From Rotoworld:

Bret Boone revealed Monday than an alcohol problem contributed to him walking away from the game two years ago.
Boone had gotten to the point where he would drink 12-15 beers after a game. "I don't want to make a big deal about it, but I was at a point where sometimes it was more important to me to go to a hotel bar after a game," he said. "At the end, it takes away your passion and everything inside that makes you tick. I'm not proud of it. I'm proud I took care of the situation before it got to a point where it could have." Boone said he hasn't had a drink in seven months.

Could this have actually affected his play? If so, I'm kinda pissed, since we paid him well to play for us.

Jim Street sez Bedard told the Orioles it would take a 7 year $100M dollar deal to keep him in Baltimore. Would he go for the same sort of extension offer from us? Is that too many years for a guy coming off an injury?                                                                                                      

I totally pwned David J. Corcoran on the Mariners trivia on Facebook. This may be the greatest accomplishment of my short and uninspiring life.

300 character fun fact: The '95 Mariners were 18-23 in one-run games.                                

From Over The Monster:

"Look guys, we're down three in an ALCS.  So what?! This is how we roll.  You know, to make it interesting and stuff.  Let the Rockies have their sweep.  BOOOOORRRRRRINNNGGG.  No, it's like the Mighty Casey...you spit on a few pitches before you send one out of the park."

They've clearly never read or heard the poem Casey at the Bat, and yet they reference it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/face/mlb/index

Come on, Derek. Felix will be the man some day, but right now when most people think "Mariners," it's Ichiro. It's sad to say, but there are a good many people in Seattle who still wouldn't recognize Felix if they saw him on the street.                                                                                                        

Every time I leave the country, the Mariners tank. My plane touched down in Europe on the morning of the 13th and the Mariners haven't won a game since. I knew this was going to happen, yet still I went. I offer my sincerest apologies, and hope Ichiro takes into consideration that I won't be leaving net year when he decides whether or not to resign.

What is wrong with these people? Is there something weird in the water down there? I used to think very highly of the city of San Diego, but their fans' reaction to this series has been Halos Heaven-esque.

When the Mariners have a bad series, we criticize our own team for being so bad that they lost.

When a SoCal baseball fan's team loses a series, he criticizes the opposing team for being so bad that they won. When you go south of the Bay, do you enter some kind of Bizarro World where this makes sense?

P.S.: Still don't think the NL lacks talent? Texas wins a series against the team that leads the NL Central and Kansas City wins a series against a team with a winning record against NL opponents.

Derek Jeter just made a throwing error on a double play chance which gave the Red Sox the lead and got Doug Mientkiewicz injured. The Fox announcers blamed the play on Robinson Cano and complimented Jeter's defense.                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Since getting the tying run to the plate and the having your worst ABs of the night is a recurring theme of the 2007 Mariners, I think we need a specific image to represent it.

I'd recommend that someone modify in some fashion this image I found of Jay Buhner homering in game 3 of the '95 ALCS. It was the most false hope I've ever felt:

The Mariners have played like shite and they're 1/2 game out of first. Anaheim and Oakland have the injury excuse. If our GM wasn't so monumentally stupid, we'd be comfortably on top right now. I hope that dufus dies in a fire. Without the crap call at second we'd have lost 4 in a row and five of six. 85 wins will probably be enough this year. Too bad we won't even be close.