This is a lot more of a Marinerds entry than a Lookout Landing entry, but I did promise I'd try to post something to entertain everyone tonight, and this is what's on my mind.
I went to the Phillies' site to check out the video of Aaron Rowand and Chase Utley colliding off of a John Mabry pop-up to shallow center. (It's pretty scary, actually.) I looked at the match-up for tomorrow's game, and saw a familiar face, but in an unfamiliar place -- Jamie Moyer's starting for the Phillies against the Cubs tomorrow.
Maybe I shouldn't call it an unfamiliar place, as Jamie originally came up through the Cubs organization, and grew up in Philadelphia anyway. The Phillies have a nice article on Moyer and his ties to both organizations. The last line of the article, where Jamie talks about having been at the post-WS parade in 1980, is probably the most chilling line for me. The day the Phillies won the World Series is one of my earliest memories both in life and in baseball, and my family went to the parade as well. I remember sitting on my dad's shoulders so I could see what was going on. It was crazy, it was loud, and it was the sort of thing I'd really like to experience once more in my lifetime, provided I can actually stop putting a curse on the local baseball teams when I move to a new city. Anyway, the point is, when I was growing up, every left-handed kid in Pennsylvania wanted to be like Steve Carlton, even me -- never mind that I'm a girl -- and I suddenly feel like I can see into Jamie Moyer's soul and understand how he feels going forth as both a Phillies pitcher and getting a start in Wrigley Field, coming full circle. And I really wish him nothing but the best.
On that note, let me crank up my best Casey Kasem imitation a second. I've had a song request come in from tom2000, so before we resume the Mariners Count^H^H^H^H^HSmackdown, this is a long-distance dedication to Jamie Moyer.
This song was originally something I made up to be silly in a game thread on USSM, after a pretty good Mariners-Indians game on April 24, 2005. This game tied Jamie with Randy Johnson on the all-time Mariners wins list. It was pretty cool.
"This Old Man"
This old man, he fanned one
Victor got full count and swung
With a knick-nack, catcher-smack,
Throw the ball to Boone
This old man makes batters swoon.
This old man, struck out two
Casey at the bat would do
With a knick-nack, catcher-smack,
Throw the ball to Boone
This old man makes batters swoon.
This old man, got K three
Inning end for ol' Ronnie
With a knick-nack, catcher-smack,
Throw the ball to Boone
This old man makes batters swoon.
This old man, inning four
Made a double play, no score!
With a knick-nack, batter-smack,
Throw the ball to Boone
Sexson's tag killed that platoon.
This old man, inning five,
Ludwick K'ed, still shutout jive,
With that knick-nack, catcher-smack,
Throw the ball to Boone
This old man is no buffoon.
This old man, inning seven
Blake again in strikeout heaven
Well, the next pitch was a glitch
Homered Aaron Boone
Their only run all afternoon.
This old man, he pitched eight
And he got his fourth win straight
He's a no-balk, never-walk,
Jamie, way to go!
Just four more 'till two-oh-oh!
Yeah. That was a good day.
On that note, I'm going to Safeco tomorrow (Tuesday, technically today, I suppose) for the Yankees game. It should be interesting to see whether they've ripped down the big Moyer banner up by the entrance at 1st and Royal Brougham, or painted over him on the player picture wall, or... you know, there's no way they can get rid of all the Moyer stuff around the stadium. It's just impossible.
I don't know what'll be weirder; having Jamie gone, or having to see Bobby Abreu as a Yankee. It'll be weird seeing a shaven Sal Fasano and a mulletless Craig Wilson, too, and having Ron Villone and Mike Myers coming out of the Yankees pen, and... oh, who am I kidding, it's always weird seeing anyone in a Yankees uniform except Derek Jeter, who was probably born with pinstripes. At least I can look forward to Thursday and watching the rerun of the episode of Mr. Hargrove's Neighborhood where King Felix the 34th takes on Mr. McUgly, with Owl-X and Derek Striped Tiger prowling the infield of the land of Make-Believe-The-Mariners-Don't-Suck.
Jeff should be back in town and taking over the responsibility of entertaining you all for the game thread, I think, unless he actually did commit suicide after Sunday's game, or got arrested for assaulting a major-league manager, or something like that. I'll still be commenting around the threads here, of course, and as always can be found at Marinerds, talking about all sorts of random baseball crap (and of course, writing songs and posting pictures and pimping books and whatnot). I'm heading off to Japan again for a few weeks in September (actually, I leave in ten days -- yikes!), and will probably be blogging about it as I find time to sit down in net cafes there. It'll be nice to be in a country where I can wear my Nippon Ham Fighters jersey without people snickering at the name -- but bad to be in a country where everyone sees a Fighters jersey and assumes I'm a Shinjo fan. Ah well, you take the bad with the good, I suppose.
I'd make some comment about what I expect out of tomorrow's game, except the Mariners' current front page basically has it as "Karstens vs. TBA". I suppose Baek hasn't been officially called up yet, so they can't put him on the page. Though, I think it's supposed to be Meche's turn in the rotation anyway, so this is a little odd. Oh well. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.