Observations from the Mariners home opener

By Blaidd Drwg

As I sit here yet again late at night, working, I find myself reflecting on the Mariners home opener. The game was not pretty – they got shellacked badly and the offense looked lifeless. I won’t bother with a game recap, there are plenty of those out there, I wanted to talk about a few things I noticed at the game.

Just about everyone on the coaching staff played for the Cleveland Indians at some point in their career, which is funny considering it is a new staff and the home opener was against Cleveland. The only coaches that did not play for Cleveland are Mike Brumley and Carl Willis (although Willis did sign with them as a free agent but ended up pitching in the minors for them). The other 6 coaches all played at least 1 game for Cleveland.

I am digging the new scoreboards that line the stadium. They are LED, easy to read and have all sorts of new statistical information. The one near the Hit It Here Café not only has the pitchers line for the game, but also has the hitters BA/OBP/OPS for the season, vs. the handedness of the pitcher on the mound and his career splits against the current pitcher.

The Dave Neihaus tribute was somewhat lacking. While I am sure the My Oh My rap song was a heartfelt tribute, it sounded lousy and didn’t seem to fit celebrating the man who was the voice of the Mariners. I am sure they wanted something less somber than the tribute that was held in the off-season, but the least they could have done was have a moment of silence for Dave. There should not have been a dry eye in the house for this.

They did have a remembrance for the baseball players who passed away in the off-season. I hadn’t realized it, but we lost several Hall of Famers in the span of a couple of months. Our connection to the golden age of baseball is slowly fading into history and soon there will be no one left who remembers it.

Something I noticed – when Ichiro was presented with his plaque for becoming the Mariners all-time hit leader by Edgar Martinez, Edgar got a much bigger ovation. Edgar looks like he dropped a bunch of weight also and hasn’t looked that good since his playing days.

On a note not related to the Mariners, this is the 50th anniversary of the first time that MLB expanded, when the AL added 2 teams. Can you name them? (answer after the jump)

The Los Angeles Angels and the Washington Senators (who would later become the Texas Rangers). Prior to 1961, teams had relocated, but both leagues had remained at 8 teams from 1901 – 1960.