http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3298555

Gotta love that accent.  Apologies if this has been posted before.

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"Hall of Fame Weekend 2008: Hall of Fame Weekend will be held July 25-28 in Cooperstown and feature the induction of BBWAA electee Rich "Goose" Gossage, along with Veterans Committee electees Barney Dreyfuss, Bowie Kuhn, Walter O'Malley, Billy Southworth and Dick Williams. Induction Ceremonies will take place on Sunday, July 27 at the Clark Sports Center, at 1:30 p.m. ET. There is no admission fee for the Induction Ceremony.

Dave Niehaus, the winner of the 2008 Ford C. Frick Award, along with Larry Whiteside, the 2008 J.G. Taylor Spink Award recipient, will also be honored. Additionally, the first Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, named in memory of baseball's great ambassador, will be recognized."

I've never been to Cooperstown, and I figure...what better time to go than to see Niehaus inducted?

Have any of you guys been?  I'm really looking forward to cheering on Dave in NY.

ESPN, baby!

Merry Christmas, all!

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Something I've wanted to do since I was like...5.  It's pretty nice being in the club.

My buddy and I are in 315 Row A.  You're all welcome to come by for a Drop Top.  First game is going to be Utah, it looks like.

Feel free to stop by and visit!  I should have asked the guy if this guarantees me a free Sergio bobblehead.  

I was just in the elevator with Chris Bosh and I have two bits of information if you wanna get inside his head:

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Anyone else going?  Runyon and I will be decked out in full Santa gear.

Nationally televised holiday game means we've gotta bring the Rip City attitude!

I'm taking sign suggestions now.  Anyone know where I can find a decent Santa suit on the cheap?  I could rent one, but I'm planning on spilling beer on myself at some point.

I'm working on a movie that's shooting in Madras, OR, which is also Jacoby Ellsbury's home town.  It's pretty impressive that this place won America a free taco.

I found a "GO JACOBY GO" shirt that I was going to buy for Jeff, but they only had XL.

Please request any Jacoby related merchandise here.

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Pwned.

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Not only is his arm coming apart, but his face looks like it came right off the coroner's table.  I'm kind of terrified by him now.

He hungers for brains and catching some sweet rays.

The timetable below outlines the process of an infected human (give or take several hours, depending on the individual).

Hour 1: Pain and discoloration (brown-purple) of the infected area. Immediate clotting of the wound (provided the infection came from a wound).

Hour 5: Fever (99-103 degrees F), chills, slight dementia, vomiting, acute pain in the joints.

Hour 8: Numbing of extremities and infected area, increased fever (103-106 degrees F), increased dementia, loss of muscular coordination.

Hour 11: Paralysis in the lower body, overall numbness, slowed heart rate.

Hour 16: Coma.

Hour 20: Heart stoppage. Zero brain activity.

Hour 23: Reanimation.

I'd say he's around hour 20.

Does anyone else read Agent 0's blog?  Aside from LL, it's pretty much the greatest thing on the internet.

http://www.nba.com/blog/gilbert_arenas.html

Here's my favorite recent post:

I know this is random, but I just want to clear this up for people out there.
There are these things called shark attacks, but there is no such thing as a shark attack. I have never seen a real shark attack.

I know you're making a weird face as you're reading this. OK people, a shark attack is not what we see on TV and what people portray it as.

We're humans. We live on land.

Sharks live in water.

So if you're swimming in the water and a shark bites you, that's called trespassing. That is called trespassing. That is not a shark attack.

A shark attack is if you're chilling at home, sitting on your couch, and a shark comes in and bites you; now that's a shark attack. Now, if you're chilling in the water, that is called invasion of space. So I have never heard of a shark attack.

When I see on the news where it's like, "There have been 10 shark attacks," I'm like, "Hey, for real?! They're just running around? Sharks are walking now, huh! We live on the land, we don't live underwater."

He's a big sports gamer, too.

PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii
Man, I couldn't get it. I stood outside no hours and got nothing. That's when you sit in your room and try to use your celebrityism. I didn't get nothing. I knew I should have called and said I was D-Wade. "Um, hello, this is D-Wade ... This is LeBron ... Can I come over there and get one of them?" Then I would have had one.
I just want to give a shout out to my Halo team, "Final Boss." They came in second in Vegas. All the teams out there, get ready for them next year. We're coming back strong.

His photo captions are great.

Any other good blogs I'm missing?  I know Schilling has one, and Greg Oden, but there has to be others...

I saw a bumpersticker for Antonetti on the way back to Portland today.

It was on I5, between Longview and Vancouver.  I was hoping it was one of you...

I waved, even!

Today in 1947 - ENIAC, the world's first general-purpose electronic digital computer, was turned on in its new home at the Ballistic Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, remaining in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.

The funniest experience I had was after the playoff sweep of the White Sox.  I was at game 3 (where Carlos bunted past Big Hurt) and the atmosphere was electric.

My friend and I were making our way out of the stadium and went out the back way, by the player's locker room.  My buddy looked down the hallway and said "there's nobody blocking that door."  I couldn't even say "that's probably a bad idea" before he was off and walking down the hall.

I waited a good five minutes before he came running out.  "What happened?" I asked him.

"I just met Stan Javier.  We gotta go!"

I looked back and saw an elderly security guard walking out, so we took off.

---

I've got a pretty good Griffey story, too.  My dad's best friend used to be the team's lawyer, so we were hanging out in the press box before a game one day.  I was maybe...12 years old.  My brother was sitting in the doorway of the press box facing us, not paying any attention to what was going on behind him.

In walks Junior, in full uniform.  He looks down at my brother, looks back up at us, and then reaches down with the classic Junior smile, picks him up, and lightly moves him out of the way.  

I took a stab and asked him if I could toss a ball or two to him.  He nodded, and I had a 30 second game of catch with The Kid behind home plate at the King Dome.  Still one of the best days ever.

---

One final note: My friend from Pittsburgh met Barry Bonds when he was young.  He held a ball up for him to sign and Bonds pushed him out of the way.  Class.

My girlfriend is very patient.  It got to the point this weekend, when I made her switch seats in the booth of the restaurant so I could see the tiny TV in the corner with the game on, that she wasn't going to win.  Baseball was going to be on, whether she wanted it or not.  Then she asked the unexpected:

"Will you teach me?"

So, I ask you...where do you go from there?  I went in a little about the difference between pitches, different kinds of fastballs and what have you.  Pitchers counts, hitters counts, what to expect, etc.

How much is too much, though?  I avoided VORP, and I think that's probably a good place to start.  :)

How do you guys handle it?  Do you have someone who will sit and watch a game with you?  Did you get closer to them BECAUSE of that or did you break their spirit over time like an angry colt?

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/805/5ba

I was dicking around online and I found that link.  It's the linkedin profile for an old poster on the ESPN boards: Lando.

I created an account, and it said that he was an AE (Arts editor?  Anal expert?) for the King County Journal.

I did a little more research and found this.

Some things will just never get old.

As an aside, the profile I made was for "Bill Bavasi, General Manager of the Seattle Mariners."

The great thing about this site is that it links you to people in the same occupation.  There are 22 people associated with the M's, including Kevin Cremin.  Neat.

I know the offseason has been tough for all of us.  Especially my Mariner hat, which is sitting somewhere on the side of I5, cursing the darkness.

BUT!  I was looking through old video from last season and came across this, which should at least put a smile on your face.  May 19th, Ichiro's laser to home plate.

Remember, this could be our last year with him.

Bonus points to the first person who finds the video of Putz striking out Bonds.

I'm really, really excited about Mariner baseball again.

I don't know how it happened, really.  I was ready to wear Dodger blue this offseason, especially since I'm moving to the valley soon.  Then, it happened.

The feel-good spring training stories started showing up.  Felix is in great shape.  Richie's got a personal trainer.  J-Wash is apparently back on the weed.  Vidro's not a total disaster.

And, in reality, we didn't lose anything all that important to our success.  Our top OBP hitter, sure, but chances are that Snelling is the young Junior, and we'd only get half a season out of him anyway.

Anyone else drinking the Kool-Aid?

It sucks losing Soriano, but as we've always said on this very blog, the easiest thing in baseball is patching together an effective bullpen.

Disclaimer: I might be drunk.

Score Hawks tickets?

Sat, Jan 6, 2007 05:00 PM
2 Full Price Adult 340 C 11 - 12

Come visit!

The term "Hail Mary pass" is believed to have been coined by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, referring to his desperation (and Catholic beliefs), for his game-winning touchdown pass in a December 28, 1975 NFC semifinal playoff game. With 24 seconds remaining, Staubach threw a desperation pass to receiver Drew Pearson, who was being covered by cornerback Nate Wright. It appeared that Pearson had pushed off, but as the ball came down Pearson stopped and Wright tripped over his leg. Pearson caught the ball pinned slightly against his right hip and ran into the end zone for the winning touchdown. In discussing the play during a post-game interview, Staubach told reporters that he closed his eyes, threw the ball as hard as he could, and said a Hail Mary prayer. Although the term may date further back, no reference has been cited as yet which pre-dates Staubach's comments.

I've been doing a little research on the subject and according to a .pdf provided by the Seattle PI / Times, to get an ad placed on page 2 of the Sunday Sports section isn't as difficult as it looks.

Part of my math tells me it wouldn't be as cheap as we think, but then I run the numbers and it comes out to $10,000.  Ha.  That's obviously too much, but maybe we could get connected with them and see.

I wish I could do more research, but I'm at work, so if anyone wants to jump on this I'd appreciate it.  My thought is that we could set up a blog-wide PayPal account to see if we could raise the money for this.  If anyone wants to get us an estimate...

    *  For individuals or businesses wishing to place a display ad:
          o Call your Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer account executive directly
          o If you don't have an account executive, call 206/464-2400 and we'll connect you with one

This would also be a good chance to get this site out there, too.

If you'd like to look over the advertising rates:

http://www.seattletimescompany.com/advertise/pdfs/2007/General_Display_Advertising/GeneralDisplay_ra tebook.pdf

Fire Bavasi!

Get your tomatoes ready, folks.

Who wants to get a permit to protest Fan Fest this year?  I'll do the legwork, unless someone has better connections, as I live in Portland.

A few of us have to get inside and unveil a Nationals Snelling jersey.

I plan on throwing my Johjima jersey and my M's hat directly at Bavasi.

Thoughts?

Hey guys, I'm working on a film in Portland and we've got a stadium exterior we need.  I can't find any good shots of Safeco from the outside that give a good feel of the park.

Does anyone HAVE any, or know where I could find some?  All my personal photos are from inside.

Thanks.

~G.

You can shoot me an email if you want: wilsonpeery@gmail.com

300 character fact of the day: In 1987, Nikki suffered a near-fatal heroin overdose. He was declared legally dead on the way to the hospital, but one medic refused to give up and gave Nikki two shots of adrenaline to the heart, bringing him back to life. His few minutes in death were the inspiration for the band's song "Kickstart My Heart," which peaked at #18 on the Mainstream U.S. chart, and was featured on their album Dr. Feelgood.

The Crue is awesome.

It's pretty obvious at this point that we won't be enjoying Mariner baseball in the post season.

I'm going to root for my soon to be hometown team the LA Dodgers.  Hopefully I'm there by October so I can take in a playoff game.

Also, I look good in blue, so it's a win-win.

300 Character fact of the day: Coco Crisp's real name is Covelli Loyce Crisp.

You can see why he stuck with the nickname.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2002822772_mari23.html

Hargrove has a week before his club takes these principles into games. Meantime, he has been fiddling with lineups.

"I've got two now," Hargrove said. "This winter I had 502."

Both lineups are largely set in 3 through 6, with Adrian Beltre hitting third, Raul Ibanez fourth, Richie Sexson fifth and Everett sixth.

"Our play is in the 2-hole, then 7, 8 and 9," he said. "I've thought of three guys for the 2-hole, including Kenji Johjima and Fernando Vina as well as Jeremy Reed. I've even mulled over Matt Lawton there.

"It doesn't have to be a left-handed hitter. You want a guy who can handle the bat."

---

Fernando...Vina?

Manager, Baseball Information
Application Closing Date: 2/11/06

The Position
The Seattle Mariners Baseball Club is currently recruiting to fill the position of Manager of Baseball Information reporting to the Director of Baseball Information.

Qualifications

    * Prior public relations experience with a professional or major college sports team
    * Multi task oriented with proven organizational skills
    * Fluent in Microsoft Word, Excel, InDesign and Internet
    * Ability to travel extensively and work nights/weekends
    * Possess writing & editing experience
    * Possess very strong knowledge of baseball, including statistics

Job Duties

    * Oversee production of media guide
    * Assist in production of mid and post season reports
    * Assist in production of daily game notes
    * Assist in facilitating positive interaction between the Mariners franchise, its players and key media partners.
    * Assist in facilitating interviews with local, regional and national media with Mariners staff and players
    * Develop relationship with local, regional and national media
    * Assist in identifying Mariner public relations opportunities
    * Assist in scheduling of baseball information staff
    * Assists as requested to help produce Mariners Magazine, Yearbook & other publications
    * Any other duties essential to the daily operations of this office

Job Application and Selection Process
A resume accompanied by a letter of application, which relates applicant's qualifications and experience to those stated for the position must be received by 5:00 PM, February 11, 2005. Application materials should be sent to:

Seattle Mariners
Jeremy Weir
Human Resources Manager
PO Box 4100
Seattle, WA 98194

Worth a shot.

Update: Everett and the Mariners have agreed to a one-year contract but the deal is unfinished pending a a team physical, the Seattle Times reports.

Recommendation: Terms are said to be between $3 million and $3.5 million. Also possibly included is a team option for 2007. Everett gives the Mariners the left-handed bat they've sought, but just how much to expect from Everett is up for debate. He is clearly no longer the player who slugged .544 in 2003. But the ball carriers to right at Safeco Field, so perhaps that will benefit Everett.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=rotowire-arlverettgreestoontr&prov=rotowire&type=lgns

I feel sick.

I just bought field tickets to watch Felix.

Anyone else going?  After the game we can make like those two hippies that followed Hank Aaron around the bases.  I think it'd be worth it.

Also, has anyone had trouble getting a video camera into the Safe?  I want to try and get some warmup footage, but I don't know if Grandpa Security will hassle me.

I just simmed a season up to today's Philly game.

The roster is current.  Seattle went 27 - 34 and Olivo is hitting .189 with 2 HR and 17  RBI.  Wild.

Best moment: An email I got stating that Randy Winn didn't seem like he was handling MLB pitching, and that maybe AAA was the best place for him.