Radio Free Seattle

[Editor’s Note: If this M’s season somehow works out, it will likely, and cleverly, be referred to as Miracle Men: The 2019 Seattle Mariners.]

Last night while much of the country slept, SeaTac Greg and I watched the Mariners almost blow a losing streak and a solid Felix Hernandez start all in one go. 

Perhaps you have read the articles or watched the highlights from last night’s ball game. If not, or if you don’t have time, the M’s were up 10-3 going into the 7th when their bullpen went full melt down and, suddenly, the Angels had batted around and it was tied 10-10. Seattle somehow clawed back a run and took the game 11-10 after a Jay Bruce pinch hit single in the top of the 9th. 

SeaTac Greg and I, at the close of a long game, rejoiced. 

Losing those six in a row to Houston and Cleveland hurt, but it also made sense. Those teams have good pitchers who are pitching well. Seattle hasn’t had to face good pitchers who pitch well, and thus have generally been able to run rampant on a bunch of very average pitching. So, while frustrating, those losses made sense. 

A loss to the Angels on a Felix Hernandez start would have just been, however- sad. Frankly I don’t want to get too into the specifics here, but if you’re curious, just browse old Open Game Threads over on Lookout Landing for a bit and you’ll know what I mean. Yet this team- this goddamn team- didn’t roll over, Mike Trout didn’t hit a 748 foot game-winning home run, and they snapped that six game losing streak. 

Were those eleven runs all scored off of in-your-face and under-the-radar twirlers? No. But if you look at the pitching in the American League, who so far stands out as a superior pitching team? Right. Houston. And oh, apparently Cleveland. And Definitely Tampa. 

The point is I won’t really start to worry until I see how Seattle fares against Tampa. And while we’re at it, the reality is that team Dipoto and Co. have put a team on the field this season isn’t as 100% bad as we were all made to believe.  And yes- the bullpen sucks and the defense is bad, but more importantly this Not 100% Bad Team also isn’t a BAD team to watch- they hit pretty hard and aren’t terrible at getting on base, and Ryon Healy has grown leaps and bounds at Third Base. Plus, all of them seem like a bunch of guys who maybe mostly are just here to play but apparently also came to win. 

Well, I suppose it has been a while...

Quite a while in fact. 

Three years and as many long baseball seasons have elapsed since I last pounded out anything about baseball, football, music, or any other what-have-yous here at Radio Free Seattle. A lot has changed (can you even begin to fathom the amount of turnover on the Mariners roster since Uncle Jerry came to town?) and, well, much has stayed the same. 

While 2019 gives no hope little promise of anything resembling a MLB Post Season making its way to the far corner of Middle North America, and while it was weird to have the season begin in the middle of the night an ocean away while the rest of the League is working out its kinks in Florida and Arizona, I must say... at least it’s baseball season.

Sure, I could lament longingly about how, if Seattle had 2018′s pitching and this morning’s line up things could have been a lot different. But as we all know, we cannot dwell on the past (unless you are me and you generally insist on dwelling on the past, even though you know it’s bad for you) and we must look onward to the drag that 2019 could be and the possibilities of what might be in 2020 and beyond.

Plus, regardless of whatever, we’ve got Mitch Fuckin’ Haniger...

And this guy.

Alas it has been another seemingly ten-million years since I have last posted anything here (February 16, to be exact). Now, finally, after what seemed like a goddamn eternity, we are about a week into the 2016 baseball season. And honestly, to that I say thank fucking Christ.

So on those notes, and while the first two or three months of the baseball season are an anything-goes free-for-all type scenario where everyone is figuring themselves out, it does appear that defenses are getting better (minus, apparently, the left side of the Mariners infield), hitters seem to be gaining back some of their lost momentum, and those D-Backs jerseys with the fade-into-gray backs are completely atrocious. There are other short musings and notes but to be completely honest I don’t have the time to dive into them all quite yet. But don’t you worry, we will get there...

One of those observations is that it looks like Robinson Cano has remembered how to hit again, and while the M’s offense seemed to sputter a bit last night in their loss to the A’s, I think they are generally (finally maybe) moving in the right direction. Admittedly I am slightly leery about the bullpen, and I am still not quite sure how I feel about Gutierrez being a quasi-regular (especially at DH) player and I make my argument (again) that Seth Smith would be the better guy to regularly rotate in and out of different outfield spots and perhaps at DH. But then again, I’m just some ass that may or may not be playing favorites in my head (just like I played Brad Miller as a favorite), so what the hell do I know? I just know that Gutierrez, while definitely the kind of guy who is ON when he is on, is also very much OFF when he is off. 

Yet now is the part of the morning where I remind myself that the M’s have only played four games and there are still one-hundred and fifty-eight more to go over many long, possibly brutal months. 

Yes yes well, I know, it has been “a while” as they say. 

And for that, well, I have no real excuse, other than I had little if anything to say about the Super Bowl other than I wanted to see Peyton lose, it was obvious Cam didn't dive on that fumble because he didn’t want to risk getting hurt, and speaking of Cam, everyone should have just shut up and left him alone for walking out on the post-game press conference. I mean, hell, we’ve all fucked up at work, and we all hate it when we’ve fucked up and we have to answer a lot of dumb and absurd and (to us) obvious questions about the said fuck up. However, few, if any, of us has had to answer said questions about our aforementioned fuck up IN FRONT OF a TON of people and for all the world to see. So cut the guy some slack I say, in exactly the way we are wont to cut any white athlete slack when they have a bad day and don’t want to stick around and answer questions or shake hands. 

Moving on from that and football season in general, well, I will be blunt: I don’t give enough of a hell about basketball or hockey to really delve into talking about them, so it is with extreme anxiety and utter frustration and boredom that I will wait out the next month and a half until regular season baseball begins, at which point I will be reminded that winter is not eternal and the weather will get better and that all is not doom and gloom and endlessly cloudy/snowy/rainy/lousy days. 

Speaking of baseball, I have admittedly paid little attention to much of the off-season happenings, with the exception of many of the M’s early moves and also with the exception of Jason Heyward committing the (in some circles) unforgivable act of signing with the Chicago Cubs. My National League allegiances that lay with the Pirates feel that it is completely now or never here in 2016 that Yinz Bucs put up or shut up because the powers that be (and the powers that no one saw coming) in the NL aren’t showing any signs of slowing up any time soon and there are only so many players that are OK with continually losing the NL Wild Card Game/being ousted in the first round of the playoffs.

And speaking of teams that I like whose names are references to all things seafaring, how about all of those M’s moves in the off-season? Quite frankly, and while I am admittedly sad to see Brad Miller and James Jones traded away, I like what Dipoto is going and where he is trying to go. It’s about effing time that SOMEONE accepted the fact that we are in the post (obvious) PED era and that to win at Safeco one must field a team that can grind out games and make things happen as opposed to falling back on the long ball which no one, including chicks, quite seems to dig the way they did back in its heyday of the late 80s/90s/early 00s. Or maybe people do still dig the long ball- but either way, the long ball is not how anyone can rely on winning games at this point, and it certainly is not a reliable or feasible way to put runs on the board when you play eighty-one games a year in The House That Griffey (kind of) Built. 

As I have stated previously, I’m not much one for the predictions game (even though I fall prey to it from time to time) and I dare not make any proclamations on how the Mariners will do in 2016 given that I really believed they were in a good spot going into 2015, BUT, as I said, I feel they are at least going in the right direction. That being said, it could implode from the get go, but hey- at least Dr. Z is finally gone.

The sports book makers in Vegas selected all the winners again in this past weekend’s Divisional Round games, reminding me why I don’t gamble and why I am loathe to try and pick winners and losers. 

So with that in mind...

I don’t see how Arizona can possibly stave off Carolina in the NFC Championship Game this Sunday. The Cardinals very nearly fell to a Green Bay team that was scraping the bottom of the depth chart for wide receivers and whose running game has been meh at best for much of this season. And while Carolina’s offense came to a grinding halt in the second half against Seattle yesterday, I make the argument that the Seahawks D is vastly superior to that of Arizona’s. Thus, against what possibly might be my better judgement, I’ll take Sir Cam Newton and the raging Carolina Panthers at home over the Cardinals.

Over in the AFC, I still see the Pats as vulnerable and while my gut tells me that this one is too close to call, the part of my brain that believes in history and patterns and Edelman and Gronk and Brady and their general unstoppability in the playoffs is siding with Vegas on this one as well. Even with Country Peyton back under center, and despite what everything says on paper, New England’s ability to some how seemingly never make mistakes when it counts can only be, I feel, upended by weather or some key offensive player going gown. I imagine it’ll be a close one for sure but I bet that once again, Brady will get the best of Peyton in the post season.

Las Vegas apparently had some kind of feeling for history as it listed all four road teams as favorites in last weekend’s opening round of the NFL Playoffs. And while I always claim to try and stay out of the who-will-win game, I can’t help but offer my two cents about this weekend’s Divisional Games in that I don’t think that history will repeat itself this weekend (and, if you’re keeping score or placing bets at home, Vegas doesn’t either). 

However, I have to disagree with The Silver City’s decision to take all of the home teams as favorites this weekend, especially with regards to Saturday’s game featuring a vulnerable New England Patriots team at home to Kansas City.

New England’s vulnerability showed itself after their loss on the road to Denver in Week 12 (the Bills fan in me would like to believe that it showed itself the week before in that Monday night game, but I digress). Leading up to that loss, the Patriots were 10-0. After said loss they went 2-4 and went on to lose to inconsistently mediocre teams like the Eagles, Jets, and Dolphins. That kind of performance (or lack thereof) can wreak havoc on a team’s psyche, and while the first round playoff bye might have been what the doctor ordered for a bruised and battered New England team, I’d argue that the time off may very well be just another bump in the road of momentum that they’ve been putzing around on since that wintry Sunday night back in Denver.

The flip side of that coin is a Kansas City team that has won its last eleven games including a rout of Houston, on the road, in last week’s opening round of the playoffs. Further, I argue that at this point the Chiefs have nothing to fear except fear itself; certainly they have no good reason, whether on paper or on the field, to fear such a wobbly and shaky looking Patriots team. Thus, despite the very real chance of the familiar and unstoppable-Pats-of-olde appearing this afternoon to remind us all why they have been the most formidable team of this young 21st Century, there is also equal reason to believe that a wild and hungry Chiefs team will storm into Foxboro and put an end to New England’s puttering season- a Chiefs team with a head coach, I might add, who very likely remembers Super Bowl XXXIX…

… In other news from a wild week around the NFL, the 49ers announced that they have signed on Baby Huey Chip Kelly to further humiliate lead the organization away from their dismal present and on to something resembling their past glories. Unlike the 49ers’ Ministry Of Propaganda marketing department, I don’t think the hiring of Chip Kelly makes any sense since I don’t see Chip getting out of his own way, let alone getting out of Trent Baalke’s way (and vice versa), and I certainly don’t see Spaulding Smails Jed York getting out of anybody’s way. Thus my hope prediction is that the situation in San Franfiasco will, at some point, nosedive into a Real Assholes Of The NFC West reality-TV-show drama situation where Jed/Trent/Chip make excuses, point fingers, and throw everyone else (especially the players) under the bus. On the flip side, and despite any Seahawks favoritism on my part, my heart goes out to 49ers fans because they deserve much better than the shit sandwich that Spaulding Jed et al. have been jamming into their pleading mouths. In any event, I can all only hope that the end times for Jed/Trent/Chip come sooner rather than later.

Now that the flood of “Team A can _____ with a win and/or Team B loss and Team C contraction of dystentary” is over for another year, the NFL Media Machines will move into playoff predictions and speculations on coaching vacancies. Given that I don’t get paid to do this there are professionals more qualified than me to predict and speculate, I’ll keep it simple and go with five random thoughts on the 2015 NFL regular season...

- Random Thought One: While the Bills missed the playoffs again this year, it was admittedly (and personally) extremely satisfying to watch them help play spoiler to the Jets on the last day of the season for various reasons, including but not limited to helping keep a division rival out of the post season. I was also happy that, in a very up and down season, Uncle Rex got to take two away from his former team, which includes two former Buffalo guys in Ryan Fitzpatrick and Chan Gailey, neither of which I was admittedly very fond of during their time in The City Of Good Neighbors. That all could very well sound somewhat passive aggressive and vindictive, but I figure that if my passive aggressive and vindictive behaviors are generally limited to watching millionaires lose a game of football on television, I’m doing pretty well. Some paid professionals (and my mother) might argue differently, but we’ll save that all for another time and another place.   

- Random Thought Two: I think Jim Tomsula got a pretty raw deal, no matter which way you slice it. Is he NFL head coaching material? I honestly have no idea, because regardless of anything, we all have to admit he got thrust into a situation that, arguably, continues to be made beyond lousy by 49ers CEO Jed York and GM Trent Baalke, the maniacal man-babies that are drunk and/or asleep at the wheel of the 49ers front office. And similar to all of the coaching/roster changes in Buffalo after Doug Marrone’s departure, Harbaugh’s departure in San Francisco ushered in a fair amount of generally sudden turnover for the 49ers, none of which bodes well for success regardless of who is on the field and who is wearing the headset. At this point though, I am left to wonder whether Baby Jed and Mr. Baalke thought Tomsula really was the guy or figured that given the likely implosion, Ol’ Jim would make an easy fall guy. Either way, I maintain that Tomsula got one end of a very short stick with a bunch of shit on the other end and that he shouldn’t have been put in that situation in the first place. Yet, if Chip Kelly happens to land in the Bay Area next year, I can only hope for imagine the type of reality show drama circus that could very well be the result and will make the Tomsula Affair seem like The Brady Bunch.

- Random Thought Three: Actually, this is more blind random hope, but MAN I hope the Browns, for the sake of their fanbase and all that is just in the world, finally make the right moves in order to finally right the ship that has been limping in circles seemingly forever. Seriously. I mean, as a Bills fan it has been pretty rough but given what the last twenty-five years of history has wrought on the Browns, I’d say that in retrospect, I’ve had it pretty good.  

- Random Thought Four: I was pretty surprised that the Vikings wound up winning the NFC North by winning in Green Bay given their brutally lame performance against San Francisco in Week 1 and a loss at home to the Packers back in November. While they have some undeniable talent, and while I’m not really one to play the “weak schedule” card, Minnesota did have some fairly soft opponents throughout 2015, which makes me question their ability to beat a Seattle team in the Wild Card Round... A Seattle team that completely stomped Arizona’s guts out yesterday and in a similar fashion to the way they stomped Minnesota’s guts out barely a month ago. That, I realize, sounds like some type of prediction on my part, so I’ll get back on track and just reiterate that I didn't see the Vikings on top of their division at the end of the season.

(Photo from Yahoo Sports)

Here we are with two games left in Uncle Rex’s first season at the helm in Buffalo. While there is not much to show for it other than a disappointing amount of wins, an unhappy defense, a frustrated Sammy Watkins, an offensive line that still isn’t that great, an inconsistent kicker, and a mind numbing amount of penalties, I’ll step outside of much of Western New York’s impatient finger pointing and calls for heads on spikes and say let’s see how next year goes before we all go too mental.

Keep in mind that Rex Ryan is the third head coach the Bills have had since 2010 and the eighth guy to hold the position since 2000. Plus, given Doug Marrone’s surprise exit after his second year, a myriad of roster changes before summer/pre-season began, a massive amount of new coaches, and a new system that everyone had to learn, well... That’s a lot of new shit to have to sort out, you know?

I think what I am getting at is that with the Bills’ general inability to get the right personnel in place and to make the right player decisions, and as a result of all of the new hires at various levels coming in and out, there hasn’t been any foundation on which to build anything that could come close to a competitive team. Stability and consistency appeared to be the direction that the team was headed after 2014, but Marrone left and all of that seemed to go out the window Essentially, the decision for 2015 seemed to be to start over from basically scratch. Again.

Would a winning record have been nice for 2015? Of course. Would it have been nice to make the playoffs? Duh. Would it have been even sweeter to win a playoff game? Absolutely. 

But while it’s been annoying, frustrating, and essentially the same old shit, rebuilding takes time, and unfortunately it also takes the right group of people on top of that. Hell, look at the Pittsburgh Pirates and their two decades of futility and the amount of time it took them to rebuild and field a competitive product, let alone make the playoffs.

The punch line in this is that, while easier said than done, I think we as Bills fans should take a breath and just be a little more patient, not only because of all the changes that took place in 2015, but also because for every team like the Detroit Lions that has a great year, often times a team like that just falls back down into the basement of futility within a season or two. Personally, I’d rather keep slogging through the bad years and the frustrating games until the right group comes along and builds something sustainable and viable.

Either way, it’s going to take time in the long run and we all have to just accept the fact that we, as Bills fans, may still be a few years away yet from a playoff birth, let alone a playoff win. So we all might as well either dig in or just give up the ghost and stop following football or break up with the Bills and pick a new team.

And hey, at least we’re not Lions fans, right? Or Browns fans for that matter...

To end on a positive note, there were some things that were nice to see this year, such as a decent secondary, a quarterback that shows some actual potential/ability to play the position, and a running game that wasn’t too shabby. So I’ll take those as positive notes that hopefully the Bills will build on for next year.

The cheap thing to do here would be to ramble on about how much I hate the Patriots, lament how they always get the calls, and blah blah blah.

However, after the refs blew a number of calls tonight in the Bills/Pats game, I am left wondering this:

How in the hell is it that we, as fans, put up with such lousy and, seemingly, subjective and inconsistent officiating?

Before delving into that, I will say this: It is late here in the Eastern Time Zone, where I am now located, and I have a long day of getting shit done tomorrow and thus do not have the energy for a full on, properly researched piece. Or, in other words, this will be more of an opinion piece based on my years of watching football with tonight’s game as the prime example. Perhaps somewhere down the road, once I am not annoyed at yet another Bills loss, among various other things, I’ll give this the full research and devotion I’d like to dedicate to it.

In the mean time, let’s consider the following:

First, that inadvertent whistle call...

Somehow the refs mangled this one twice. First was by blowing the whistle in the first place, costing New England not only what could have been a huge gain, but also by ruling that the whistle came after Amendola (the Pats receiver) caught the ball. The reality, though, is that the whistle came well before the catch while the ball was in the air. In the case of an inadvertent whistle being blown while the ball is airborne, the down is replayed. Thus, the Bills defense got screwed because of the yardage given to the Pats as a result of where the ball was called dead (regardless of the penalty yards tacked on afterward).

Second, let’s talk about that Sammy Watkins catch with two seconds left in the fourth... 

You know, the one where he caught it and slid backwards out of bounds untouched... Yeah. Right. Untouched. Thus, clock stops, right? Wrong. Instead, the refs said he was down inbounds, two seconds quickly rattled off, and game over. While right now at 12:34 am, I am admittedly too lazy to look up the specifics, my question is why in the hell didn’t SOMEONE in the officiating crew bother to stop and say “Wait a minute... No one touched Watkins before he slid himself out of bounds”? [Editor’s Note: A good friend of mine, despite his being a fan of the Miami Dolphins, said to me that even the Pats fans he was watching the game with said Watkins was out of bounds and the clock should have stopped.]

Now I know, poor officiating in the NFL has been all over the sports world media pages this season, so this (unfortunately) isn’t really news. Yet, it is extremely unsettling.

I remember growing up, NFL refs seemed to have their officiating (generally) on lock down. They seemed confident, professional, and while not infallible, gave the impression of having a good handle on things. Or at least that is how my brain remembers it all.

Over the last ten or so years, though, I feel like I’ve been watching guys that haven’t officiated anything higher than JV football calling these games, and it’s starting to really wear on me. Not only does the officiating seem wildly subjective, but the inconsistency seems to increase year after year.

And what does the NFL do about this? Nothing seemingly more than circling the wagons, providing general radio silence, and reminding teams not to criticize officials or other teams. Or complicating things further by adding rules, amending existing ones, and instilling a somewhat bizarre replay policy that often just exacerbates the fact that football is not very good at dealing with any kind of grey area in terms of the interpretation of its rules or the reality of the game and the rules themselves. This all leads to choppy game play and rules that are as confusing as reading the most frustratingly obnoxious Orwellian-type legalese one could ever dream of.

This is all, to me, insulting at best and horrifically reminiscent of Dubya/Rumsfeld/Cheney type sentiments of “Your either with us or against us” at worst.

What makes this double frustrating to yours truly is that the league had the same kinds of reactions and sentiments over the concussion studies that have been coming out over the last few years, which draws further comparisons to collusive (and ultimately corrupt) actions by entities such as the tobacco industry and the Dubya Years. 

Which in turn leads me to say that the NFL in its current state (and under Roger Gooddell) is a complete extension of the perverse privatized corporate culture that has regained its most firm grip on this country.

One must simply open a history book to find out the ugly truths and outcomes of such industries/corporations/entities that turn inward in times of outside criticism to see how dangerous this type of behavior can be. Not only is it frustrating in the most superficial sense of it all in that it costs teams wins and potential playoff spots, but with regards to things like concussions, this costs people their lives. 

Perhaps at this point, you may be thinking “Yeah Justin, but you’re quite the hypocrite criticizing this all while watching it on TV and then bothering to write about it at such a grotesque hour of the evening.” Which, sure, may be somewhat true. Actually, it’s entirely true in many ways.

But at the same time, I would argue that I have a true love and appreciation for the United States of America, good and bad and ugly, and thus I have similar feelings toward the NFL and the Buffalo Bills. Thus, I do not like to see either of them muddled and besmirched by with-us-or-against-us mentalities and business practices. That, however, is likely another diatribe for another occasion. 

To circle back around to my point, I will close with this: Until the NFL drops the idea that it is an all-mighty and infallible American institution, it will do nothing but slowly break down its image and relevance over time. While this may seem impossible, given that the league dominates a huge chunk of this country’s culture and identity, all one has to do is look at the tobacco industry to see how, over the course of time, entities that withdraw inward and point the finger at anyone but themselves eventually erode their relevance and image and reputation one questionable PR move at a time. 

And yes, bad officiating and all, I’ll still be watching the NFL. Just like I’ll still want that cigarette after watching the Bills lose because of dumb penalties, poor play calling, and lousy officiating. 

The punch line is that I have been secretly pulling for a Mets/Blue Jays World Series. My reasons are long winded and obnoxiously detail oriented, but the point is this:

In my nerd brain, Mets/Jays would be fun to watch for reasons such as:

- Toronto and New York are their country’s respective media/culture capitols.

- New York sports fans are plentiful and passionate.

- The Blue Jays have the rabid support of an entire nation.

What do I mean by an entire nation?

I ask: Have you ever been to a Mariners/Blue Jays game at Safeco Field? 

The place is half full of Jays fans with license plates from various provinces of Western Canada. At times, it can turn into a playoff-type atmosphere, and plus, if Western Canada is that into the Jays, then surely the entire nation is. Because they GIVE a shit.

And if you truly have no idea how rabid Canadian Sports Fans are, I also ask: Have you ever watched Canadian Hockey on any international level? If not, then I suggest you do because their fan base is, to say the least, intense.

Maybe I also just have a soft spot for the Jays because I grew up on the other side of Lake Ontario from them. That fact, coupled with my already gushing love for Canada, and, well, it just makes sense. 

Adding to this is the loud and insufferable passion of those New York Sports Fans, but especially those that cheer for the Mets. Because they are the extension of Giants/Dodgers fans that had to live in the shadow of the Yankees back when The City had three Major League teams and because they have been waiting since 1986 to win another championship.

Stirring this all into a pot that is already overflowing with the gargantuan amounts of local/national/international media outlets in both cities, and one has a recipe for total World Series saturation. 

Regardless of that last bit, though, Mets/Jays would be my preferred pick because both teams play baseball that is fun to watch. And baseball that is fun to watch played against a backdrop of the autumn and the World Series and stadiums full of loud and crazy and invested fans and, well, isn’t that what post season baseball is supposed to be all about? 

And lastly, to those dispatched and despondent Cubs Fans out there, I say...

There’s always next year.*

Well well well. 

The Bills lost to the Bengals. Honestly, no real surprise there. In fact, I chose not to watch the game at all this week because with the hubbub about Watkins not getting thrown the ball, question marks and injuries on offense, and a defense that is having a pretty hard time, I figured I’d have more fun if I spent the day standing in the drizzle with friends cheering on a buddy in a cyclocross race. 

I can assure you that after reading the scoring updates via ESPN’s iPhone app, I know that I made the right decision. Further enforcing my correct decision was the fact that I couldn’t be bothered to watch the four and a half minutes of post game highlights.

Which brings us to the upcoming Bills game against Jacksonville...

If they were playing the Jaguars somewhere in the United States next week, I’d say Buffalo would have a decent chance at a win, but all of these London games seem to do nothing but prove a distraction at best and as a throwaway game in general. So I’d hazard a guess at this point that the possibility of a Bills win in London against the Jags is a toss up with my gut trending toward skeptical. 

In other NFL news, the Seahawks lost by a close score after a late collapse again. Given that their offensive line is a joke and the fact that the defense seems to have lost all of it’s MOJO, I’d be pretty surprised if they somehow salvaged the season, even more surprised if they make it to the playoffs, and I would cop to believing in some sort of God-type being if they mustered a post season win. 

Which leads me to the thought that with Sneaky Pete at the helm, and Russell The Chaste and Mr. Sherman leading things on the field, anything with these guys is entirely possible in a corny feel-good-story kind of way. Thus, there’s a good chance I may eat those words.

As I type this opening line, the Mets are ahead of the Dodgers in the top of the ninth and holding a healthy lead. 

That being said, I am glad to see the Mets bounce back from the mini circus that bubbled about with Utley’s “slide” and Tejada’s broken leg. And for what it may ever be worth, he clearly was going for the take-out and not the slide, and that’s lousy no matter what way you slice it. It’s a dirty Ty Cobb type move. 

Elsewhere in the NL, the Cubs are up 2-1 on St. Louis which I am admittedly happy about. There is not only my confessed bias relating to the fact that I was born in the Chicagoland Area, but the Cardinals are like the Yankees of the National League, so I kind of have to root against them. Right? 

But more selfishly, I would really like to see a Mets-Cubs NLCS. How could you not want to see playoff baseball in October between New York and Chicago teams?

Ok ok, the Dodgers have good pitching, too. Or perhaps you’re a Dodgers fan. 

Anyway, you get the point. 

Which rolls us on to the American League Playoffs, which have been decidedly much more of a grind. Both series are tied at two, and the games feel less sharp and less precise and more like a grueling slugfest. All four teams are so evenly matched that it’s almost impossible to try and call. 

Which is what makes it fun, I suppose.

But onward we go...

... to the NFL, and I will tell you all that I am happy that the Seahawks gave such a hard time to Cincinnati. It is a bummer that they lost, but I am hoping that it slowed the Bengals down enough to give the Bills a good chance at a win this coming Sunday. And even though the Bills won sloppy, they beat the Titans, which means I got the exact Sunday Football Scenario I was hoping for. 

The only other thing I’m hoping for is that Rex and his guys really get their discipline game on track, and that the receivers and running backs that are out come back sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, Buffalo doesn’t seem to have the depth to be too offensively threatening without them. 

And like that, it was over. A dull whimper at the foamy bottom of Seattle’s disappointing 2015 season. It feels not-so-long ago that I was sitting next to that guy on Opening Day, asking “Who is this Smith guy?” and agreeing that we didn’t know, but we liked him. And in the end, it wound up feeling like getting a coded message to drink my Ovaltine.  

Sure, I could ramble on and on about all of the obvious reasons as to why, at this point, I’m slightly glad regular season baseball is over. I could espouse wildly with all types of winded critique and observation and bummed outness, but no one needs that. Or more accurately, other people are able to summarize it more eloquently than I can. I will just say that at least the M’s won their last game, and they didn’t trade Smith (or LoMo), and the Angels didn’t make it to the Post Season. 

And Seattle finally got a new GM in Jerry Dipoto, and he is rumored to be a statistical nerd. 

Hopefully The Kid From Jersey City does the obvious things, like shore up the bullpen and the rotation (Read: Find a consistent closer, along with some starters and long relievers that are durable and dependable) and get more speed in the line up (As in, please give James Jones a shot, even if just as an option on the bench). I also hope Dipoto doesn’t allow McClendon to keep invoking his Old Boys Club/pork barreling ways, curbing Lloyd’s penchant for handing coaching jobs and roster spots to former Pirates and Tigers. 

Anyway, the frustration is over and now there’s a month of post season insanity to go, followed by five long dark months of scanning the internet for baseball scuttlebutt and wondering what of it will be part of any storylines for 2016. 

Thus the cycle goes...

In other news, the Bills showed that they are still not the mature team that they need to be to win anybody’s respect, and CJ Spiller’s catch-and-run from Drew Brees won tonight’s game for New Orleans. At least my buddy Paul, who hails from The Big Easy, should be feeling some type of good NFL cheer. 

Late Night Arm Chair Punch Line: The Bills need to get better at making first tackles, and heavily weigh giving Carpenter the metaphorical boot if he plays lousy next week against the Titans. I’d prefer not to have to deal with another drawn out Rodney-type situation all football season. 

And lastly regarding the NFL, and because I am in Seattle, tomorrow’s game with Detroit seems like it should be a foregone conclusion, but I can’t shake the feeling that the only thing keeping the Seahawks offensive alive right now is Russell Wilson. The running game is not looking so hot, the offensive line is akin to a pack of lost children, and somehow, the defense doesn’t seem as wholly intimidating as it once did. But according to Seahawks fans, they always start off slow, and if 2014 is any indicator, it’s at least kind of true and possible. And hey, speaking of New Orleans, maybe the ‘Hawks will start fully utilizing that Tight End they got from the Saints.

My sixth grade teacher, a diabolical human with a penchant for UNC basketball and coaching successful high school baseball teams, commonly used the expression intestinal fortitude. While the Pittsburgh Pirates displayed a sincere lack of it on this Wednesday in late September, the Cardinals had it in spades. From offense to defense to pitching to a bench whose skill has no discernible ceiling, the tune of the National League’s post season could very well be about who stands a chance to stop Cardinals and how.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, the Pittsburgh Pirates proved that though they are no longer perennial bottom dwellers, they still cannot hold a blown out candle to the elite teams of the National League when it truly counts. From starting pitching that did not show up, to poor outfield play, to a line up that may as well not have even bothered stepping into the batter’s box, it became obvious that the Pirates need to fill in the gaps quickly over the next couple years before their base talent fades or goes elsewhere.

St. Louis jumped to such a commanding lead that, winning 6-0 in the fifth, ESPN switched to YES coverage of the Yankees/Red Sox game going on in New York. Brian McCann kept the Evil Empire’s rally rolling and put Boston back on their heels and helping the cause. It made me wonder when we will all admit that the 2015 Yankees are a pack of scrappy jackals with wildly high uniform numbers that will likely not go quietly as they kick and spit their way to this year’s playoffs.

When ESPN came back to its originally planned telecast, the Pittsburgh/St. Louis game continued to devolve into such lopsided dreariness that I felt I’d seen all I needed to see. Despite the fact that there were still about four innings of baseball to go, I decided to take a short walk and grab a burrito for dinner. Upon my return, ESPN had meandered from its scheduled telecast (again) to show the A’s handing a hard time to the Angels. After Stephen Vogt drove in a couple runs and the inning ended on a strike out, it was back to Western Pennsylvania where the Cardinals continued to put on a clinic to the desperate few Pirates fans and smug St. Louis supporters that remained in the ballpark. My excuse was that I’d made it this far, so why not just stick it out like a true and stubborn WASP?

As I sat in the backyard, I ate my burrito, lit a cigarette, and watched the Bucs go down with barely an audible whimper. After the game was in the books, my mind began to wander. I found myself wondering when the Pirates would address their starting pitching, locking down guys that could hang during the stretch, when things “mattered”. I thought about ways I would motivate my boys if I were the Pittsburgh manager other than repeating some line about the more important game being a week away yet. I felt renewed animosity toward the Texas Rangers and their usually empty-looking stadium which has provided the backdrop to much of their late season surge.  I considered the Angels and again the Rangers, my general dislike for both, and how I’d much prefer to see the Astros or A’s successful in the AL West just to spite LA and Texas.

Ok. 

First off, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves with regards to the Buffalo Bills, 2015, Uncle Rex, and the win over the Colts. The first few Sundays of an NFL Season are akin to the first few months of a baseball season. They are places where weird things can, do, and will happen, all of which may or may not have any influence any particular team’s fortunes. 

That being said, Buffalo’s play against Indianapolis appeared pretty damn good and at least somewhat convincing (perhaps promising is a more accurate word). Additionally, it is comforting to see the small nook of the NFL Landscape known as Bills Nation feeling genuinely good for once. So good, in fact, that I can feel it 2600 miles west down I-90 in the heart of Seahawks Country. 

Particularly satisfying is the fact that the Bills offense was in the same time zone as the defense for the first time in God knows how long. Additionally, those skeletons that hang in the Bills closet seemed absent and, amazingly, out of sight. Dare I go as far as to say Rex Ryan and the Buffalo Bills are finally doing instead of just talking or making excuses and pointing the finger?

I am not quite sure yet. 

However, I will admit that this is the first time I have felt even a shred of confidence about the Bills (especially the offense) since Wade Phillips and Doug Flutie were around.

Digressing back to Rex Ryan, and despite my initial reservations, everything about Week 1 against the Colts has convinced me further that he and his personality are spot on for Buffalo in the way Pete Carroll has been spot on for Seattle. If you look at the two in terms of people you could find in your family, it makes total sense. Carroll is the liberal and West Cost-smug older cousin that can be boorish and dogmatic at times. If you play your cards right, though, Cousin Pete will stop pontificating, hop down off of the soap box, and smoke you up at your aunt Deirdre’s third wedding while telling stoner jokes and pot head stories, causing you to forget he’s got some strange six figure tech job and driving around a Tesla. Ryan, on the other hand, is the Bread Basket blue-collar-real-talk uncle that tends to speak in sweeping, sometimes un-PC, generalizations. Deep down though, he has a good heart and will always do things like bail you out of jail and buy you a beer without mentioning any of it to your parents because you’re family and that’s just what you do.

Plus, he seems completely excited and fired up to be in Buffalo, which is a nice break from the dull sternness and wet noodles that have come through Western New York since good ol’ Wade wore the headset.

And he is cooking a love fest with the fan base.

Anyway, though the season is long and brand new and whatever will happen will happen, that familiar dark cloud of doom doesn’t seem to be hanging over everything Bills from the start. And no matter the outcome, we are all surely in for good sport and lively entertainment from Uncle Ryan this season.

Moving on...

Five Random Thoughts On Week 1:

Jay Cutler seems to continue to not be “The Guy” in Chicago, which makes me glad the Bills didn’t stick with any of the QBs they’ve gone with since Kelly for a similar span... 

Although I will always believe Buffalo should have stuck with Flutie for a little longer...

And on a positive note, at least someone in the Chicago press sees silver linings in the Bears loss to the Packers.

Watching Tony Romo on that final drive against the Giants was like watching Pete Rose bowl over Ray Fosse. 

Cris Collinsworth could easily be David Wooderson’s smarmy and annoying brother. 

I don’t think anyone in the Pacific Northwest (myself included) thought that the Seahawks would be sniped by the Rams... 

Also, it’s ironic that people are insinuating the decision to run and not pass is what cost the Seahawks the game...

However, the sentiment in Seahawks Country is that they always start off slow, thus no need to panic (yet).

For various personal and cliche dramatic reason(s), I’m glad the Patriots won their opening game against the Steelers...

Well...

Though Dr. Z is gone, and the M’s are arguably playing the most interesting baseball they’ve played all year, I’ve exhaled a bit further and am biding my time until the last home game of the year. I will then spend the following months until Opening Day 2016 wondering what they’ll do in the off season and then how the season will pan out. 

All in all, I think the M’s made good moves, they just made 93% of them far too late in the season. I mean, imagine if Z was gone in, say, July, perhaps before the All-Star Break? Then you get into guys like Ackley, Rodney, and so forth and all of the “What ifs?” and it’s into the rabbit hole.

Anyway, I’ll hope to maybe be pleasantly surprised until they’re mathematically eliminated. Otherwise, at the chagrin of many, I am pulling for the Astros in the AL this post season as I want to see a Pirates/Astros World Series. 

Moving on to the next professional sports season, the opening round of the NFL happened tonight, and I have found myself bizarrely excited for the season this year. Long story short, I have been so “Meh...” about the NFL for so many reasons I’d resigned myself to not really giving a fuck about it until the end of time. 

With regards to the Bills, well, trust me when I say that it’s a long story. But I definitely did the self-inflicted-forehead-slap when I heard they had hired Rex Ryan as their new coach. As Bills fans are a bunch of loud mouthed, defensive fatalists (myself included), I began to realize that Ryan actually is the perfect coach for the Bills at this point in the game. Which I think is part of what drew me back in for a third time, because no matter what, it’ll be at least good comedy. Plus, they were the only “local” team I followed when I was a kid. And you gotta support your local team, right?

Anywho, here’s to hoping that the Bills offense can keep the ball long enough to allow the defense to rest so that things don’t get sloppy at the end as they have tended to do for oh so long. However, Andrew Luck may be so deadly that it won’t matter. 

Whatever.

Perhaps to the chagrin of anyone that ever reads this, I am officially throwing in my towel of hope on this 2015 M’s season. Maybe that makes me a bad fan, or, well, you know what? 

...

Frankly, I don’t give a damn. Because I’m going to go to the game today, and I’m going to go to at least a couple games over the next couple of months, and I’m definitely most certainly going to the last game of the season. 

So cast your aspersions from wherever you like, but I can only invest so much blind faith and hope in a baseball team and in life and such like and this and that and the other thing. 

Sure, perhaps the M’s will pleasantly surprise everyone and start putting some of those things called “winning streaks” together over the next few months.* But I’m not going to hold my breath. Because I’ve been holding my breath since March and I’ve got other things to worry about unless and/or until the M’s start playing baseball. 

And while we’re at it, I might as well go into some arm chair management for mine own (and maybe your) amusement:

- Dr. Z has to go. The M’s need a GM that doesn’t keep hanging players out to dry in hopes of “turning it around”, all to the detriment of the team. Because as we ALL know, guys like Rodney and Ackley have been given WAY too many chances to prove that they cannot pack the gears. 

- I like Lloyd but I don’t know if he can cut the mustard. He seems like a good guy, but it seems like he’s not quite there yet in terms of leadership and line up management. Though, admittedly, I don’t know how much Dr. Z is meddling with the line up, so, well, I guess after further review this one is up in the air.

- Cano should be unloaded somewhere. Sure, I know I know, he’s “turning it around” but it’s JULY. He is being paid a lot of money to play mostly mediocre baseball and not really do anything to apparently lead this team anywhere. I don’t dislike the guy, but I don’t envision him panning out the way we had all hoped. I’d enjoy seeing some scrappy guy (NOT CHRIS TAYLOR) at second base who has a consistent bat, decent speed, good range, and a fiery disposition. You know, a guy like Pedroia back when he first got into the league and could stay healthy.  

- Zunino needs to spend about 12 hours a day in the cage and doing soft toss and hitting balls off of a tee. As of right now while I am typing this, the guy is hitting .170. That is insanity. And if Mike cannot be at or above .225 by mid-May 2016, get someone else that can do the job.

- Jackson should be let go and Jones brought back up. Maybe I just like Jones too much, but I don’t care. He seems like more of a dangerous player to me, especially on the base paths. And with regards to the outfield in general, I think it should be LEFT ALONE! The musical chairs line up, as I keep ranting about, is not working. 

- Regarding the pitching, I don’t think it’s in quite as bad of a spot as everyone feels. Because let’s not forget that the pitchers are getting very little run support. It’d be nice if in some strange fantasy world, we could go back and replay this season with a line up that could put runs on the board and keep these guys in games. Frankly, it reminds me of the Buffalo Bills teams of the middle 00s, which had great defenses but offensive lines and quarter backs that couldn’t stay on the field for more than about a minute and a half. Eventually, the Bills D would wear down and the flood gates would open. I feel a similar sort of thing has been going on with the M’s line up and rotation/bullpen this year. 

- DON’T TRADE SETH SMITH OR LOGAN MORRISON!!! 

Anyway, time to go get ready to go watch these chuckleheads. 

Go M’s!