Today is Erik Bedard's 32nd birthday. What better way to spend it than by starting a 12:05 game against a Cleveland Indians lineup that I can't believe is a lineup?
| Ichiro, DH | Carrera, CF | |
| Figgins, 3B | Nix, 2B | |
| Gutierrez, CF | Hannahan, 3B | |
| Kennedy, 1B | Kearns, RF | |
| Olivo, C | Brown, DH | |
| Saunders, LF | Duncan, 1B | |
| Ryan, SS | Phillips, C | |
| Kazmar, 2B | Valbuena, SS | |
| Wilson, RF | Weglarz, LF | |
| Bedard, SP | Gomez, SP |
The Indians are a split squad today, by the way, which explains the batting order, and still three of those guys used to be Mariners or Mariners property. Anyway, available to pitch behind Bedard will be Jamey Wright, Chris Seddon, Dan Cortes, Royce Ring, Manny Delcarmen, Edward Paredes, Justin Miller, Tom Wilhelmsen, and Yusmeiro Petit. Available to pitch behind Gomez are guys who aren't Aaron Laffey, but some guys who are probably very similar to Aaron Laffey.
Nick Weglarz is the one guy in there I've never heard of, and doing some research, I see that Nick Weglarz is a minor leaguer now, John Weglarz was a minor league in the mid-90s, and Eugene Weglarz was a minor leaguer in the mid-50s. These are the only Weglarzes in professional baseball history, and none of them ever made the Majors. I don't actually know if these are all members of the same family, but if they are, almost.
Note that Jack Wilson was originally set to play second today but wound up getting scratched with an illness. Which is careless on the Mariners' part since getting scratched might've been what made Wilson sick in the first place.
Here's your Gameday link, and the game's also going to be on 710. Mike Wilson's in right. Believe big.