Game 10: Another no-good, rotten, terrible loss at Safeco

Hear that? That's the Mariners' ship sinking badly. Houston has won its second-straight game against Seattle, notching 16 hits against the M's in a 8-3 victory.

You've got to be kidding me guys. All you could muster against a team with a $20 million payroll is 6 hits? SIX?

And to add insult to injury, the Mariners drew the smallest crowd in Safeco history, as 10,493 people attended that abomination of a game. Oh well, it might get smaller then that this season because if the Mariners can't get hits off a team with a AAA ballclub payroll then good luck with the Rangers, Angels, Red Sox, Tigers and basically every other team in the league.

I know we're ten games in, but this is time to panic. The offense save for a few guys (dragon slayer Mike Morse) has been abysmal. The pitching after Felix and Iwakuma is bad. UGH.

Seattle (4-6) put Hernandez on the mound today against the Rangers.

It's time to start acting like this, M's fans...



And if you're looking to jump on another team's bandwagon, I hear the Red Sox are doing well.

Ed Sheeran "LEGO House" video goes LEGO

If you've seen the music video for Ed Sheeran's song, "LEGO House" then you know that it features Ron from Harry Potter as a hilarious stalker.

(Buy Harry Potter: The Complete 8 Film Collection on Blu-ray HERE)

Well, someone has now recreated the entire video in what else but LEGOs! Check it out, it's pretty awesome.

Capture Bigfoot For A Reward

The Olympia Beer has put out a reward for the capture of a live bigfoot. That's right, Olympia Beer is still around! I had no idea.

No wait.

I mean, a reward for capturing bigfoot is the most important part of this story!

(Read about Bigfoot! : The True Story of Apes in America, from a real cryptozoologist Loreen Coleman by going HERE)

Well it's true. Offered by the one and only Olympia Beer, you can get 1 million dollars (paid out in tiny amounts for 40 years) if you can find irrefutable evidence of the existence of Bigfoot or if you capture him alive and unharmed.

Now I love cryptozoology and have talked about it a number of times on the blog. But now with the opportunity to make money at it I'm in! Who wants to join mine and Brandon's team? 

This is seriously the most clever marketing strategy ever! Find this elusive creature, make money and get exposure for your product.

But again, I'm not sure which is more elusive, finding Olympia Beer in a bar or finding bigfoot...

Sherman says half the NFL uses Adderall

Oh Richard Sherman, is there anything you WONT say?

The celebrated Seahawks cornerback who is quite good at his job (ask Skip Bayless) has been known to run his mouth - and has just come out to say that half the NFL uses Adderall. You'll remember that Sherman tested positive for this substance last season but was cleared from suspension when he said there were irregularities in the tesing process. He also said that he mistakenly drank a cup with a crushed Adderall pill in it.

Now he has come out and said that Adderall use is quite common in the league.

Following a day working with elementary school students in Surrey, British Columbia on Tuesday, Sherman told the Vancouver Sun that Adderall use is so prevalent in the NFL, the league should remove it from the list of banned substances.

“About half the league takes it and the league has to allow it," Sherman said of Adderall use in the NFL. "The league made a mistake in my case. Obviously, I didn’t do anything, but you have to go through a process to prove you didn’t do anything. There are still naysayers out there who don’t believe me. But I accept it. If everybody loves you, it probably means you’re not much of a player."

The better move would be probably be to just be quiet and let the whole Adderall thing blow over but this drug, used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy, could be another villain wrapped up in the veil of pro sports. NFL players can use this drug if they provide the proper paperwork but Adderall is considered highly addictive. If he's right, this is a more serious problem for players than just failing drug tests. How many players are addicted?

Game 9 - An absolute disaster

You know, I could breakdown the Mariners' 16-9 loss to Houston, but instead I'm just gonna post this...

Mariners baseball... MY OH MY.

Anchorman and Thrift Shop

I love the internet. It has given us such things as Grumpy Cat, Angry Orange and now this...

(Buy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Unrated, HERE)

I'm Ron Burgandy?

Game 8 - Astro Physics...

Can the Mariners play these guys every game? The Astros came into the season with the distinction of having the smallest payroll in baseball, by a long shot.

21 million dollars. Even the Miami Marlins, who sold off their team in a fire sale and pulled guys off the street to play, have a bigger payroll at 35 million.

Their highest paid player is Bud Morris at 3 million, and only four other players make over 1 million. Houston (1-6) also set a record for striking out in their season-opening series against Texas. I kind of feel like this is the state of the Astros right now.

So naturally, the Mariners opened up with these world killers yesterday in the "new" Safeco Field's home opener. Yes the jumbo tron was QUITE BIG. In fact, Seattle fans hadn't seen something this large since Carlos Silva. The M's didn't embarrass themselves by beating Houston 3-0 with "looks like a plumber" Joe Saunders on the mound.

Kendrys Morales drove in two runs, Franklin Gutierrez knocked in another with a sac fly. Hey! And only 3 Mariners struck out last night. Meanwhile Saunders went 6 innings, gave up 6 hits, didn't allow a single run and struck out 5 on 91 pitches. He's be a destroyer of men in Triple-A.

Despite bringing in the fences at Safeco, nobody hit a home run, but that probably was because the Mariners and Astros were playing there. The game also wasn't a true sellout... which is worrisome for a Seattle team that has seen attendance fall off since the early 2000s.

Jamie Moyer also threw out the first pitch, although he kind of looked like a homeless guy (cut your hair!). He didn't rule out a comeback either. Judging from the back end of the Mariners rotation, he'd better keep that arm warmed up.

(And they wrote a book about Moyer, too!)

Game 7 - Heartbreak in the 10th

Three days ago, the Mariners had a chance to win their second series of the season. That fell apart quickly against the White Sox, as Seattle dropped the next two games despite having the front-end of their pitching rotation. After blowing a Felix start, the M's dropped a second-straight 4-3 game despite another good start by Hisashi Iwakuma.

This season... at least the beginning... is quickly devolving into more of the same from the Mariners. Promising starts by talented pitchers squandered. An offense that could be a whole lot better.

All the runs in this game were scored by homers. Mike Morse now has 5 dingers on the year. The Mariners' offense was again underwhelming with 11 strikeouts and they're now 28th in the league in batting average. Chicago seems to just have Seattle's number - having gone 26-5 against them since 2010. The Mariners haven't won a series against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field since 2007.

We're seven games in but at 3-4, the Mariners will need to do some improving if they want to live up to that spring training hype.

The tenth inning walk-off homer was a dagger by the White Sox's Dayan Viciedo. Not exactly how you want to go into the home opener today against Houston - but then again its Houston.

Game 5 and 6 - Triumph and Defeat

After Friday night's 10th-inning 8-7 win over the Chicago White Sox that had Mariners' fans thinking "Hey! We can win games by scoring a lot of runs!", a big mess struck on Saturday. With the crowned king of pitching, Felix Hernandez, on the mound the Mariners still found a way to drop a 4-3 matchup to the Sox in swirling winds at U.S. Cellular Field.

Here's why the loss was so bad...

1. Felix was on the mound. If the Mariners want to be in contention for a division title, they need to win games when he's pitching. Much like in the past, however, Hernandez got very little run support from his guys. When he's the ace that gives you the best chance to win, you've got to take advantage of it - because the back end of the rotation isn't going to keep you in 1-0, 2-0 games.

2. It was a freak game. As said above, the wind was swirling, blowing the ball and garbage all over the place. Several times Mariners hits appeared to be knocked down by the win into harmless fly outs. That didn't stop the White Sox, who got a 2-run jack from Alex Rios in the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie. It was a crushing homer against Felix that I thought essentially ended the game. Michael Saunders notched a 2-run homer in the 8th, but the comeback fell short for the M's. You can't blame them with the weather conditions out there.

3. It was a missed opportunity. The M's defeated the White Sox 8-7 using the tail end of their starting rotation, meaning they were going to wrap up this series with their No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers going. Obviously in baseball you want to win series ... and this should have set the Mariners up win the series. Instead we're going to a rubber match tomorrow after a deflating Seattle loss.

At least Seattle (3-3) will get a three-game series against the Astros starting Monday at Safeco. Maybe that will put a little energy back in their sails. (But then they follow that up with four-game series against powerhouse Texas... yuck)

Epic Photo: A work of art

Ahhhhh, in America what CAN'T we do? 

Game 4 - Another vintage Mariner loss

Okay, so now we're four games into the season and have figured out a few things about the Mariners...

1. The Mike Morse kid is a hard-swinging, Jesus-looking, power package that M's fans are going to swoon over all season. Seriously, keep your girlfriend at home when you go to Safeco - don't want them getting any mini-crushes on a guy that can hit the ball a mile while you strike out during a game of wiffleball. Morse has 4 home runs in 4 games, the only other Mariner to do that was Ken Griffey Jr. in 1997. So yeah, he's had a good start to the season. The home runs themselves have been awesome shots that travel further than some used cars. I also watched him grind out a 13-pitch at-bat before striking out today. That's still impressive.

2. The Mariners offense isn't terrible. Sure they scored 2 runs today in a rather deflating 8-2 setback against Oakland, but notched out 8 hits against one of the best pitching staffs in the American League. They definitely have more pop and can score several different ways. Don't look for those heartbreaking 2-0, 1-0 losses that have plagued the M's in previous years. It does need to improve, however.

3. In the last two losses, the starting pitching hasn't been great and apparently the Mariners can't recover from that. It was Brandon Maurer's first career start after a good spring training and he went 6 innings, gave up 8 hits and six runs. While that's nothing great, Seattle should still be in those games where the starting pitcher gives up a few runs. Why? Because not everybody can be Felix and Iwakuma. You're going to have games where you're going to have to score 7-8 runs. That's why the Mariners offense needs to improve.

The Mariners have scored 13 runs in four games and anytime Oakland has been able to get any sort of offense going, they were saddled with a loss. Seattle has shown, however, they can win the close low-scoring games. The backend of the rotation just hasn't delivered.

Now Seattle (2-2) has a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox, who have been run challenged so far. They're batting just .235 as a team and have scored just 6 runs in 3 games. Blake Beavan will take the mound tomorrow after posting a 4.37 ERA last season. Jose Quintana will pitch for Chicago, he has a 3.76 ERA.

( here's some White Sox gear, just in case you're interested)

Game 3 - The curious case of Joe Saunders

For the first two games of the season, the Mariners trotted out pitchers who looked like world-killers. For their third game against the Oakland Athletics they put out somebody that looks like a gas station attendant and the whole team came crashing back to earth after a 2-0 start.

Oakland controlled their Wednesday night game against Seattle and won 6-2 and the Mariners looked like the baseball team we've all come to know and love... and wish they could get runners in scoring position.

Joe Saunders (pictured right, and he did not win a contest to wear a D-backs jersey, that's how he actually looks) was touched up for 4 runs and 7 hits in just four innings of work. Not a stellar outing by any stretch of the imagination - but still it shouldn't have been an insurmountable lead by the retooled Mariners offense, right?

The M's got two home runs from Franklin Gutierrez and Mike Morse in the first inning but the bats could muster just 5 hits in the game. Gutierrez took the fourth pitch of the game and deposited it in the seats, and Morse got his third homer of the season but alas, it was not a sign of things to come. Jesus Montero was 2 for 3 for Seattle as well.

The M's haven't started the season 3-0 since 1995. However, Seattle (2-1) will trot out spring training phenom Brandon Mauer against the A's today (in about an hour). No doubt fans should be interested how he does in his first career start. Hopefully he doesn't look like he should be changing oil at a Jiffy Lube.

(Buy a Joe Saunders Diamondbacks Jersey, because from the looks of it, he wont be in a Mariners jersey very long.)

The first cell phone call was made 40 years ago today

People can't live with their cell phones nowadays but there was a time in human history when you had to make a call from a land line.

The first mobile phone call was made 40 years today, on April 3, 1973, by Motorola employee Martin Cooper. Using a prototype of what would become the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, the world's first commercial cell phone, Cooper stood near a 900 MHz base station on Sixth Avenue, between 53rd and 54th Streets, in New York City and placed a call to the headquarters of Bell Labs in New Jersey.

The substance of the call is lost to history, but it probably doesn't compare to the first telegram ("What hath God wrought"), first telephone call ("Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you"), or even the first text message ("Merry Christmas"). Cooper's inaugural mobile conversation is remembered as, "I'm ringing you just to see if my call sounds good at your end,' or something to that effect."

At least he didn't make the call while in the checkout line of the grocery store. You can say the rest is history because basically now life revolves around our smart phones. Now if you'll excuse me I need to check my Twitter app on my phone.

(Buy an awesome smart phone here.)

Game 2 - Power surge for M's

Apparently all those big offensive numbers in spring training wasn't a fluke after all. The M's gathered eight walks, nine hits and downed Oakland 7-1 in the second game of the season.

The star of the game was Michael Morse, who hit two home runs including a bomb to center field in ninth inning and finished with 4 RBI. Kyle Seager, Kendrys Morales and Justin Smoak also knocked in runs for Seattle. The most promising sign was that the Mariners worked on manufacturing runs instead of waiting for that mythical big hit (which I mean they got too, but in this game they slowly added to their lead by various means and pulled away instead of keeping it close with the A's) against the second-best pitching staff in the American League last season.

They scored in five different innings, and left 10 guys on base meaning that the score could have been a lot worse.

On the mound Hisashi Iwakuma struck out seven and allowed just two hits in his first action out on the mound this season. If this is Seattle's No. 2 starter's normal foray, fans are going to be absolutely thrilled. Last season he struck out over 100 batters and posted a 3.16 ERA in 125 innings, so that's definitely possible. His only blemish was a solo home run by Yoenis Cespedes in the second inning.

It's a feel good win after a feel good season-opener that saw Felix Hernandez already in mid-season form. While the Mariners offense didn't blow up the scoreboard last night, it looked very serviceable in this game with every batter really working the count.

Tomorrow on the mound for the Mariners will be starter Joe Saunders, who posted a 4.22 ERA for the Diamondbacks and Orioles last season.

(Here's a rather odd Hisashi Iwakuma toy you can buy.)

Game 1 - Felix a king on opening day

Felix Hernandez won his fifth straight opening day start and the Mariners took down the defending A.L. West Champion Oakland Athletics 2-0 in their' season opener at the Coliseum.

This win also snapped a seven-game losing streak against the A's and obviously gives Seattle fans all sorts of good feelings about the potential for the season.

The Mariners' offense was still the Mariners' offense, however, as Seattle could muster 5 hits - but keep in mind this is against Oakland's ace Brett Anderson. Franklin Gutierrez used a two-RBI single in the fifth to notch the only runs on the scoreboard. It was good to see him do something on opening day after what feels like years of a health problems.

Seattle did get out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth and Tom Wilhelmsen shut the door on the A's in the ninth. Oakland finished with just 3 hits.

Now there are just 161 games to go. Still, it was a nice start to the season and now we'll see how the retooled pitching staff behind Felix does. Keep in mind that Seattle has had a knack for having a good season and then a dismal season... so we'll see if they can buck that trend this year. It's definitely a newer look team and fans (20,000 of them who showed up to Safeco Field to watch the game on the Mariners Vision jumbo tron) should be a little excited about them.

(To jump on the Mariners bandwagon click here.)

Meme Mondays: ESPN Baseball

Since it's opening day for baseball and it's Monday, we have to give you a baseball meme, naturally.

Seattle Seahawks and Sounders license plates

We've all seen those personalized plates driving around, Mariners, UW, WSU, heck even EWU is in on the action! But what if you could get a Sounders FC or a Seahawks license plate? Well that may be happening soon.

(Until these are made you can rock this Seattle Seahawks Chrome License Plate Frame)

The Washington state Legislature is considering a bill that would create Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Sounders FC license plates.

According to King 5:
 
SB 5152 also allows pro sports franchises in the state to sponsor a special license plate if the funds are used in conjunction with a nonprofit organization.Some proceeds from the Sounders plates will go to the Association of Washington Generals to develop educational, veterans, international relations, and civic Projects. Some of the money will also support a nonprofit to increase the number of young mentors in Washington.

Funds from the Seahawks plates would benefit the nonprofit InvestED to encourage secondary students who have economic needs to stay in school or return to school.

The plates would cost you $40 to get and then cost $30 at the yearly renewal. If the bill passes, the plates would become available January 1.

I'd think about getting them. I know Brandon won't though. Mainly because his current plates read "GINGER1".

Lincoln is the place to live

Move... middle... young man, apparently Lincoln, Nebraska is the city with the highest well-being index in America. According to Gallup poll, which factors in life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behaviors, work environment, and access to basic necessities, you'd better become a Cornhusker fan.

Now Nebraska has never struck me as a destination, and I think Casey would agree with me. Looking at photos of downtown Lincoln, it looks like a wonderful Spokane clone (and slightly bigger, so maybe Spokane is a Lincoln-clone) and its next to... absolutely nothing! (It is the great plains, after all.)

Here are the highest well-being cities in America... 
Lincoln, NE | 72.8
Boulder, CO | 72.7
Burlington-South Burlington, VT | 72.4
Provo-Orem, UT | 71.7
Fort Collins-Loveland, CO | 71.6
Barnstable Town, MA | 71.5
Honolulu, HI | 71.5
Ann Arbor, MI | 71.4
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD | 71.3
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA | 71.2

Notice that no city from Washington made the list, but that's alright, we're full of angst and make a lot of alternative rock music.

(Get Your Cornhuskers Beer Glasses For "Well-Being" Here.)

Rent Fredy Montero’s Condo

This is a huge opportunity for a Seattle Sounders FC fan! You have the chance to rent Seattle Sounder’s star forward Fredy Montero's Bellevue, WA condo!

(Buy your Seattle Sounders jersey here)

Montero is currently on loan to the Columbian Millonarios FC according to Urban Condo Spaces bought the unit for $414,000 back in December of 2011.

The asking price is $2,200 per month for 885 square feet.

Now since Brandon and I are bloggers, the rent is more than we make per month.....combined. So we won't be able to make a move on it. I wonder if Terrell Owens bought a place while in Seattle?

Groundhog getting sued

Punxsutawney Phil makes he prediction everyday for the weird American Holiday "Groundhog Day." However he was a bit wrong this year and failed to predict a massive snowstorm that crippled the region. Naturally some people aren't happy about his failed forecast.

Phil did not see his shadow February 2, signaling spring's imminent arrival. Six days later, Winter Storm Nemo dumped 30 inches of snow on New England.

 Six weeks later, temperatures across the Northern U.S. remain frigid. Birds chirping? Flowers blooming? No sign of those anywhere. As a result, (hopefully) tongue-in-cheek Butler County, Oh., prosecutors are demanding justice, claiming Phil deliberately misled the American people. 

They say such a felony should be punished by death. Butler County's chief prosecutor filed an official brief about this, lambasting the rodent for actions "against the peace and dignity of the state of Ohio." 

"Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause the people to believe that spring would come early," wrote Mike Gmoser.

I wonder if the Easter Bunny is liable is somebody gets sick from eating all their candy?

(To get the Bill Murray Classic, click here.)