My friend John and I decided to go to Minnesota for Opening Day 2009 to watch the Seattle Mariners open the season. This was pretty much the coolest decision I have ever made and one of the most fun times I have ever had at a baseball game. The game itself was awesome. Griffey hit a homerun. My new favorite player, Franklin Guiterrez, had a great game. And King Felix, oh man. I am a Mariners fan so you really can’t believe much that I say, but he could be the best pitcher of all time when this thing is all said and done. When he’s calm and composed as he was in this game there’s nothing that can stop him. Just a totally awesome game.
But that wasn’t even the best part. The best part was when we entered the stadium and headed down to our seats. The guy I got them from included a note with the tickets that said we were 5 rows behind the dugout. I wasn’t really thinking and walked down and started walking down row 5 (which was actually the second row). We got there and sat down and before we knew it someone came and wanted their seats. I realized my gaffe and headed down the aisle, but who do I see when I get to the end of the aisle? Jack Zdurencik, the Mariners General Manager! After a quick geek out omg to myself, I walked past him and said “I just want you to know that we are really happy to have you.” He seemed genuinely thankful and asked me if I came here all the way from Seattle and I told him that I lived in Milwaukee. He was shocked by this and said he appreciated it. I always like to make these things short as I don’t want to seem stalker-y or annoying so I told John who he was, he thanked him for getting Griffey back and we sat down. I felt like a little girl who just met The Jonas Brothers. I am such a dork sometimes.
I’ve been saying for awhile that I was going to go to the Mariners Opening Day Game against the Minnesota Twins in Minnesota for awhile. I was starting to think that this would turn out like many of the things I say I want to do and not happen. The tickets went on sale Friday and after much deliberation, I got some and boy am I glad I did.
It is so on.
I hate to be all message board fan boy, but I keep reading stories like this that say Manny is in trouble since the Yankees are no longer showing interest and Boras pissed off the Dodgers. You have to wonder, could Jack Z make a run at Manny? There’s a story on USS Mariner about how the Mariners are going to be better than expected in 2009 and could top out at 86 wins if they signed at +3 win free agent to fill the DH spot. But what if they signed Manny Ramirez? Fangraphs has him at a +3 win player as an OF, but doing some loose math more like a +4 win player as a DH. We’d have to get rid of Jarrod Washburn to do it, so that’d make him something like a +5010321123 player.
I think I’d rather have Milton Bradley or Adam Dunn on a 2-3 year contract simply because they bat LH and Safeco is better for them, but if there is a big enough discount on Manny I think they’d have to take a look. He’s simply one of the best hitters in all of baseball and for close to the same price the Phillies gave Ibanez you have to consider it. This would of course cause me to be excited and then pull my hair out for the majority of the season. Since I love my bangs so much, I am going to vote no on this.
