Fueling speculation that the 2007 Mariners ad slogan may be "Mariner Baseball: Wanna Pitch?", the M's signed the author of the 465,629th best-selling book on Amazon.com to a three-year, $24 million contract tonight. Author, searching-eyes-possessor, and 36-year-old right-handed starter Miguel Batista, best known for his work with the Arizona Diamondbacks Writers' Workshop, is the newest Mariner. He won 11 games last year as a starter with the D-backs, after a one-year stint as the Blue......

Chim Chim Cheree! The Mariners finished a three-game sweep of the hapless Diamondbacks last night, scoring two runs off Arizona closer Jorge Julio in the 9th for a 3-2 win. The win pushed them by Texas for second place in the AL West. They are two games behind Oakland. As the number-conscious boys at USS Mariner point out, the stats suggest that the M's are better than the A's. Though the A's have the better......

Something happened yesterday that hasn't since April 16th. No, not Dino Rossi waking up before noon, but the Mariners getting to .500. After an 11-7 victory over Arizona in their 78th game, the M's are once again treading water at 39-39. In yesterday's top of the ninth, the M's displayed in microcosm what they'll need to contend in the AL West--production from their highest-paid employees, Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson. With one out and the......

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." That's what Teddy Roosevelt said anyway, and former Mariners manager Bob Melvin certainly goes into the "poor spirits" category. Melvin's timid, uninspired field generalship earned him the nickname "Bobby By......