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The Mariners are saying nothing, and this bothers Geoff a lot too. He put this major story together, he faced the Seattle sports community with the facts as he saw them (whatever you think of his handling of Leuke himself), and yet the Mariners continue to act as if this is not a matter for public discussion. I rarely listen to KJR anymore, but I caught Baker on with Mitch on Tuesday morning, and Baker kept coming back to this point...it's been two weeks now and the Mariners have not said word one to rebut or comment on Baker's original article. Baker stokes the fire more...he obtains and publishes an internal email from Howard Lincoln that demonizes the press and rallies the troops in the bunker...the public silence continues. Geoff is dumbfounded at the Seattle sports media and the Mariners' attempts to play the kind of game they've been able to get away with in this town for too many years.
Then this morning Shannon Dreyer finally comes up with the 'Mariners are good guys' piece everyone's been expecting from her, suggesting that Howard and Chuck's critics have failed to offer any alternative plans to improve the team. She buys hook line and sinker into the "they're really, really trying hard" line of approach, and she fails to mention the fundamental fact that all their hard trying has produced nothing in the way of results. She does not really deal with the Leuke situation.
I support Geoff in his attempt to jar this community out of its complacency, but like G_Money I definitely do NOT like his unbalanced handling of Leuke as a person. Claiming it's not his job to do Mariners PR, he proceeds to run with his own underlying biases as to how Leuke ought to be perceived and presented. That presentation has no balance at all, and the risk of being a Mariners shill has absolutely nothing to do with it. Geoff goes full-bore on the dark side of the story, and it is definitely dark. But it does not suit his purpose of putting heat on the M's brass, as G says, to balance that out with ANY sort of profile on the man. Leuke is not a man, to Geoff. He is a RAPIST. End of story. But if that truly WAS the story, the whole story, then neither the Rangers or the Mariners would have had anything to do with him, period. That is NOT the whole story. Or does Baker think that the Mariners in order to be consistent ought to be purity itself but it's OK for any other team in baseball to routinely keep rapists on their roster because they can throw a baseball? The contrast does not make sense. If Leuke was the pariah Baker makes out NOBODY would touch him. Am I wrong?