The Mariner Monitor

The Mariners lost yet another heartbreaker, this time a 3-2 loss to the A’s in the 11^th inning. But are the Mariners losing news anymore? I’ve gotten to the point where I am disappointed when I don’t see an item involving a fired coach or a complaining player. The results of the games have just become background noise.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw the news item that Ritchie Sexon, the guy that was supposed to make us forget that Ken Griffey, Jr. and Alex Rodriquez once played in Seattle, was released by the team Thursday morning.

OK, big deal you say. It’s not like he was playing well. In fact, I’m sure many of you were counting down the day until he’d be let go.

But what makes this so much fun is the reason given for his departure. I’ll let interim coach Jim Riggleman explain. Via Geoff Baker’s blog at the Seattle Times’ website:

“If I felt that he could handle the next couple of weeks with less playing time, I would not have agreed with the move,” Riggleman told me. “But yesterday, his body language was such that he looked like he wasn’t going to handle it at all.”

Essentially he was canned because he was moping. That, my friends, is awesome. I don’t think I’ve seen something like this happen since I was in Little League. In fact, I may have been the last person I know who was benched for poor body language. And by poor body language I mean almost breaking my pitcher’s nose with my return throw after he threw a wild pitch. But that’s beside the point.

The Mariners may be a lost cause at this point, but give Rigglem and interim GM Lee Pelekoudas some credit for doing what they can to keep the life boats from sinking. It’s bad enough that you’re already out of the playoff chase (and have been for a good two and a half months). The last thing you need is a sulking power hitter with the testicular fortitude of Donald Duck.