The Mariners announced yesterday that Manager John McLaren and General Manager Bill Bavasi will both be back next year. McLaren took over in mid-season, the team was 40-41 under his guidance. 2008 will be Bavasi's fourth year as Mariners GM. Out in blogland, they've been calling for McLaren's head since the M's went on a 15 of 17 losing jag, one of the biggest collapses by a contending team in baseball history. The main complaint:......

While you're enjoying an unseasonably sunny summer afternoon, we will be at Safeco Field, showing our undying support for the 2007 Seattle Mariners, authors of one of the greatest collapses in baseball history. We're not fairweather fans, not us. We gallantly display our pride for the local nine, those proud lads who...um...ok, fine, we lucked into a free ticket and didn't have other plans. Anyway, misery loves company, so we've fired up the Seattlest History-O-Matic......

The combination of a Mariner win and losses by both New York and Detroit last night meant that the Mariners leapfrogged 'em both and woke up today as the leader for the American League Wild Card! This is the first time the Mariners have been in first place of anything since late August of 2003, when we sat in the commissary of a scientific research station in Ecuador and listened over unscrambled Armed Forces radio......

As if today’s Mariners game needed any more drama, the standings show that if the season ended today the Mariners and Indians would play a one game play off for the Wild Card spot. This was almost the case in 2000 when a Mariners loss on the last day of the season would have meant a similar scenario. Fortunately the Mariners won, the game was averted, and Editor Dan’s heart was eventually broken.......