Tampa Bay (60-48) at Seattle (56-52)

[Sweezo]

Yeah I thought that could be you too. I sat basically behind a guy who's shirt said something about practicing polygamy?

Yup.

You also had seats about ten to my left? We were row 17 in 321 seats 7 and 8.

I actually seats in section 143, row nine...

Yes, that was strange. I told my buddy that there had to be one question that was way out there, I thought the guy in front of me was going to ask about Lincecum, he would have been boo'd out of there if he did.

The whole thing was awesome, going to the game was just icing on the cake. I'll just say this, I had no doubt going in that the M's were a top 3 ran team in baseball, I left being convinced that we have the best FO.

Yep. Jack laid it on a little thick with his talk about doing this for the community, but I sat there and bought it. He and Tony Blengino seem like a great pair. They definitely understand market value, what this team needs, and what works for this park. They saw the roster that was handed to them at the end of 2008 and had the same thoughts just about everyone on here did. No more of this misguided bull about "gee, if we throw $12 million per year at a middling veteran pitcher we can make the playoffs!" They seem to know what needs to be done to put a winning team together and I'm excited to watch them try.

I'm excited to see what they can do this off-season...with some money to spend I'm curious what Jack Z will do on the free agent market. He didn't really have much in the way of wiggle room last year.

[Bulltalk]

HA! The Red Sox get swept by the Yankees, and now the Mariners are only 4 1/2 games back in the wild card race. I'm not saying that...like...we're really "in it", but that we're closer to being in it tonight than we've been in some time. Fancy that.

[HeavyP]

Ah. I thought you could be the guy next to the guy in the white Hernandez jersey (I saw that jersey to my left in our seats). The whole thing blew my mind how awesome it was. I'm really excited that they seem committed to build a winner the right way, and how the goal is to be competitive for a long time.. Therefore, no selling the farm for one Erik Bedard type.

And Bulltalk, 4.5 out but that's behind 3 teams, all of which are better than us. Even if we had the 2 game cushion in the wildcard I wouldn't be comfortable. We need to get really lucky to make the playoffs, but meaningful baseball is fun!

By the way, I couldn't get over Graham's Cedeno jersey. That was hilarious.

[Bulltalk]

Ah. I thought you could be the guy next to the guy in the white Hernandez jersey (I saw that jersey to my left in our seats). The whole thing blew my mind how awesome it was. I'm really excited that they seem committed to build a winner the right way, and how the goal is to be competitive for a long time.. Therefore, no selling the farm for one Erik Bedard type.

And Bulltalk, 4.5 out but that's behind 3 teams, all of which are better than us. Even if we had the 2 game cushion in the wildcard I wouldn't be comfortable. We need to get really lucky to make the playoffs, but meaningful baseball is fun!

By the way, I couldn't get over Graham's Cedeno jersey. That was hilarious.

Like I said, I'm not buying it, but it may be enough of a carrot to keep this team fighting for everything it can get for awhile longer. I said in another thread, I think, that what I liked about this organization now is that it is committed to changing the culture of the franchise to a winning one. And that means from this moment forward, long term and short term. Anything that can keep this team grappling for scraps is a positive to me. It's something to keep on building upon.