A long time ago, I had an avid baseball fan sum up the key to a successful baseball season.
"It's easy," he said. "You go .500 when you're on the road and win most of your games at home."
Now, I know this advice sits right alongside, "to win games you have to score runs," or "drink before you head to the game because stadium beer is overpriced," but sometimes the simplest keys to success are the best.
The Rainiers (12-20), unfortunately, are not heeding the advice. The team lost its last two games against the Las Vegas 51s to finish the most recent home stand at 4-4. Had the Rainiers won the last two games the team would have finished 6-2, which definitely qualifies as winning ‘most' of the games at home (Ron Fairly would be proud of this explanation). We can only assume that the Rainiers got the advice backwards. Silly, Rainiers, it's the other way around. You've got to win most of your games, not just half of them, you goofs.
-As you may have already heard, outfielder Mike Wilson has been called up to the Mariners. Bummer. Not a bummer for him, of course -- it's a well-deserved achievement- but bummer for the Tacoma Rainiers. Wilson hit .381 and had an OPS of 1.111 so far this season, making him one of the strongest hitters on the team - definitely a guy who is nice to have in the lineup. Plus, Wilson is 6'2 and 245 pounds. His body screams power. Pitchers always seem to shake a little when he comes up to bat. Recently, one pitcher from the Tucson Padres actually started to cry when Wilson walked to the plate. Well, not really. But he wanted to. You could tell.
-The Mariners also called up outfielder Carlos Peguero. Peguero is another big hitter. With Peguero and Wilson gone, the Rainiers have some tough shoes to fill. Tough cleats to fill, really.
-Last Sunday's Pink at the Park day drew 4,761 fans to Cheney Stadium. Very, very cool. I do wish the jerseys were a little more liberal with the pink, though. I was hoping to see Mike Carp strut around in bright pink baseball pants.
The Rainiers now prepare for an eight game road trip, with four games against the Oklahoma City RedHawks and four against the New Orleans Zephyrs. To get to Oklahoma City, the Rainiers took a redeye to Chicago, had a layover, and then took another flight to Oklahoma City. I'm sure all of that travel time gave the players plenty of opportunities to ponder ways to get back on track.
Finally, in possibly the greatest scheduling guffaw of all-time, the Rainiers will miss the RedHawk's 11th annual Mark Harmon Celebrity Weekend by one day. Tacoma members of the Mark Harmon Addicts forum should raise hell with whoever does the scheduling for the Rainiers. I mean, come on! This is Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs of NCIS we're talking about here, people. Definitely not the Minor League.
