Mariners cutting out Tacoma News Tribune

Or "fastball command"

 

I remember an infamous story from around 2000, too. Before a series in St. Louis, Griffey or his agent supposedly called ESPN to complain about them showing more highlights of Jim Edmonds than Griffey. I think Bernie Miklasz wrote a column about it and it was a big deal for a few days.

 

I guarantee you Griffey isn't the first to do this. It still doesn't make it right. I'm also guessing that Rickey Henderson wasn't the first to play cards in the clubhouse when he wasn't playing and Sammy Sosa wasn't the first to leave after being pulled from a game.

 

I remember that story, too. He was never above that kind of stuff.

 

Thing is, to me, it's not that big a deal.

Relievers go into the clubhouse and watch TV before they head to the bullpen. Or they perform pranks in the bullpen.

Heck, Mickey Mantle supposedly screwed some woman under the stands during the game. In Ball Four, Jim Bouton once slept for four innings in the bullpen.

Guys don't watch every single inning for 162 games. Why, besides Griffey's batting average, is this such a big deal?

 

Hey should have done his napping on the bench like everyone else.

 

Lee Smith used to sleep in the clubhouse before he went out the bullpen. Also, in an infamous 2002 incident, Cubs interim manager Bruce Kimm reamed out an unnamed player before a game because he had been passed out in the clubhouse the day before. Everyone was mum on who it was, so everybody in the press box spent that day's game trying to figure it out. Crack detective work determined the one man who it could have been: Kyle Farnsworth, a guy with a strong reputation for showing up to work after tying on a bender in those days. (It helps that my cousin was a bartender who always saw him out).

After the game everyone asked Farnsworth if he was the guy who slept, and I pretty much remember it working out the same way as the Griffey situation. Basically a non-denial denial. However, I must say that sticking a microphone in front of an irritated Kyle Farnsworth has left me prepared for anything else I could possibly face in the rest of my career.

 

My faith in baseball will be affirmed if the Baltimore PA person plays "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics as Griffey steps to the plate.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Sweeney was the second guy who confirmed it and gave an excuse for Griffey.

 

I'm sure LaRue can weather the storm. But Seattle management and MLB better not let the players get away with this for more than one night.

 

Of course, this is a classic case of the team's reaction turning a blog entry by the Tacoma paper into something people are discussing nationally.

Mike Sweeney and the rest of the Ms go ballistic over this, but where were the team meetings and the "stand up and fight me" attitude as their team was losing eight straight and getting about two hits a game last week?

As someone said on the baseball thread, the Seattle clubhouse antics (Griffey story, Byrnes bicycle, Bradley's pouting) are more entertaining than what's happening on the field for them.

Pretty weak, Mariners.

 

Maybe I'm assuming facts not in evidence, but in one of the earlier retellings, didn't Wakamatsu say Griffey wasn't available when he was asked why he didn't use him as a pinch hitter?