Keep the Mariners Away From President Bush!

We guarantee that sometime during this week's crucial series against Oakland, Dave Niehaus will employ the phrase "house of horrors" to describe McAfee Coliseum.

With good reason. It's where Mariners seasons have traditionally gone to die.

Even during the glory season of 1995, the Mariners were not immune to the Coliseum's mojo. In a mid-August game, Mike Blowers made two errors in the ninth inning, leading to two unearned runs and a 3-2 loss that dropped them 11.5 games back.

Now, with the M's coming off a sweep of the Angels, and needing a strong showing in Oakland to keep pace in the A.L. West, please keep President Bush away. We don't want to tempt fate, and Fortuna's apparently had it with him.

Two weeks ago, the Super Bowl champion Steelers visited the White House. Yesterday, QB Ben Roethlisberger very nearly died in a motorcycle accident (he needed seven hours of surgery).

Yesterday, Mr. President called the US soccer team to wish them good luck. They were demolished in the most devastating loss in team history, 3-0 to Czech Republic. Why couldn't he have given a pre-game pep talk to the Steelers?

And there's some war in Iraq that isn't going so good, we hear.

Tonight, Jamie Moyer (3-5, 3.86) faces Joe Blanton, who is (3-6, 6.75) versus the rest of the league, but (2-0, 1.20) against the Mariners. 7:05, FSN.