The Mariners cut a $15.5 million man

Richie Sexson during recent months had seemed about as welcome at Safeco Field as Pat O'Day at a frat kegger. The next time (if there is one) he shows up at the Safe, it will be in a different uniform, if not street clothes. The Seattle Mariners finally gave up on the one-time slugger Thursday, July 10, before a series finale at Oakland. The incredible shrinking Big Richie had spent much of the past two seasons hitting in the low-.200 range, kicking up Elliott Bay waves with his persistent whiffing at the plate. M's personnel acknowledged after the deed was done that it had been just a matter of time before team officials felt comfortable eating the remainder of the $15.5 million the southern Washington resident was owed this season.

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A bipartisan mayor who's fond of prayer

Dave Edler of Yakima is an unusual politician in a bastion of conservatism.

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The best — and only — good thing about the M's

By Friday morning (August 22), most of the big questions had been answered. Barack Obama had picked, but not yet announced, his running mate, and John McCain had gone home (it was anyone's guess as to which home) to contemplate his.

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The parade of foolishness

We're into August, which can be a dazzling month in the Northwest, with many things to enjoy and be thankful for: brilliant sunsets, fresh air, sparkling forests and water, music and arts festivals in places large and small, and, not least, an economy that is comparatively stronger than the rest of the country's. But concerns and irritations conspire to break the spell.

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Our balls on ice

Has the last Seattleite with local pride turned out the lights? A recent trip to Safeco Field makes me wonder.

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Keith Olbermann they're not

The tradition among game announcers for the Seattle Mariners and other teams is that the voices from the booth will flack any sponsor products or services called for by the script. Game-callers are particularly loyal, of course, to team-supporting sponsors. Evidently, this message loyalty now extends to political pitches.

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The good, the bad, and the vexing

Here are start-of-week cheers and Bronx cheers. First, the good stuff: Dave Niehaus in the Baseball Hall of Fame and justice at Fort Lawton.

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The trade-bait show

The perverse (some would say "reverse") logic among non-pennant-contenders, as the Seattle Mariners have been since about early April, may have never been better demonstrated than on Sunday, July 27. Three of the M's oft-mentioned trade-bait guys had stellar games. Those who are unfamiliar with the work of Lewis Carroll would then probably say: "Great! Let's keep 'em!" Instead, as I write this the day of the game, they're as good as gone, probably to New York.

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Root, root, root for the away teams

One of the remaining attractions as the Seattle Mariners run the season into the ground is the chance to see genuine Northwest heroes perform well. Unfortunately, they play for other teams.

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A-Rod as the new Katie Holmes

Seattleites like to believe there's something more important than money. Which is why when Alex Rodriguez left the Seattle Mariners for the Texas Rangers and a $252 million contract, people were pissed. A-Rod had said he wouldn't sign just for money, but in the end, that's what he did: departed for a dead-end team that paid him more than he was worth — and more than they could afford. You may remember what Seattle fans did when he returned to Safeco Field in 2001 to compete against his old mates: The fans spewed venom, booed, and dumped baskets of play-money from the upper decks. It was a rare show of resentment from live-and-let-live Seattle. Our egos were bruised and illusions shattered because A-Rod could be bought.

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Finally, some good Seattle sports news

When I edited Seattle Weekly, I issued a ban on soccer coverage. Why edit a newspaper when you can't, very occasionally, act like a tin-pot dictator and shape it to your perverse desires? I left the paper two years ago but hoped the new editor would realize my no-soccer edict was a lifetime ban. Apparently not. There's a new dictator in town, and the moratorium has been lifted. The editor himself has written a column about soccer in Seattle. The good news: He's not buying the hype that it's the next big thing.

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As the Sonics leave town, it may help the arts

In all the reporting about the Sonics decision, we tend to overlook the intense clamoring over a taxing source, the so-called "stadium taxes," that bedevils the politics. A lot of groups want to lay claim to those taxes, which are supposed to go away after the Kingdome, Safeco Field, and Qwest Field are paid off, but are really catnip to politicians for their pet causes. The taxes have two attractions: they are not really an "increase" if you just extend their life, and they fall mostly on visitors, who don't vote locally.

One of the main supplicants is the arts. Thereby hangs an interesting story.

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Seattle sports fans look to the bench for help

It was Tuesday night, July 1, in the press box at Safeco Field, but the talk was about football (would the Seahawks be good?) and basketball (would the Sonics be?). Within hours, U.S. District Court Judge Pechman would adjudicate a certain-to-be-disputed trial pertaining to the Seattle SuperSonics.

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The Mariners curse

Felix Hernandez is injured in a grand-slam game, the first salami by an American League pitcher since 1971. Can this season get any worse? Yes.

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Orchids and onions for a new week

First, orchids:

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Duh: Fire the batting coach

In observing Richie Sexson's new foot-in-the-bucket batting stance during the Seattle Mariners' 2-1 loss to the Red Sox in Boston Sunday, June 8, certain local scribes might've harked back to February 2006. 'Twas then, during the team's annual media-indoctrination morning that precedes spring training, when a featured questionee was new batting coach Jeff Pentland. The droll Arizonan was on stage with manager Mike Hargrove and, among others, Jeremy Reed, who at the time was the emerging star center-fielder of the organization.

Since that day, Reed has spent much of his career either injured or in Tacoma, possibly a redundancy. Pentland has piddled around with the batting (Dave Niehaus calls it "hitting," but there's a significant difference) approaches of a number of the M's. Through it all, for the series finale against the defending world champs, the M's sent out a lineup featuring the following: Adrian Beltre, hitting .234 to start the day, Reed (.243), Sexson (.209), Jamie Burke (.211), and Willie Bloomquist (.158). For the loss the day before, they'd used Jose Vidro (.220), Miguel Cairo (.218), Kenji Johjima (.218), and Vladimir Balentien (.194). That's nine of the team's 13 position players.

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For a change, fun at the house that roof built

The Seattle Mariners won one Saturday, May 31, but the rare victory wasn't even the main novelty of the game. Better than that was seeing Kenji Johjima steal home, watching irritable Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland get tossed, and witnessing hard-luck starter Felix Hernandez actually get run support. Best of all, fans (some 33,000 for a, yes, rare 1 p.m. start) got to see the roof go both east and west, seemingly moving at warp speed compared with ice-flow-slow Joh's pace from third to home.

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A game of winces

Late during what would prove to be the Seattle Mariners' seventh-straight loss on Monday, March 26, second-sacker Jose Lopez seemed to amble toward first base to cover a throw. It was hard to tell for sure from where I was. Maybe he actually moseyed, or sauntered.

"Nah, I had a good sight-line," reported my cyber buddy. "Lopez clearly sidled to first."

In any case, Lopez didn't arrive in time to make the play. It was the second straight game in which such an "effort" at first base would cost the club late in a game.

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Take me out of the ballgame

This is the year to quit. This is the season to kick the habit. No patches, no pills, no support groups. Just say no.

To baseball, that is. It's time to kick it, and the hometown team — God bless their mediocre souls — is making it easy.

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The Mariners are in the hunt for an all-league 81-81 season

So pervades mediocrity in the American League that the M's could be contenders. They head east now to face underachievers Detroit and New York.

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