SB Nation User Blog: Steve Nelson

Thoughts on the end of a season

Steve Nelson — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:06:45 -0000

I grew up a Twins fan. I remember going to Metropolitan Stadium with my Dad to see the Minneapolis Millers before the Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. I agonized through years of crummy teams. I remember getting a Little League uniform with #6 on the back (I believe it was the year I played for the Gold Sox), and the disappointment that no Twin of note shared my number. (The next year #6 was Vic Wertz, and the year after that Tony Oliva arrived and took #6.) I still pull my hair out remembering when Jim Gilliam on a hunch decided to shade a couple of steps closer to the line at third base line in the fifth inning of game 7 of the 1965 WS when Zoilo Versailles was at the plate facing Sandy Koufax with runners on first and third and one out, Twins down 2-0. (Gilliam’s snag of a shot down the 3b line that should have been a two-run double was the key play of that WS.) I remember the years of agony of the Bud Grant Vikings going to the Superbowl four times and losing every time.

When the Twins won the WS in 1987 we were living in the San Francisco Bay Area. When Jeff Reardon closed out the 9th inning I told my wife that the fans weren’t going to go home. Thirty minutes after the game was over at least half the crowd was still in the Metrodome, cheering and waving their homer hankies. I knew that was going to happen; there was nothing else that could have occurred. It was a community catharsis, a purging of all of the frustration and humiliation that had been accumulating for years.

With the crowd still in the stands, applauding and cheering, the players came back out on the field for a curtain call, led by Kent Hrbek, the guy who, like me, grew up almost in the shadow of Met Stadium and rode his bicycle to the Met stadium when he was a kid. Some of the players had already showered, and they came back out on the field in their street clothes. Some of the other players had just been hanging out in the dugout, soaking it all in.

Of course the crowd erupted once again when they appeared. And I, sitting in my living room in Contra Costa County, was so totally a part of it that tears were rolling down my face. That was the moment when I realized that baseball was embedded within me in a way no other sport was. Every other sport I could walk away from. But for me, I realized that after many years away from the game, I had drifted back close enough to hear it singing to me, and I was as helpless before it as a Greek mariner catching the strains of the Sirens.

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I confess to being a numbers type of guy. I’m an engineer and working with data is both my forte and my fortress. But life has a way of reminding us that what really counts is simple humanity. When we see that humanity in one of our teams, such as the Mariners after the end of the game today… that's a bolt that strikes us, often when we are totally unprepared, and makes us realize that this business of being a fan has claimed our souls. We can't set it aside; it has us and we are bound to it, not the other way around.

Part of the exuberance of today - for the players as well as the fans – is the awareness that this year was different from last year. Not just a bit different, but different in the way that Love Canal is different from the Erie Canal. The team didn’t win anything but the players are celebrating because they know the depths from which they’ve come. I’m celebrating now because after years of rooting for the team despite of what it was, now I can celebrate for what it is and what it it becoming. And it isn't just me; fans here, at USSM, and in the stands see it. Baker and Divish and Larue blog it. Drayer tweets it. And now we see the players and Front Office savor it.

Next season, 2010, is a new chapter. We don't know to what extent this might carry over. We hope it will, but there are no guarantees. For now we simply bask and enjoy. And that's all baseball asks of us and all that it grants us - savor and enjoy. If we dare ask more, it dashes our dreams more likely than not.

Now go out and find a Royals fan who needs encouragement.

Royals think that Meche is soft and needs to learn to pitch through pain?

Steve Nelson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:56:33 -0000

Thanks to Royals Review, a link to a Trey Hillman interview with Soren Petro, a KC sports talk station host. Part of the interview (beginning about the 12:00 mark) includes Hillman talking about the KC starting pitchers this year vs. last year. Hillman lays out that he thinks the big issue is that guys haven't been mentally conditioned to finish games. He talks about that as the difference between this year and last year. Putting the dots together, he must be thinking that the reason Meche (and Bannister) went on the DL this year when their workloads increased is because they didn't have a proper "finish the game" mindset.

Beginning at about 15:30 Petro talks about his reviews of how the Royals pitchers have fared in their next start after being pushed deep into games with high pitch counts. Hillman dances away from the question, but eventually says that happens because they're not mentally tough. Where have we heard that before??? To me that sounds a lot like Gil Meche (and others on the staff) just aren't tough enough and we need to teach them how to get deep in games.

*******

The parallels between the current Royals management and the Bavasi Mariners continue.

Mariners hire Jeff Kingston as assistant GM

Steve Nelson — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:54:41 -0000

From Ryan Divish: Mariners hire Jeff Kingston as assistant GM

From the job duties is appears as if Kingston is the replacement for Pelekoudas, but he also adds experience in the numberic analysis and video scouting areas. I wonder if Blengino will be reporting to Kingston. I also note with pleasure that Jack Z, merciless soul that he is, has no compunction about decimating the front office staff of our despised interleague rivals.

Did anyone ever start a poll as to when we should expect to see Pelekoudas show up in Philadelphia. Though right now I have to say I think Pelekoudas may be more likely to show up in Kansas City as GMDM seems to have a hard-on for former Mariner personnel.

Royals Negotiating Contract Extension with Dayton Moore

Steve Nelson — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:16:55 -0000

In news that must be totally crushing to Royals fans - Royals owner David Glass is working out a contract extension for General Manager Dayton Moore. KC Star - No deal yet on contract exension for Moore Because Moore's done so much to show he deserves an extension.

As much as we've complained in the past about Mariners ownership and executives, this does offer pretty sharp relief on a key difference between the Mariners and the Royals executvie and ownership groups. Lincoln and Armstrong eventually realized they had been heading in the wrong direction, and executed a sharp correction. David Glass???? Well what can you possibly say to anyone living east of Grass Creek and west of Springfield. I'm sure that Joe Posanki is finding that Sports Illustrated gig even more appealing right now.

I confess to having mixed feelings about this. On an empathic level, I am aware of - and even grieve a bit for - the suffering Kansas City fans. Our Bavasi nightmare is over - Royals fans are still in the middle of their terror with the worst parts apparently still to come. Long term Royals fans also have an agony Mariners fans never experienced during our years of similar ineptitude, because there was a time when the Royals were one of the best organizations in baseball. In Seattle, well ... all we ever knew was futility.

How much have Royals fans been beaten down, you ask? Well, after the Betancourt trade there were Royals fans who, in all seriousness, defended the trade because Betancourt was an improvement on Tony Peña, Jr. "See", they said, "this is just another example of how Moore is continually taking steps to make the team better". Meanwhile they totally ignored how the Royals simply swapped out the worst shortstop in baseball for the next worst shortstop in baseball, meaning that after the trade the Royals were still the team with the worst shortstop in baseball. Really. Some Royals fans actually said that. That's how far Royals fans have to reach to find good things to say about the Royals organization, sometimes.

The other side of my feelings is a feeling of gratitude to Glass for doing such a wonderful thing for smart teams such as the current incarnation of the Mariners. Trades in baseball are facilitated when Team A values something that Team B doesn't value, and vice versa. And I know that as long as Moore believes that the Mariners are currently undervaluing character, grit, and veteran leadership, and greatly overvaluing skills such as on-base percentage and defense, well ... there's fertile trade opportunities there. The Mariners challenge will be to fend off teams such as Boston and Tampa when dealing with the Royals for the few valuable pieces that might be available.

Halos Heaven humour - Loux, I'm No Longer Your Father

Steve Nelson — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:25:43 -0000

Halos Heaven humour - Loux, I'm No Longer Your Father

Indians 22, Yankees 4

Steve Nelson — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:58:38 -0000

Indians have a 14-run 2nd inning.

Wang: 1.1 IP, 8H, 8ER, 1K, 52 pitches, 34 strikes.

From a commenter at BTF: "Wang entered this game with a 28.93 ERA, and saw it go up."

The Yankees did not bring in Swisher. I guess that Girardi thought the game was too far out of hand to justify wasting another bullpen arm.

Silva channeling Ryan Frankllin

Steve Nelson — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:30:36 -0000

From Baker's post-game blog this evening:

He thought his sinker was sharper tonight, as did manager Don Wakamatsu and catcher Kenji Johjima. They all said he was able to command it and spot it where he needed to.

The problem was two change-ups that got golfed for home runs.

"I felt great with my mechanics and everything,'' Silva said. "Besides those two change-ups that I threw, I wouldn't take anything back.''

Wakamatsu on the same subject: "With Silva, I thought we saw a lot more sink than we saw before,'' Wakamatsu said. "It was similar to the last (spring training) outing. It's just too bad that two bad pitches cost us the ballgame.''

Geez - I thought the spirit of Ryan ("I thought I pitched great tonight except for two pitches that got away from me.") Franklin had been exorcised from the clubhouse. But I guess the demons were granted permission to infest Silva's carcass instead.

Alyssa Milano previews the AL West

Steve Nelson — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:29:18 -0000

Alyssa Milano previews the AL West

Thanks to RedReporter

"Many of you probably didn’t know that Mariner is another term for a seaman, and I am FASCINATED by seamen. Always have been. I just can’t get enough."

Dayton Moore talks about Willie

Steve Nelson — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:25:01 -0000

Although it now often seems ages past, it's really only been in the past five years that the chasm has been bridged between numeric analysis neos posting on blogs in their pyjamas, and the old school scouting types in their khakis with clipboards, stop watches, and 20-80 calibrated eyeballs. Bavasi called it "squat" vs."quant". Of course, following the classic thesis->antithesis->synthesis dialectic, what we are seeing is the merging of the two modes into a new model. Even the Mariners, of all teams, now appear to be intent on setting up a department for number crunching.

Despite this evolution occasionally we yet see pockets of good old baseball men still holding forth, like shadow figures in the mind of Rod Serling. I offer to you one Dayton Moore, General Manager of the Kansas City Royals, and seemingly enamored of all things formerly Mariner. Observe Mr. Moore talking about his team, the KC Royals:

SN: You mentioned Bloomquist. How do you see the situation at second base playing out over the spring?

…Willie Bloomquist is somebody who we felt is one of the most versatile players in the game. We think he's one of the better leaders in the game, and anybody who's ever been associated with him or has played with him will tell you that's the case. He has great character and is someone who's been part of pennant races as well.

You could dismiss this as the usual stuff that a GM says to the media. Moore is obviously not going to dis one of his players. But in this case this Willlie is a guy DM voluntarily signed; he wanted Willie on his team. So we've got to think he actually believes this stuff.

Our prospects in Grass Creek are looking exceedingly fine!!!

Writing about the Yankees, in the style of Jeff Sullivan

Steve Nelson — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:44:18 -0000

Writing about the Yankees, in the style of Jeff Sullivan

Then the Yankees rolled in #1: How movies would change if the Yankees were involved
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Charlie is a kid from an extremely poor family, but he is not without hope. A local chocolatier has announced that he will be giving out candy bars with golden tickets, where the winner will win lifetime, free chocolate, an interest in the chocolate factory, and all the hope (and riches) that you could imagine.

Then the Yankees rolled in and bought all of the available chocolate bars on the market, netting the Yankees all five golden tickets and, thereafter, the entire Wonka franchise -- besting even Veruca Salt.

In desperation, Charlie's mama started whoring herself out to French tourists, Charlie's papa served as her pimp, and Charlie's grandparents died a bitter, painful death from bed sores. Charlie, himself, was sold for $59.45 by his parents to a Vietnamese grocer, who butchered little Charlie and sold him at the market as dog meat.

and others