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Can't Miss It: Weekend Edition Nov 20-22
In every non-playoffs sports season, you can date the moment when your team's hopes collapsed. For the last place 2008 Mariners, it was approximately mid-April. This year's Mariners lasted far longer in the playoff hunt. Nevertheless, July 24-26 was their undoing.
The M's suffered an emphatic three-game sweep to Cleveland, losing the three games by a combined score of 31-6. The team's vulnerability to left-handed pitching was exploited mercilessly by Indians manager Eric Wedge: Three Indian starters, all lefties, combined for 21 innings and allowed just 2 earned runs. The Mariners fell 7.5 games back of the first-place Angels, a deficit that's likely too much to surmount in two months.
Worse yet, the M's concluded that Erik Bedard is hurt; the fragile lefty goes back on the disabled list. As the Times' Geoff Baker explains, this likely means that Bedard is basically a valueless asset.
Now we look to the future, one aspect of which is already present: The M's debuted a new starting left fielder: Michael Saunders (r.), a tall, good-looking 22-year-old Canadian slugger. Saunders, an 11th round pick in the 2004 draft, recorded his first career hit and RBI on Sunday.
(Okay, one look back at the past, after the jump, plus news of the Sounders and Storm.)
On Sunday, Rickey Henderson became the third former Mariner player to gain induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Henderson played 92 games with the 2000 Mariners, compiling 31 steals and scoring the series-winning run against Chicago in the ALDS. Those 92 games are more than any other of the M's Hall of Famers (Gaylord Perry, Goose Gossage) appeared in with the team. Henderson's much-anticipated induction speech, which was played live on the Safeco Field jumbotron before the game, was thoughtful, funny and touching. We clapped.
In other sports: The Sounders played Chicago to a scoreless draw in what was apparently as entertaining a scoreless draw as you're going to get. Freddie Ljungberg earned an ejection, receiving two yellow cards for diving and then for arguing with the ref (or "dissent," as it's known in soccer). Did Ljungberg dive? Here's the video, judge for yourself.
The Sounders gained a point in the standings on first-place Houston, which lost at New England, but stayed just a point ahead of Los Angeles. The top-two point-gatherers in each conference make the playoffs, along with the top four point-gatherers in the league regardless of conference.
Congrats to the Storm's Swin Cash, who won MVP honors at the WNBA All-Star Game. Cash led all scorers with 22 points. Sue Bird was no slouch, scoring 16 points and adding 10 assists. Lauren Jackson, who missed two games earlier in the week with a leg injury, started but played just seven minutes.
Next week's action:
Mariners: vs. Toronto M-W (Weds. is a day game), @ Texas Th-Sun.
Sounders: @ San Jose Sun.
Storm: @ San Antonio Tues., vs. San Antonio Sat.
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Thanks for mentioning Henderson. I really wish there were players like him in the league still.
The Bedard trade could go down as one of the all-time worst ever. The guy is apparently made of cotton candy.
Trading youth for age when you aren't contending in the short-term just never works out.