Mariners Moose Tracks, 9/25/23: Ken Griffey Jr., CC Sabathia, and Joey Votto

In Mariners news...

• Ken Griffey Jr. Made an appearance at the Arizona Cardinals game not as a celebrity guest or fan attending the game, but rather as a photographer!

Around the league...

• Stop me if you heard this one before: The efforts of the Oakland Athletics ownership and in particular the disgraceful and dishonest John Fisher’s plans to relocate the stadium to a site in Las Vegas is potentially hitting yet another road block (even after the deal was thought to be, and in fairness might still be, done). The irony that he has consistently ignored the voice of the people in the region he’s turning his back on and now the fate of his plan to abandon them rests in the hands of the common people anyway, is of particular note.
• Even though John Fisher lacks the humanity and intelligence to listen didn’t listen to the Oakland Athletics fanbase, they made sure to be heard all season long, and John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle gave them their due. ($)
• CC Sabathia continues his efforts to reach out and make the game more accessible to youth. ($)
• Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic considers in this writeup if the San Francisco Giants have perhaps damaged their potential standing with free agents by how they’ve managed their roster this year, including the handling of former Seattle Mariner outfielder Mitch Haniger. ($)
• Cincinatti Reds, baseball, and human legend Joey Votto, who has spent his entire storied and successful career in Cincinatti, received a warm ovation from a crowd of 31,191 attending what might have been his last game at Great America Ball Park.

• Orion Kerkering made his major league debut for the Philadelphia Phillies and pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts, which is great all on its own. Arguably the better part of the story though was the reaction his parent had for him watching from the stands. Sometimes, there is crying in baseball. (And that’s okay.)

• The New York Yankees were officially eliminated from postseason contention for the first time since 2016.

• As Mike Trout has been more consistently injured and missed increasing amounts of playing time over the last several years of his career, he has still managed to be quite effective when healthy. Meanwhile the Angels have managed to miss the playoffs consistently during his tenure; having been eliminated in 2023 they will now have not seen postseason play in ten years. One factor is without a doubt the second half health (or lack thereof) they have received from the future Hall-of-Famer.

• If humor is tragedy plus time, but the time needed is relative to the tragedy, then I don’t see the San Diego Padres laughing about this one anytime soon.

• Chris Paddack is set to make his return to Major League play after an extended absence due to injury. Today he even suited up for the Twins and walked on field to pitch for them in the seventh inning against the Angels, but mother nature had a different idea and a rain delay, well, delayed his making an appearance.

Bee’s pick(s)...

• How could you not be romantic about Bottle Claus?

• It was no “Down goes Anderson” moment, but around the five second mark of this video one of the kids is on the receiving end of a big mascot boy stiff arm.