Lifelong diehard Mariner fan = me

Thank god for Fox sports Northwest, or I'd have to be crossing the hill at least once a week. Here is the reason I think the Mariner's are so good;

Attitude. Not cockiness, though. You see, once upon a time, the king(Griffey) and his men(Buhner, Edgar, A-Wad, Tino M., etc.) use to knock the cover off the ball on a regular basis. The team was built for power, and so was there home field. So this is how it was all through the 90's, and man was it a blast to watch. Sometimes('95,'97,'00) the results were good, sometimes they were bad, but it was ALWAYS fun to watch.
Well, money talks, and players walk. First, Randy is traded(after quite the temper tantrum the first 14 games that year). Smart move, M's. No way to know how he would recover from the back injury. Plus, we get three starters(now) in the deal.
Safeco Field opens.
Then, "I want to be closer to my family" Griffey defects. The guy lives in Orlando for crying out loud, where does Cincinnati fit into this? Anyway, we lose some power, but still have A-Pud, Edgar, and Jay. Plenty of pop, for sure. Next year it's A-Clod's turn. Too much money to turn down, if you ask me. I don't blame him, but it's still fun watching the fans razz him a little. All the while the big boppers are defecting, Woody Woodward, and now "wizard"Pat are replacing the defectors with people a little more suited to playing BASEBALL instead of Home Run Derby. Not sexy, but more effective.
So, I've rambled on and on, here's my point. With the loss of the last really big gun, all of the sudden the Mariner's look at themselves and realize the days of waiting for the three run homer from the 3-4-5 spots in the line-up are over. Plus(and I think this is the real key), the media went out of there way to make it perfectly clear they thought the Mariners would not score any runs this year. It started the moment A-Wus signed with Texas. After they had realized it themselves, they get bombarded for the next four months with, "how are you gonna score runs", "what will you do without A-Puss", etc.. Soooooo, when Sweet Lou gathers the troops this spring, he informs them that with the bats they have, it's more important than ever to play little ball. Bunt, steal, hit and run, whenever possible. That's the ONLY way they can have a good year.

TOTAL BUY IN. Everyone bought it. Those with ego's have dumped them. Nobody's playin' selfish, everyone's contributing, no one's *****in'. I think it snowballed from the fast start. Every move Pinella has made this year has worked. It's amazing the faith your players develop in you when you demonstrate your ability to lead, and make the right call. I'm having as much fun watching these guys have fun while they're playing, as I am knowing my M's are very possibly Series bound.

That's the #1 reason, along with some of the finest GM'ing ever seen. Woodward had his share of this(making up for stupid deals from seasons gone by), but Pat Gillick is the best in the business. In two years, we've acquired THREE guys in the bullpen that could be the closer for just about anybody. A starting pitching staff that is very, very solid. And just think, Meche is back in a month, Ryan Anderson WILL be in the rotation next year, WOW!! I think I just made a mess in my jeans

There, I spilled my guts, 'ya happy now?

[ 06-07-2001: Message edited by: backlash2 ]