for me, I just see more New York City based elitism from a pretentious bloviator in that clip. Why would he make no reference to the team owned RSN which could put them in a different economic playing field… it’s not as though Cano would be playing in a dry state, there’s plenty of local establishments that will accept a portion of his $200m+ contract
dinglenuts on
The Mariners dismal history really has no retort for anything Olbermann says here. I wouldn’t call it “New York City based elitism”. I’d call it “Stating the obvious.” The Mariners suck and have for some time. The chances of the Mariners landing a high-profile free agent are about the same as Mario Mendoza getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Owning the local RSN isn’t going to change institutional incompetence. Anybody who’s been paying attention sees an organization going nowhere, fast.
And Seattle night life, comparable to New York? Um, no. Maybe Rochester.
zigzags on
There are some people in baseball who view Seattle as a “sleeping giant,” in that they have a great ballpark, play in a great city, are 1 of only 2 major sports teams in a good size market (sorry, soccer doesn’t count), and now will have some capital to go get players with their new TV deal.
Even with that though, it’ll take a hell of a sales job by Jack Z to bring any big-name free agent here. And even if one came here, it’ll take a lot more than that to win the fans back. Ten years of putrid baseball is tough to overcome…
dinglenuts on
The problem is that there’s no real monetary incentive for Mariner ownership to truly make the team competitive. They’re raking it in hand over fist with the new TV deal, and people are still buying tickets to see a perennial 90-loss team. (Granted, ticket sales have gone down that last few years, but not enough to cause concern.)
The Mariners have an MLB baseball monopoly that stretches from Alaska to Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and probably still into Japan to some degree. Why spend money when you don’t have to (yet, anyway)?
zigzags on
True. And they fought tooth and nail to make sure Chris Hansen didn’t impede on their market share.
I have to think that M’s management sees what’s going on across the street and would want to have at least a little bit of that for themselves. To just keep going at the same rate as they’ve been makes zero sense.
Of course, crediting them with any sense at all is probably a mistake…
Jamo57 on
I’m not sure what to make of all this sudden ESPN attention. The gushing over the Seahawks and Russell Wilson last night and now Olbermann opens his show with a feature on us.
I guess I will just accept it all in the time-honored Seattle way. Complain that no one pays attention to us nationally, and then complain when the national media pays attention to us.
Hey! Hey! Over here! Now leave us alone!
jafabian on
Olberman’s right in that the M’s don’t need one All-Star bat. They need several. If they spend big on Cano they won’t spend much beyond him. Better to go after several good free agents instead of one big one. Or just let the current team grow some more.
tedsfrozenhead on
Seattle has to be an attractive destination for Free Agents. This would do it in many ways. But he wants too many years. I would go no more than 5.
jafabian on
Why would free agents want to be a Mariner? Pitchers are worried when they hear that the fences were moved in and hitters see how anemic the offense is here and think that Safeco Field sucks even though the fences were moved. It’s reputation precedes itself. And then if a contract is loaded up with bonus incentives based on wins and playoff appearences, well, that’s not gonna happen in Seattle.
That’s why the Mariners get middle of the pack free agents to one year deals at best. They’re basically showing other teams what they can do and they hope they’ll get traded to them in mid-season or get picked up the next offseason.
giorgio547 on
Art, I didn’t tell Obermann about Bo Jackson/Russell Wilson, did you?
Well, having Russell Wilson play shortstop wouldn’t cause a major scheduling conflict for him. After all, the Mariners’ season will probably be pretty much over before the Seahawks start training camp in late July.
12 Comments
for me, I just see more New York City based elitism from a pretentious bloviator in that clip. Why would he make no reference to the team owned RSN which could put them in a different economic playing field… it’s not as though Cano would be playing in a dry state, there’s plenty of local establishments that will accept a portion of his $200m+ contract
The Mariners dismal history really has no retort for anything Olbermann says here. I wouldn’t call it “New York City based elitism”. I’d call it “Stating the obvious.” The Mariners suck and have for some time. The chances of the Mariners landing a high-profile free agent are about the same as Mario Mendoza getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Owning the local RSN isn’t going to change institutional incompetence. Anybody who’s been paying attention sees an organization going nowhere, fast.
And Seattle night life, comparable to New York? Um, no. Maybe Rochester.
There are some people in baseball who view Seattle as a “sleeping giant,” in that they have a great ballpark, play in a great city, are 1 of only 2 major sports teams in a good size market (sorry, soccer doesn’t count), and now will have some capital to go get players with their new TV deal.
Even with that though, it’ll take a hell of a sales job by Jack Z to bring any big-name free agent here. And even if one came here, it’ll take a lot more than that to win the fans back. Ten years of putrid baseball is tough to overcome…
The problem is that there’s no real monetary incentive for Mariner ownership to truly make the team competitive. They’re raking it in hand over fist with the new TV deal, and people are still buying tickets to see a perennial 90-loss team. (Granted, ticket sales have gone down that last few years, but not enough to cause concern.)
The Mariners have an MLB baseball monopoly that stretches from Alaska to Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and probably still into Japan to some degree. Why spend money when you don’t have to (yet, anyway)?
True. And they fought tooth and nail to make sure Chris Hansen didn’t impede on their market share.
I have to think that M’s management sees what’s going on across the street and would want to have at least a little bit of that for themselves. To just keep going at the same rate as they’ve been makes zero sense.
Of course, crediting them with any sense at all is probably a mistake…
I’m not sure what to make of all this sudden ESPN attention. The gushing over the Seahawks and Russell Wilson last night and now Olbermann opens his show with a feature on us.
I guess I will just accept it all in the time-honored Seattle way. Complain that no one pays attention to us nationally, and then complain when the national media pays attention to us.
Hey! Hey! Over here! Now leave us alone!
Olberman’s right in that the M’s don’t need one All-Star bat. They need several. If they spend big on Cano they won’t spend much beyond him. Better to go after several good free agents instead of one big one. Or just let the current team grow some more.
Seattle has to be an attractive destination for Free Agents. This would do it in many ways. But he wants too many years. I would go no more than 5.
Why would free agents want to be a Mariner? Pitchers are worried when they hear that the fences were moved in and hitters see how anemic the offense is here and think that Safeco Field sucks even though the fences were moved. It’s reputation precedes itself. And then if a contract is loaded up with bonus incentives based on wins and playoff appearences, well, that’s not gonna happen in Seattle.
That’s why the Mariners get middle of the pack free agents to one year deals at best. They’re basically showing other teams what they can do and they hope they’ll get traded to them in mid-season or get picked up the next offseason.
Art, I didn’t tell Obermann about Bo Jackson/Russell Wilson, did you?
Hahaha…Mariners.
Well, having Russell Wilson play shortstop wouldn’t cause a major scheduling conflict for him. After all, the Mariners’ season will probably be pretty much over before the Seahawks start training camp in late July.