The Enemy Uptown: The 2012 Yankee Thread

[Edgy MD]

Way to ruin a perfectly good legacy, Ichiro.

[metsmarathon]

Edgy DC wrote: Way to ruin a perfectly good legacy, Ichiro.

my thoughts exactly. that and, "damn, i used to like ichiro"

[Guest themetfairy]

What a slap in the face to Mariners fans, who basically didn't exist before Ichiro.

And to show up at the park only to see their hero suited up in the colors of the hated adversary had to have been a real kick in the gut on top of that.

[Edgy MD]

It's like something hastily created in underground lab.

[Ceetar]

themetfairy wrote: What a slap in the face to Mariners fans, who basically didn't exist before Ichiro. And to show up at the park only to see their hero suited up in the colors of the hated adversary had to have been a real kick in the gut on top of that.

There were probably fans there last night, that were running late and got there in the second, didn't look closely at the lineups, and were just suddenly blindsided by Ichiro batting in the top of the third.

[MFS62]

metsmarathon wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Way to ruin a perfectly good legacy, Ichiro. my thoughts exactly. that and, "damn, i used to like ichiro"

This.
Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

I once pretended to like him, in order to be polite to three teenage girls on a bus in Kyoto.

[Gwreck]

themetfairy wrote: What a slap in the face to Mariners fans, who basically didn't exist before Ichiro.

Point of order: The Mariners were already an outstanding team with tons of fan support before Ichiro. His Mariner tenure did not overlap with Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr. or Alex Rodiguez. The Mariner fans were already packing their new stadium a couple of years before Ichiro showed up.

As for the slap-in-the-face thing: yep. Mariner fan friends report this weeks' series as "surreal."

[Frayed Knot]

themetfairy wrote: What a slap in the face to Mariners fans, who basically didn't exist before Ichiro.

That's a bit over the top.
The 1995 Griffey Jr/Randy Johnson/Edgar Martinez team which featured a crazy September run (winning 14 of 17 at one point) culminating in the one-game play-in win vs the Angels followed by the 1st round playoff comeback from 0-2 against the Yanx is the season that really woke up that franchise. That city had no idea what pennant race baseball was all about until they were suddenly immersed in it on a daily basis and suddenly discovered that baseball was a fun sport.
That year was the drive that got them out of the horrid Kingdome ("like watching a game in a Price Club" was my friend's comment) and the one which gave them the status to sign Ichiro.
He was a huge phenomenon no doubt, but they were already several years removed from being the invisible franchise by the time he got there.

And to show up at the park only to see their hero suited up in the colors of the hated adversary had to have been a real kick in the gut on top of that.

In some ways, yeah. Turns out he had asked to be traded and doing so to the team that is coming into town that very night is kind of weird.
But, if I'm a Mariners' fan, I'm looking at it like this: he's 38, barely productive, and was gone in two months whether he was dealt or not, so if this helps out the bullpen over the next year or three then better now than later. The only thing this really crushes is the 'one and only one' franchise thing if it turns out that he never plays again, but of course that ignores the entire first half of his career thing and even Yanqui fans aren't going to think of him as a Yanqui once this is all over (until they claim him as one of "their" HoF players years from now and wonder why he's wearing a Seattle cap on his plaque).

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: (until they claim him as one of "their" HoF players years from now and wonder why he's wearing a Seattle cap on his plaque).

This only happens, god forbid, if he gets a big hit on the way to a title.

[Guest themetfairy]

Gwreck wrote: What a slap in the face to Mariners fans, who basically didn't exist before Ichiro. Point of order: The Mariners were already an outstanding team with tons of fan support before Ichiro. His Mariner tenure did not overlap with Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr. or Alex Rodiguez. The Mariner fans were already packing their new stadium a couple of years before Ichiro showed up. As for the slap-in-the-face thing: yep. Mariner fan friends report this weeks' series as "surreal."

Trust me on this one - I have in-laws in the Pacific Northwest. There were plenty of folks out there who had a team for 20 years but who never paid attention to them until Ichiro arrived. I witnessed that phenomenon firsthand - your point of order is denied.

[Edgy MD]

Jason Bay hasn't been the same since Ichiro fucked with his house.

[Guest sharpie]

I went to a Mariners game earlier this season and sat in right field. Place was filled with Japanese fans (Yu Darvish was going for the Rangers). Everytime Ichiro made a routine catch in right field the section would go wild. Not gonna happen here.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Jason Bay hasn't been the same since Ichiro fucked with his house.

On the basis of this article, I conclude the following:

Jason Bay can't smell what the Barack is cooking.

[Ceetar]

sharpie wrote: I went to a Mariners game earlier this season and sat in right field. Place was filled with Japanese fans (Yu Darvish was going for the Rangers). Everytime Ichiro made a routine catch in right field the section would go wild. Not gonna happen here.

no? The RF crowd goes crazy for Nick Swisher to wave at them. and then for Curtis Granderson to wave to them..

[Gwreck]

themetfairy wrote: Trust me on this one - I have in-laws in the Pacific Northwest. There were plenty of folks out there who had a team for 20 years but who never paid attention to them until Ichiro arrived. I witnessed that phenomenon firsthand - your point of order is denied.

I think you (or your in-laws) are confused on the timeline and are forgetting that Ichiro did not arrive until 2001.

As an example, the Mariners drew 3.2 million fans in 2000. To suggest their fans didn't exist before Ichiro is ludicrous.

[Guest themetfairy]

I remember clearly a lot of folks who never paid attention to baseball jumping on the Mariners bandwagon in 2001.

And the attendance figures spiked that year, even in the new stadium.

[Gwreck]

They did also win 116 games that year (admittedly with Ichiro a large part of that).

[Guest themetfairy]

Yes, but what was different in the rural areas was the merchandise and the people who never talked baseball before who were suddenly into Ichiro. Not necessarily people who would be making it into Seattle for games either way, but people who were suddenly following the team and into the merch. And they were all about Ichiro Ichiro Ichiro, where a couple of years prior they couldn't be bothered with baseball at all.

It happened that way. I witnessed the transformation. The Ichiro bandwagon effect was huge.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, that means that there were more Mariners fans once they got Ichiro, but not that there were none before that.

[Guest themetfairy]

We're quibbling. And I don't have an entire evening at hand to split hairs.

The difference was immense. You don't have to believe me. But I know what I witnessed.

[ashie62]

He will go the the HOF as a Yankee, right?

[Frayed Knot]

Your math lesson for the day kiddies

King Felix + baseball + ARod's hand = DL x 6 weeks

[Edgy MD]

Whoah.

Can Ichiro play third?

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Whoah. Can Ichiro play third?

They obviously are going to trade for Chipper, hold tight.

[Edgy MD]

Or Murphy.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Or Murphy.

Murphy isn't an over the hill hall of famer (yet) who's prime was like 10 years ago. he doesn't fit the theme.

But yeah, Murphy would actually fit in real well over there.

[Frayed Knot]

Some mix of Eric Chavez & Jayson Nix will play there for now.

Eduard Nunez, who played a bunch while ARod was sidelined last season, was demoted earlier this year and is now hurt. Nunez is a typical MFY hitter (high Ks, lots of HRs) so he'd fit right in, but he's also hoping that one day he can be as good a fielder as Daniel Murphy or Dan Uggla.

[Edgy MD]

So, Reggie Jackson gets his number retired and Winfield gets his reshuffled. Nice.

[Frayed Knot]

So, Reggie Jackson gets his number retired and Winfield gets his reshuffled. Nice.

Well, y'know, it's that whole May/October thing.




btw, a quick ARod/Chavez comparison seeing as how Chavez will probably be getting the majority of ARod's ABs for a while:

AR: .276/.358/.449; Walk Rate = .084; IsoP = .173; HRs = 1 every 28.5 PAs; XBHs = 1 every 13.3 PAs
EC: .269/.324/.474; Walk Rate = .055; IsoP = .205; HRs = 1 every 21.6 PAs; XBHs = 1 every 10.8 PAs

Now Chavez has seen only about 40% of the playing time compared to Rodriguez and has, up to now, had the advantage of facing almost exclusively RHPs. You figure that cushion won't be happening as often for a while but this is still not as big a blow to the Yanx as it would have been even a year or two ago especially, oddly enough, in the power department.