Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Boo Birds Go Home
Rich Aurilia gets off to a terrible start, botching a possible double play in the first inning for an error. No harm done, though, as Jamie Moyer gets out of the situation. When Aurilia comes up to bat, I hear boos raining out of the Safeco stands? Way to make a new player feel welcome.
I have never understood the desire to boo ones own players, unless that player:
(a) has dissed the fans in some way (saying he wants off the team for some reason)
(b) does not appear to be putting in effort (Randy Johnson's final season)
(c) has sucked for a long, long time (Bobby Ayala)
(d) done something off the field (Carlos Guillen DUI)
And even in case (c), I don't really understand it. When Ayala took the mound, I usually cringed. I mean, its not his fault he sucked. I wanted him to do well, I really did. How on earth could booing him help?
I've heard people say that they boo to show their displeasure for the GM, or for a managerial move. If you want to do these things, make a sign, boo the announcement of the manager's name, create a big sign, or better yet, start a blog. Don't take out your anger on the players, it certainly won't help them to help the team, and will likely hurt their performance and thus, the teams. And, if it doesn't hurt their performance, the boos will make it likely that they will leave at the first opportunity and take their productivity with them.
Why would you want to make Safeco a place that free agents DON'T want to go to because the fans act like they are from Philadelphia? Two favorite targets of the boo-birds last year were Jeff Cirillo and Freddy Garcia. Booing obviously never helped either one of them, and the one who turned things around will be a free agent after this year. Do you think Freddy will remember the boos when deciding where he wants to sign after a Cy Young year? Of course he will.
Having the support of your home fans should be a given, especially for new players who are not used to the sights and sounds of the stadium. To have your first impression of Safeco fans be boos just really really sucks.
Here's hoping that the fans at the game can find a way to save their boos for the team that deserves them. The Mariners opponent.
The game
Well, its over at least. Sloppy play in the field, missed opportunities on offense, and subpar pitching performances by Moyer and Jarvis (though some will argue that Jarvis was par for the course) lead to an ugly 10-5 loss to the Angels. Our 2-5 hitters went a combined 1 for 16. Both Ibanez and Aurilia made ugly plays in the field. It pretty much was the Mariner Optimist's worst nightmare, providing a weeks worth of fodder for the naysayers in a single game. So, I'm just gonna erase it from the memory, and look forward to Joel Pineiro's start tonight.
MLB.tv
In the beginning they gave us the Angels feed. I could not get the sound to work at all (and wouldn't want to hear Angels announcers anyway). So I popped up MLB Radio in another window to get the M's radio feed. Surprisingly, the radio feed was BEHIND the tv feed. I would have thought the opposite would have happened. It was like seeing them recreate the game in Bull Durham. I'd see the basehit right as Niehaus would say, "and here's the pitch." Luckily after about an inning and a half, MLB.tv switched to the M's feed, and it had sound. I highly recommend the $30 investment for those of you with high-speed Internet connections who can't see the games on TV. And if you are a poor starving college student, its well worth selling a pint of plasma for.
Today's picks:
Mets (Trachsel) +145 over Braves (Hampton)
Giants (Williams) +175 over Astros (Clemens)
Tigers (Bonderman) +160 over Blue Jays (Hentgen)
Cubs (Maddux) -200 over Reds (Wilson)
Money to date: +185 (picking dog/favorite = +385/-200, 3-1, 1-0) - Glavine,Estes,DDavis get upset wins while Pettitte and the Indians bullpen let me down.
I have never understood the desire to boo ones own players, unless that player:
(a) has dissed the fans in some way (saying he wants off the team for some reason)
(b) does not appear to be putting in effort (Randy Johnson's final season)
(c) has sucked for a long, long time (Bobby Ayala)
(d) done something off the field (Carlos Guillen DUI)
And even in case (c), I don't really understand it. When Ayala took the mound, I usually cringed. I mean, its not his fault he sucked. I wanted him to do well, I really did. How on earth could booing him help?
I've heard people say that they boo to show their displeasure for the GM, or for a managerial move. If you want to do these things, make a sign, boo the announcement of the manager's name, create a big sign, or better yet, start a blog. Don't take out your anger on the players, it certainly won't help them to help the team, and will likely hurt their performance and thus, the teams. And, if it doesn't hurt their performance, the boos will make it likely that they will leave at the first opportunity and take their productivity with them.
Why would you want to make Safeco a place that free agents DON'T want to go to because the fans act like they are from Philadelphia? Two favorite targets of the boo-birds last year were Jeff Cirillo and Freddy Garcia. Booing obviously never helped either one of them, and the one who turned things around will be a free agent after this year. Do you think Freddy will remember the boos when deciding where he wants to sign after a Cy Young year? Of course he will.
Having the support of your home fans should be a given, especially for new players who are not used to the sights and sounds of the stadium. To have your first impression of Safeco fans be boos just really really sucks.
Here's hoping that the fans at the game can find a way to save their boos for the team that deserves them. The Mariners opponent.
The game
Well, its over at least. Sloppy play in the field, missed opportunities on offense, and subpar pitching performances by Moyer and Jarvis (though some will argue that Jarvis was par for the course) lead to an ugly 10-5 loss to the Angels. Our 2-5 hitters went a combined 1 for 16. Both Ibanez and Aurilia made ugly plays in the field. It pretty much was the Mariner Optimist's worst nightmare, providing a weeks worth of fodder for the naysayers in a single game. So, I'm just gonna erase it from the memory, and look forward to Joel Pineiro's start tonight.
MLB.tv
In the beginning they gave us the Angels feed. I could not get the sound to work at all (and wouldn't want to hear Angels announcers anyway). So I popped up MLB Radio in another window to get the M's radio feed. Surprisingly, the radio feed was BEHIND the tv feed. I would have thought the opposite would have happened. It was like seeing them recreate the game in Bull Durham. I'd see the basehit right as Niehaus would say, "and here's the pitch." Luckily after about an inning and a half, MLB.tv switched to the M's feed, and it had sound. I highly recommend the $30 investment for those of you with high-speed Internet connections who can't see the games on TV. And if you are a poor starving college student, its well worth selling a pint of plasma for.
Today's picks:
Mets (Trachsel) +145 over Braves (Hampton)
Giants (Williams) +175 over Astros (Clemens)
Tigers (Bonderman) +160 over Blue Jays (Hentgen)
Cubs (Maddux) -200 over Reds (Wilson)
Money to date: +185 (picking dog/favorite = +385/-200, 3-1, 1-0) - Glavine,Estes,DDavis get upset wins while Pettitte and the Indians bullpen let me down.
