Kudos to Richie Sexson

People can call Richie a coward for his actions. They can say the pitch was over the middle of the plate. Sure it was over the middle of the plate. But it was also eye level for a guy is 6 foot 8 inches tall. That is an awfully high pitch. For Richie it all came to a head. The team is struggling in ways I don't think any of us imagined possible. Richie's son was taken to Children's Hospital the night before for undisclosed reasons. Richie saw a pitch that was really high and that caused the volcano to explode. He charged the mound, he threw his helmet at Rangers pitcher Kason Gabbard and then tackled him as Gabbard did the only thing he really could and that was to duck and cover. I would duck and cover too if a 6 foot 8 train was charging me. The benches cleared and tempers flared.

The funny thing is that Chris and I talked about this very thing the day before it happened. Chris was saying how maybe someone just needed to get MAD. Charge the mound, throw and break things in the dugout. Something to show emotion. Something from someone to show there was life in this team and that someone cared. Richie did that for the Mariners. Someone finally had enough. We may have not won that night or the next night but I really believe that when we look back on this season we will recognize that night as a turning point, one way or another.

Richie was man enough to admit he shouldn't have thrown his helmet. He admitted he snapped. But I am glad he did, because that was the only life I have seen in this team for weeks.

It is time for the ownership and management to show they give a crap about this baseball team and winning. Until then darker days will be ahead. The Mariners need an owner that is not sitting in Japan just wanting to make money. They need a smart baseball man who WANTS to win and who will do whatever it takes to make that happen. I love this team and I will cheer for them everyday through the crappy and the crappier. But at some point something has to give and changes need to be made. They need to build an offense around the strong and winning pitching staff they have. This team has scored only 16 runs in 81 innings of baseball to start the month of May. It is an embarrassment to a team that is supposed to be a contender. The 6th HIGHEST payroll in all of baseball and yet we are bottom of the barrel with one of the worst records in baseball. What does that tell you? That tells me we have a useless GM who spends money yet can't build a winner. A smart baseball man would be able to build a contender with that kind of money. But not Bill Bavasi. He gets us guys like Miguel Cairo, Jeff Weaver, Horacio Ramirez, Jose Vidro and Brad Wilkerson. It is disgraceful.