Archive for April, 2005

… and then it’s back to sports.

In addition to seeing Jeremy Reed at the U2 show in Seattle Sunday night (as mentioned in the previous post), it’s also been said by several folks at the show that Jamie Moyer, Aaron Sele, and Raul Ibanez were there, too, sitting together in prime seats just off the left side of the stage.

Go Mariners, indeed…..

So I’m back from Seattle, where I saw the two U2 shows at Key Arena Sunday and Monday nights. Great shows both nights, but that’s not what we’re here for so I’ll skip the concert review.

But there’s this: Sunday night, I’m right up against the front rail on the floor, immediately in front of where The Edge is (that’s my small photo on that link above, so you can see how close I am). Before the show starts, I see Dallas Schoo (Edge’s guitar tech) with a couple guys on stage, and he’s showing them Edge’s amps, his equipment rack, and all the guitar geek stuff you’d ever want to see.

I’ve seen this before — Dallas gave Paul Allen the same tour during U2’s Portland show in April, 2001 — so I barely pay it any attention. Then one of the two guys on stage gets in a place where I can see who it is, and he looks familiar… who the heck is that? ….

Whoa! It’s Jeremy Reed! Plain as day, there he is. They’re all walking off stage, so I yell

JEREMEEEEE!

He startles and turns back toward my direction and sees me pointing his way, so he smiles and points back. I yell again

GOOOO MARINERSSSS!

He smiles again and off they go.

I couldn’t tell who the other guy was that was getting the stage tour. He was bigger than Jeremy, but I only saw him from behind and the side. He didn’t look like a Mariner. The security guy in front of me said he thought it was…

Matt Hasselbeck

but I’m not so sure of that. Regardless, great to see my U2 world and my sports world crossing paths like that. I know Shiggy and Jeff Cirillo are also U2 fans (it said so in one of those Mariners’ wives cookbooks), but had no clue Jeremy was, too. Nice.

For some reason, I’m in an anxious frame of mind these days about things that are, in the grand scheme of things, completely trivial. I’m anxious about seeing the U2 shows this weekend, and if they’ll possibly live up to expectation. And I’m anxious about the Sonics losing in the 1st round to Sacramento, wiping out in a matter of days all of the feel-good aspects of this incredible and unexpected division championship season.

You can come up with plenty of reasons why either team will win this series. The Sonics went 3-1 against the Kings during the season, with the only loss being a game when Rashard Lewis was out hurt. Speaking of being hurt, the Kings don’t know how effective Stojakovic will be, or if Brad Miller will play.

On the other hand, the Sonics may be without Vlady Radmanovic. And they’re not exactly the picture of momentum, having dropped 8 of their last 10 games. The Kings also bring a lot more playoff experience to the table, always a factor over a 7-game series.

But I like the Sonics in this series for two reasons: defense and rebounding, two pillars of playoff basketball. The Sonics held opponents to 96 points a game, while the Kings allowed more than 101 per game — only 4 teams gave up more PPG than Sacramento. On the boards, the difference is five: the Sonics outrebound opponents by 3 rebs./game, while Sacramento gets outrebounded by two rebs/game.

And those are the two main reasons I’ll take the Sonics in 6. Or 7. But I’m still anxious…..

That was last night’s attendance for the Mariners-A’s game, the 2nd consecutive all-time low for an M’s game at Safeco Field. How much will it rise tonight — it’s a weekend and it’s Ichiro Bobblehead night, which usually draws big crowds. We’ll see….

What a day the Hawks had today! (Well, yesterday since it’s past midnight….) Andre Dyson, Jerome Pathon, and the official signing of Jamie Sharper. The main effect here is that it allows the Hawks to narrow their priorities for this weekend’s draft.

Dyson gives the Hawks three starter-level CBs, along with Trufant and Herndon. CB will not be a priority in the draft. Can’t say I understand the Pathon signing when the Hawks are already beyond deep at that position. I still wonder if something’s going to happen with Koren Robinson, and by “happen” I mean getting dealt or released (the former is much more likely). And Sharper helps tremendously at LB, where we’ve finally rid ourselves of the oft-injured Anthony Simmons and Chad Brown. Now the LB spot features Sharper and DD Lewis as likely starters, along with a player to be named later.

So this weekend the Hawks’ can focus on filling that LB slot. That’s where I’d expect the Hawks to go in the 1st round. You can get starter-quality LBs where the Hawks are picking. After that, DE would seem to be on the list. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Hawks draft a QB and a RB later, in response to the loss of Dilfer and the possible loss of Alexander (via trade).

I love the draft, but let’s be honest: watching the 1st round is torture. SIX HOURS to complete one round??? Good Lord….

Anyway, I won’t be around at all this weekend to watch (or comment on) any of it. I’ll be in Seattle until Tuesday for this and the same show the next night.

I wondered in this post last week if the Mariners were struggling to sell tickets to a midweek game against the A’s, and apparently they were. This is from tonight’s AP game recap:

The crowd of 24,841 was the lowest at Safeco Field, which the Mariners moved into July 15, 1999. The lowest previous was 24,848 on June 1, 2004.”

Ouch.

There are obvious budget ramifications to this season’s attendance. The Mariners have been a cash cow since the Safe opened, and only this past summer — after a 99-loss season — did they really go nuts and spend big money to lure star-caliber players, the kind that are supposed to bring people to the park. We’re still in April, so it’s too early to guess what the big picture might be. But it’s safe to say that if attendance is dramatically low this season, and revenues are well under expectation, there will be an impact on off-season moves next winter. Attendance is well worth watching….

My 7-year-old had a Little League game tonight, his 3rd of the spring. I like Little League better than the city rec league stuff he’s done the past couple years because there’s really an emphasis on learning, whereas the rec league was more about just getting some exercise and having fun.

I like that they follow the rules as much as possible given the age group (7-9) — sure, they use a pitching machine and everyone is required to play a certain amount of time, but they still pay attention to the baseball details: the runner can be tagged out if he overruns 2nd or 3rd base … the runner has to be tagged out if it’s not a force play … 3 outs per inning … 3 strikes and you’re out.

Well, not tonight. Tonight’s game was 5 strikes and you’re out.

The coach of the other team came over before the game started and explained that in every game they play, they like to give each batter 5 strikes. Why? “Because we don’t believe in strikeouts.”

WTF?

Hey, coach: go back to rec league, would ya? This is baseball, and you get 3 strikes, no more. “Strikeout” isn’t a dirty word, and while I’m all in favor of giving the kids every opportunity to succeed, I’m a bigger fan of teaching them that failure is part of the game, and part of life. And learning to fail — and to go back out there and try again after you fail — is about as good a lesson as baseball can teach a 7-year-old.

How much business do you think the team stores at Safeco Field do during a typical home game — how many transactions? I would’ve guessed 1k to 2k if you’d asked me, but according to an article in Information Week, it’s 3,000 to 5,000 transactions per game day. Impressive. The other interesting stat is that 55% of revenue from memorabilia comes from game day sales.

Anyway, the point of the article is that with new purchasing software in use, checkout lines at the Safeco Field team stores are supposed to be much quicker this season. When we went back on the 9th, I visited one of the merchandise booths in centerfield, and there were no lines. I passed that off as lack of interest, but maybe it was just faster customer service. I do know this — each of the past 3-4 years when we’ve wanted to buy stuff at any of the team stores, the wait was almost unbearable. So if it’s true things are faster this year … about time.

Finally….

What a remarkable season it’s been, esp. since they were expected to do nothing this season. I’m the one who boldply predicted they wouldn’t win 30 games this year. And let’s be honest, you didn’t have much higher hopes for them, especially after that ugly opening night blowout by the Clippers.

Now it’s time to use the last two games to regain some momentum after this losing skid, and get guys back on the same page after all the missed time from injuries. And wait to see whether it’s Houston or Denver in the 1st round.

Just catching up on some email from earlier this week, and my “Mariners Mail” newsletter is practically giving away tickets to next week’s game against the A’s. Someone having trouble selling tickets against a divisional rival after a 99-loss season? Seems so.

They’re selling the $17 “View Reserved” tickets for $10 … the $35 “Field” tickets are only $24 and the $43 “Terrace Club Outfield” tickets for just $29 a pop. Too bad I don’t live in Seattle….

Interested? Here are the instructions (remember, it’s only good for the Wednesday/Thursday games next week against Oakland):

1) Go to Ticketmaster.com and locate either available game in their system.
2) Select the total number of tickets you want in the MARINERS DISCOUNT section.
3) Fill in the password — “RIVAL” — in the MARINERS DISCOUNT section.
4) Select either “FIELD SEATING,” “VIEW SEATING,” OR “TERRACE CLUB OF SEATING.”
5) Click “LOOK FOR TICKETS.”

Hope someone can use that…….