Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Ken Griffey Jr. is retiring
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June 3, 2010 at 9:01 pm #695694
uglybrowncrowMemberMost other big leaguers would have got the axe from their ballclub years ago, but the Mariners are the only stupid franchise to pay 7 figures to a dinasoauric fossil for almost doing absolutely nothing. And you wonder why they can’t make the playoffs!
June 3, 2010 at 9:24 pm #695695
sam-cParticipantuglybrowncow: you forgot to include the following in your post:
“I love the rain, and I hope it rains on his parade, whenever the M’s throw him one”
June 3, 2010 at 10:59 pm #695696
villagegreenMembersam-c – genius.
June 3, 2010 at 11:18 pm #695697
JanSParticipantI am a transplant from about 60 miles NW of Philly. My mom and dad still live back there. And they are diehard Phillies and Eagles fans. They have sports discussions…and they’re true discussions, not derisions of other people, other teams. Believe me, their two favorite teams are not always that good. There is civility in their sports discussions…not this “na na na, we’re better than you are” stuff that the Philly fan dished out in previous comments.
The M’s are 33 years old. When the Yankees, or the Phillies, or the Orioles, or the Tigers, or Boston…whoever…were 33 years old, how many titles did they have under their belt? Statistics, please, before you say something like…apples and oranges, times have changed.
There are actually nice people from back in Philadelphia…unfortunately, we didn’t get one here, did we…well, there’s me – I’m nice :) But you know what I mean – lol
June 3, 2010 at 11:19 pm #695698
johnnyblegsMemberI hung onto this one as a keepsake of how close we were. Hope to cash in on one of these real soon. But I’m sure the cost won’t be what it was back in ’95
June 3, 2010 at 11:21 pm #695699
JanSParticipantnice…that was such a great year !
June 4, 2010 at 12:08 am #695700
GinaParticipantI remember J.P. advertising “It’s a Hit, It’s a Homer” ice cream bars during his show. The year the Pilots visited, planning their getaway to Milwaukee.
Going to the Kingdome, sitting up in the free seats for students, because a neighbor was a teacher and would take the neighborhood kids.
Yelling “Roop-roop-roop” when Rupert Jones came up to bat.
But Griffey was amazing. He was in the outfield, and he could catch balls. And he could hit balls! Nobody like him had ever played ball in Seattle.
And you just knew they were going to start trading left and right after that almost got there season. Poor little Joey Cora…
June 4, 2010 at 12:44 am #695701
JanSParticipantI adored Joey Cora….what ever happened to him?
June 4, 2010 at 12:48 am #695702
johnnyblegsMemberHe drowned in his own tears after that season.
Wow Gina, pulling a memory deep from the vault. When did Rupert Jones play? During Gaylord Perry’s days or Spike Owen’s?
June 4, 2010 at 1:35 am #695703
GinaParticipantRupert Jones? Bruce Bochte is the other team member name I remember off the top of my head. Had to be the firs three seasons, before the end of ’79. It was loooong before the days of the falling tiles.
Had to go to the source:
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/sea/history/timeline1.jsp
See how wrong I am.
June 4, 2010 at 1:54 am #695704
uglybrowncrowMemberYou need a sports forum here, at least a local sports forum.
June 4, 2010 at 3:07 pm #695705
displacedcoastieMemberjohnnyblegs – Thanks for the lessons on adulthood, I suppose a good sports discussion with you would be to take your side. Then I would be a man.
dawsonct – You are so far off Pal its not even funny. Its not bitterness, its called passion. Everyone of our pro sports teams has won a championship. Yes even the Eagles won an NFL Championship in 1960. Phillies/Flyers/Eagles/Sixers are not about just the random players on the field. They come and go. Its about tradition. Its about summers listening to Harry Kalas, your parents having the whole family and half the block to watch the Birds on Sunday, the Broadstreet Bullies representing the city and laying a whooping on anything that moved on the ice. Its about Doctor J, Moses and the boys beating L.A. Its about burying grandfathers and fathers with their old Eagles sweatshirts and Phillies pennants. So bitterness, my online friend, is NOT what its about.
JanS – 60 miles outside of Philly, is not Philly, nor is Everett equal Seattle. Read back in the posts to see who first starting calling names. I never attacked anyone personally. I simply wanted to chop it up about sports and I guess my East Coast style doesnt sit well here. I am nice, I volunteered to save lives for a living. Don’t mistake my passion for sports for my only reason to be.
June 4, 2010 at 3:18 pm #695706
displacedcoastieMemberThis should really get you going….apparently I am not the only one who thinks this way…
http://espn.go.com/blog/SweetSpot/post/_/id/3820/junior-overstays-welcome-but-not-by-much
June 4, 2010 at 3:48 pm #695707
uglybrowncrowMemberSince Griffey retired, the Mariners have won three in a row!
June 4, 2010 at 6:11 pm #695708
JanSParticipantdisplacedcoastie…you came across as a bit taunting. That’s not a discussion. You came across as the same thing that you accused dawson of – the discussion was good only if we took your side. But , of course, you can fall back on the “I’m from the east coast, that’s my way” excuse. Or did I read that wrong? You’re right, we didn’t live within the city limits of Philly…thank goodness. But, geez, the city doesn’t just end, it just sort of spreads and spreads and spreads – lol. Never did like the place ;-)
UBC…surely you’re not saying that if Griffey hadn’t retired, they wouldn’t have won any more games, now, are you? With or without him, more will be won…I doubt if one has anything to do with the other. Just sayin :)
June 4, 2010 at 6:28 pm #695709
villagegreenMemberOops, uglybrowncrow, being from Seattle you’re obviously not a true sports fan. Yes, the M’s have won three straight, but only two since Griffey’s retirement on Wednesday. Why aren’t you outside playing in the rain?
displacedcoastie – I’m another transplant (from the Midwest) in Seattle and will agree with you that Seattle does not meet the standard requirements of a true “sports town.” However, I think that’s part of the town’s appeal. People like their sports here, but it doesn’t define their lives. The idea of burying someone in a football jersey actually cracked me up. It’s such an antiquated notion.
You are correct, the east coast is swathed in tradition and history. However, some find this staid conservative adherence to tradition a bit stifling. That’s why forwarding thinking people have always moved west. I think that’s part of what makes Sattleites so fanatic about the Sounders. They’re a new team playing a fairly new (to the US) sport. There’s no baggage associated with the team or tradition to get hung up on – you can make your own. Your beloved Eagles immediately bring to mind fans throwing snowballs and batteries at opposing players, brawling with opposing fans, and drunkenly harrassing women. Gotta love tradition.
There are true sports fans in Seattle, but expecting them to respond like east coast sports fans just shows a general lack of common sense.
June 4, 2010 at 6:54 pm #695710
johnnyblegsMemberWell said villagegreen. I’m sure that if the Mariners (1977) were as old as the Yankees (1903), Phillies (1883) or Eagles (1933) we’d be a whole different kind of sports town.
June 4, 2010 at 6:56 pm #695711
dawsonctParticipantThe Seahawks stadium doesn’t have BUILT-IN HOLDING CELLS!! OBVIOUSLY, if Seattle sports fans aren’t passionate enough to get thrown into jail while watching a sporting event, then SOMETHING is wrong with them!
June 4, 2010 at 7:08 pm #695712
dawsonctParticipantYeah UBC, and the sun continues to rise.
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disturbedcoastie, by referring to the long term passion of generations of fans, you have inadvertently proven my point, which you have COMPLETELY ignored, that the transient and nascent nature of our familial ties to our region preclude the type of devotion to our teams of which you speak.
I don’t know who my Grandfathers rooted for. They lived in Indiana and died before the Mariners were created. My Dad was a White Sox fan. I grew up rooting for Reggie and the Oakland A’s.
I am not that unusual among Mariners fans; thoroughly devoted to our team, but most of us 45+ grew up rooting for another team.
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IF a Seattleite lived here since the inception of the Mariners, they will recall how many were turned off by the constant threats by absentee owners to close up shop and move the team. George Argyros made no attempt to hide his disdain for the fans, or his agenda of trading every young talent in order to keep payrolls low. Jeff Smulyan was a bit more passionate at least, but was obviously underfunded from the beginning, and started talking about moving the team almost before his first season of ownership was over. That is a theme that we fans had to put up with from the early 80’s until WELL into the construction phase of Safeco Field, when we SHOULD have been able to finally feel secure.
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Instead of disparaging the fans of Seattle sports teams, you should recognize our devotion. It’s easy to support a winner; observe the emotional fragility of your average Yankmee fan.
June 4, 2010 at 7:31 pm #695713
GinaParticipantSeattle was the first U.S. town to win a Stanley Cup. http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1916-17
June 4, 2010 at 8:07 pm #695714
displacedcoastieMemberdawsonscreek – You are proving my point. You are using the fact that no one is from seattle for the reason why people dont have passion. So my point is Seattle has no passion. Its in the numbers brother. Look at the Mariners attendance this year. Not winning = no attendance. Boston hadn’t won a world series since 1918 or something and getting a ticket at fenway was impossible. Its all black and white , you just refuse to read it.
June 4, 2010 at 9:07 pm #695715
miwsParticipantdisplacedcoastie, if you’re talking about this line, in post 37…..
“Its about burying grandfathers and fathers with their old Eagles sweatshirts and Phillies pennants…”
…..when you now mention in post 46 to villagegreen, you didn’t specifically state that your father had actually been buried in a similar manner.
I don’t think it’s quite fair to act all offended, when villagegreen was commenting on what seemed to be a general statement.
Another thing for everyone to remember, is that for about 16 years before we even got our first pro team, the Sonics, our favorite sport in Seattle was the hydro races.
They used to air live, on all three of our major TV stations; KOMO 4, KING 5, and KIRO 7.
Mike
June 4, 2010 at 10:10 pm #695716
GinaParticipantNot only did every tv station air the hydroplane races, every store with an intercom system would play the radio coverage!
And the boys would make such a racket with their homemade wooden hydroplanes towed on string behind their bikes. Scrapety scrape, thonkity thonk.
June 4, 2010 at 10:47 pm #695717
JEMParticipanton a lighter note – here is the perfect T shirt for this thread:
http://store.theonion.com/product/the-sports-team-from-my-area-is-superior-to,39/
June 5, 2010 at 12:52 am #695718
CaitParticipantFirst of all, my favorite Griffey memory: When I was about 7 years old, Griffey had a column in the Sunday Times where kids would call a hotline number, record their question, give their names and he’d write his responses. I called, asked him if he had any pets and then left my name. He answered my question and my dad was completely star struck. He said “Cait! Griffey answered your question!” and I said “Well… yeah. I left him a message.” I was apparently waaay too young to understand the concept of celebrity (or very self important) but I thought that was so cool… in hindsight at least :)
Now to rant about sports. It’s all crap. The Mariner’s don’t have to dough to shell out to buy a championship like the Yankees sooo… you tell me how that’s going to end up. Sports aren’t a priority for this city and that’s just a fact. The Mariners don’t have a lot of fans from other states like the Red Sox and Yankees do either so no one that doesn’t live here wants to see the Mariner’s win. That certainly doesn’t help.
That said, the guys who play here seem play for the love of the game or a shot to stand out against all the other guys and get noticed by a better team. We don’t pay them a lot compared to what other franchises are shelling out and they know the chances of us winning are slim. You’ve gotta appreciate guys who stick around for more than a year in Seattle. For all our sports really since we haven’t seen a championship in this town since the ’70’s and then dumped the team that won it 30 years later as a thank you.
Griffey is a great example. He stayed post-’95 (unlike A-Rod, boo) and only left to Cincinnati because he wanted to play for his dad’s team. He came back to end his career here. He didn’t make those choices for money, there were sentimental reasons behind them which I think is pretty damn cool. Bench sleeping and all. If you were the DH, you’d be playing Sudoku to stay awake during one of those games too. I don’t care how much he’s getting paid to take that nap, at least he’s keeping it real lol.
So, Seattle. Let’s face it. The Mariners are a glorified farm team. You come here, make less money, play some ball, and if you stand out you get traded and make more money. Unless you’re Ichiro. Think of the Mariner’s as the Tacoma Rainiers only with a better stadium and a shot at a title.
We’re not going to win the World Series. Period. Get over it. Now can we all just sit back and enjoy watching baseball, drinking beer and eating hot dogs please? :)
PS – We need Lou Pinella back. Can I get a witness? Maybe some base-throwing, game ejecting, screaming antics would light a fire under some Mariner butts.
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