Fences not to blame for Mariner's offensive offense

The cries can be heard for miles around. The Mariners go out of town, score 40 runs in a series, come home, and struggle to avoid shutouts. Immediately, a thousand voices shout in agony, and they grow louder with seemingly every at bat.

"MOVE THE FENCES IN!"

Look, I love the long ball as much as the next guy, and it is frustrating going to the ballpark just to see how inept the Mariners can be this week.

But the problem isn't the fences. Yeah, the game would probably be slightly more entertaining, a few more fans would go home with souvenirs, and the Mariners would be losing 3-5 instead of 2-4. Because (insert name of visiting team here) is probably more likely to benefit from those new dimensions than the Montero-Ackley-Smoak-Seager-Saunders Mariners.

Don't get me wrong; I'm satisfied with the development of these players, but none of them are looking like 40+ home run guys. They aren't Miguel Cabrera, or Albert Pujols, or Prince Fielder, or Josh Hamilton. This team is built on players that project to have solid averages, strong plate command, and the OCCASIONAL dinger.

(more after the break)

Take everyone you know (by force if necessary) to the Arena rally Thursday.

Four years ago, Seattle lost its oldest professional franchise, the Seattle Supersonics. And when they were gone, a void opened up in the sports landscape of the Puget Sound. The Sounders did a nice job filling part of that void, but the fact is there is still a period of time from the day the 12th man flags are lowered until the scarves rise up, where our scene is as barren and dreary as our winters. And for this period of time, we have no recourse but to either just shut things down, and go into hibernation, or look to out of town teams without a rooting interest. 

But all of that could change before the end of the decade. By 2017, this city could build a third jewel south of Safeco Field to house two more teams worthy of bearing the name "Seattle' on their chests, our crests on their sleeves. We've being offered a wonderful gift, and we have the opportunity to become one of a handful of cities (a club not including LA) to host a team in each of the five major sports. 

We have the size. We have the interest. We have the resources. But, like anything in Seattle, we have to give an extra effort to get anything done. 

And so I implore all sports fans in and around the Emerald City who have the ability to attend, please make time for the Sonics Arena rally in Pioneer Square Thursday at 4 PM. There are going to be a ton of guests and musical artists, and the more who attend, the louder the message will be to the professional sports leagues looking to see just how badly we want it. The images from this day will be burned into the images of the naysayers, and fans across the country. 

Over 8,000 have already submitted RSVPs. We can go even higher. Submit your notice here, and join thousands of your brothers to help NBA/NHL happen.

via p.twimg.com

Occidental Park is two blocks north of the Centurylink Field parking lot. Free parking can be found under the viaduct and four blocks east of Safeco Field, near the BMW dealership.

The folks at the Port of Seattle are a bunch of hypocrites

http://crosscut.com/2012/06/01/mossback/108945/sports-arena-seattle-port-sodo-district-jobs-/

The link above is to an article detailing the port's extracurricular projects over the last decade or so. After reading it, one would be surprised to hear that they are fighting a new SoDo arena tooth and nail.

Article #1007 on "The Sounders Phenomenon"

They like us! They REALLY like us!

(via The Seattle Times)

Seahawks batting .900 on draft picks, Mariners to inquire

With Seattle's signing of Jaye Howard today (via Field Gulls), the Seahawks will have at least nine of their ten draft picks in town for... rookie minicamps? rookie otas? Is there even a "rookie" in the title? They should just call all of these VMAC get-togethers "PRACTICE". Nice and simple.

Point being, there aren't any holdouts this year. Bruce Irvin was the first of Seattle's picks to sign, and the first first-rounder (which I'm sure caused a number of double-takes among ESPN readers). Then, they signed seven others the next day, leaving only the DT Howard and Sea-Hulk halfback Robert Turbin.

Upon googling Sea-Hulk, I was surprised to find that Turbin will not be the only creature to be referred to with that name. The first was a boss from a video game. Final Fantasy of all things! The other was this:

Which you could say was from Seattle's Final Fantasy. Although, it'd probably be more accurate to call it the "Most Recent Fantasy". Because Final implies that it will never happen again, and I'd rather not believe that even if it is true. I'm not sure how well a game called "Most Recent Fantasy" would sell, but there it is.

While I'm concerned that Turbin hasn't signed yet (you're the last guy dude! What's the holdup? Even the Turtle guy has signed already! We drafted some weirdos didn't we...) it probably won't make a bit of difference. From what I understand, these guys can still participate even without having signed a contract, and Turbin seems like a good kid. For all I know, he could sign on the dotted line between now and when the security guard opens the gates to Seahawks headquarters tomorrow morning.

If you can't get enough "Sounders"

Then please click on over to http://seattle.theoffside.com/, for whom I am supplying Sounders-related content. Lots of it.

Mark and Eric GOOD SHOW GO! Episode 3

This week we talk about the draft, the Mariners, and spend just a few seconds on our green-clad soccer team.