in the past, and that he "deserved" the chance to do it again. What???? Ok, then by that logic let's bring in Mickey Mantle next time. I watched Ibanez back when he wasn't 100 years old and a top hitter, and I even then I cringed when he faced a lefty in a clutch situation. And yes, every once in a while he would get a hit. Last night? When I wasn't cursing Wedge's name, I was in horror.
No other sport pulls this kind of stunt on me. You mention the Lakers. If the Blazers are going to foul the Lakers, and its imperative that those free throw are made, does Shaquille O'Neil get to stay on the court and get passed the ball because he's proven in the past he can hit a free throw? Does an aging John Abraham, signed by a team to rush the passer, stay in on running downs, because he's proven he can tackle a runner in his past? I see little reason to spend money on a team that places devotion to a player's feelings over winning, and a stadium that won't use it's monstrous TV for the only thing it's really useful for. I'll stay home, and watch for free.
I love baseball, but I don't get the culture. I loved Buhner. But when we were one game away from being eliminated from a possible World Series appearance, Piniella (who guaranteed we'd return to Seattle) put an aging Jay Buhner to start in right field, because it's his last game as a Mariner. I don't. I thank him for his service, and do what gives me the absolute best chance of winning in a crucial moment. Every other sport does that. When Edgar was a shell of his former self, the Mariners continued to send him on the field hitting cleanup. Why? Because Edgar was the best cleanup hitter we could put out there? No. It was because he deserved it. We lost game after game after game that season, in large part because Edgar deserved to be in the lineup and hit cleanup. I'm supposed to pay for that?
And now, after we go out of our way to sign an old ballplayer who's only real skill he has left is to hit right handers, we send him in to hit against a left hander, in a clutch situation, because "he deserves it". Well, what about us long suffering fans? What do we deserve? We deserve to buy Seahawk tickets. We deserve to buy Husky Basketball tickets, because at Hec Ed, every interesting play and controversy is replayed on the big screen. For some reason, Pac 12 officials and college students can handle whatever it is that Major league professionals don't deserve.
Wedge, you are supposed to be able to handle "men". But the only players around here who actually get "handled" are the kids.