Coolest Experience in Sports

The Sounders hold an annual event each year to conclude their preseason. They host a fellow MLS team at Qwest Field in a match in which the proceeds benefit local and community partners and charities. Last year I only heard about it, but yesterday I went to the 2011 Community Shield game against the Colorado Rapids.

It was a great game. The Sounders won 3-1, we scored on a set piece (which has always been a weakness for them), and Fredy Montero scored twice and had an assist. But what I want to focus on with this post isn’t the game. It’s the very much talked about atmosphere at Qwest Field.

Now I have been to Sounders games before; I was at the first playoff game in franchise history against the Houston Dynamo and also a regular season game against the Columbus Crew. But yesterday’s game showed me something that probably tops my list of awesome things in sports (and I have seen a lot).

The Emerald City Supporters in their home at Qwest Field, The Brougham End

In the pre-game presentation, as the flags are being rolled out, the red carpet is being laid, the colors are being streamed, and other such visual additions, all that plays over the loud-speaker is an almost ominous or portent guitar note in exaggerated. One note, held out. Then beginning in the Brougham End, the home of the Emerald City Supporters, two drum beats sound. following the drum the crowd give one clap and a loud, quick yell. This continues very slowly and eventually speeds up to the climax as the players walk out and the single clap gets fast enough to transform into applause.

It was eerie. A stadium known for the die-hard, loud, volume of crazed fanatics was silent. On command the crowd would join together, but in between the yells and claps there is nothing.

I played sports for a long time. I played in tournaments and invitationals, went to playoffs and the like. But I have never been so fired up than I was sitting in the crowd during this pre-game tradition.

Now if that can happen with only 7,000+ fans for a preseason game, I can hardly imagine how intense and awesome this is during a regular season game when a packed house of 35,000+ join in.

From 63 to 25

On the eve of the Seattle Mariners first televised spring training game, I figured I’d put my two cents in on the subject of the Mariners roster.

As it stands right now, the Mariners have 63 players in big league camp right now. 40 guys on the actual roster and 23 invitees, who would be need to be added to the 40-man roster to make the club. The current 40-man roster and invitee list are available on the Mariners website.

We will start with the pitching staff.

Two guys that I see making the club are invitees Chris Ray and Manny Declarmen. With David Aardsma starting on the shelf after off-season surgery, both of these guys have veteran bullpen and closing experience. To make room for these two I would take pitchers Tom Wilhelmsen and Yoervis Medina off of the 40-man roster and sending them to the minors. If you have heard of either of those young pitchers then I commend you for you fervor. The rest of my pitching staff are all under contract.

The starting rotation has been much talked about this spring. Three spots are essentially guaranteed; Felix, Doug Fister, and Jason Vargas. The other two spots are assumed to be filled by Erik Bedard and someone else. Bedard has played about a season’s worth of baseball in the last three years, so it is hard to put money on him giving the mariners anywhere near 200 innings or 30 starts. The fifth spot is the most debated out of any of the rotation and many are calling for young hurler Michael Pineda to fill it, but I disagree. For now at least. I think until Pineda is major league ready, a platooning of sorts with Luke French and David Pauley will suffice.

So my rotation is as follows:

1) Felix Hernandez RHP

2) Jason Vargas LHP

3) Doug Fister RHP

4) Erik Bedard LHP

5) Luke French LHP/David Pauley RHP

Now I don’t know how manager Erik Wedge will supply his pitching staff, but I am a fan of a 12 man staff. So with the additions of Declarmen and Ray, my bullpen is the following:

6) Aaron Laffey LHP

7) French or Pauley (whichever isn’t in the rotation)

8 ) Manny Declarmen RHP

9) Dan Cortes RHP

10) Chris Ray RHP

11) Brandon League RHP

12) David Aardsma RHP

If Aardsma is put on the DL to start the season then I say it’s a toss up between Garret Olson LHP, Josh Lueke RHP, or Jose Flores RHP. Flores is a Rule-5 pick from Cleveland, meaning that he either stays on the 25-man roster all year or we give him back. I am leaning towards the ladder.

Moving on to the position players.

One of the biggest stories this spring is that of Dustin Ackley. Many questions and stories are based off of his potential to make the big league club and be the second baseman. I am going with starting him off in Tacoma, but the possibility of him being called up starting as early as May, but realistically June or July is a fair guess on his arrival. With Ackley starting in Tacoma, that leave a question of who plays second? Recent news in Arizona and the last few weeks have shown that Jack Wilson is probably going to play second before Brendan Ryan will. Of course, Chone Figgins is moving back over to third base for anyone wondering.

So the starting lineup will look something like this.

1) Ichiro RF

2)Chone Figgins 3B

3) Franklin Gutierrez CF

4) Justin Smoak 1B

5) Jack Cust DH

6) Miguel Olivo C

7) Michael Saunders LF

8 ) Jack Wilson 2B

9) Brendan Ryan SS

The backup infield spot I think will go to the more versatile Adam Kennedy. He will beat out Matt Tuiasosopo and Josh Wilson for that utility infield position on the 25-man roster. Kennedy is a spring training invitee so to make room either Tui or Josh Wilson will be taken off the 40-man. Milton Bradley will be the backup DH and outfielder. Adam Moore will spell Olivo behind the plate. Tuiasosopo still has a shot to make the club as he has some outfield experience with his utility infield abilities, but I feel the club should go with a faster final bench spot which could go to Greg Halman. The thing that hurts Halman is that his plate discipline needs a bit of work, but he has the potential to hit a lot of home runs and run the bases which, for now, is good enough for me to play once or twice a week and run the bases late in the game.

The Bench.

10) Adam Kennedy IF

11) Milton Bradley OF/DH

12) Adam Moore C

13) Greg Halman OF

Now with the recent injury to Olivo, we could possibly see him spend time on the DL to begin the year. If that happens then I’d say it’s safe to assume Josh Bard will return to the big league club to fill in.

That’s it. It’s not a perfect club, but it is what we are dealt. The thing that has hurt the Mariners year after year is transitioning from a good team on paper to a good team during the season. That’ll be their battle again this year. Be ready to see Pineda, Ackley, Lueke, and maybe even fellow young pitcher Mauricio Robles called up to the big leagues and make names for themselves at the top level.

Robots?!

So I’m sure there are at least a few other people who went out of their way to watch and DVR the Jeopardy event with the IBM super computer named Watson. I know I did and I was sitting there ready to attack at any malfunction or sign of incompetence from the computer that was battling human beings.

The only thing was, the computer did really good. Like REALLY good. Watson blew Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two of the most successful Jeopardy players ever, out of the water and then some. The final scores after the event were Rutter: 21,600, Jennings: 24,000, and Watson: 77,147. The two humans combined score is a little over half of Watson’s score.

Smart-man Ken Jennings knows who is about to take control...

This event from IBM and Jeopardy may very well be the beginning of our future. The successful showing of the super computer has serious potential. The entire time this three day event played all I could think about was 2001: A Space Odyssey. People over 40 years ago had the right idea; super computer = super trouble.

Or let us look at the Terminator series. A super computer system (Skynet [Watson?]) makes advancements and becomes self-aware and trys to destroy and take over the world with fellow robots.

Jennings showed his true intelligence by doing something far greater than his 72-day run on Jeopardy, he submitted to the computers. People may laugh at that now, but when they do take over and Ken Jennings is given some sort of power, people won’t laugh then.

If all goes to the plan of the computers and robots, Christian Bale could end up being out last hope of a resistance. But be careful though, don’t walk around without his permission (careful, he gets really angry and says lots of bad words.).

After watching last week’s showing on Jeopardy, I think we might have to consider changing all Terminator related movies, articles, and books into the nonfiction section soon…

But don’t worry, the IBM challenge with Watson was for charity.

It’s The Most Wonderful Time

February 14, 2011.

The celebration of my favorite annual holiday: The beginning of Spring Training for all of major league baseball! Every year my friends and I celebrate with friendly facebook updates and going on a binge of everything baseball related.

Throughout my celebrating this year, many thoughts went through my head. “Fantasy baseball starts soon”, “I wish I was in Peoria”, “I hate the Yankees”, “What’s on the MLB Network?” (okay, that one happens all the time), “Remember all your baseball cards you used to collect?”.

Baseball cards. Man, my dad and I collected baseball cards like nobody’s business. We had bins, full of binders, full of cards. We had countless ziplock baggies crammed with cards that had no other place to go and even had stray cards just laying around in bunches waiting to get the proper placement.

I used to spend hours going through as many cards as I could. I would sort them by team, and then by position, and then alphabetically if there were more than one card per position. I would literally sit with tons of cards in front of me and I would grab them one by one and occasionally read the stats on the back, but then I would start to sort. I have a few full yearly series of cards from Upper Deck and Topps that have some 600+ cards that are still sorted in this manner.

Every card has stats and bios about the player on the reverse side of the picture. Little-known fact about me, the very first thing I ever read wasn’t a book, (my first book was Hop On Pop if you were wondering) it was the back of an Ivan Rodriguez baseball card. I walked up to my mom and started telling her stuff about “Pudge”. She asked me how I knew all these things and I told her, “I read it on his baseball card!”

No offensive Santa, but I think the spring time is the most wonderful time of the year. Sitting around in the afternoon listening to the spring training games is an unmatched thing.

Well besides Opening Day!

Stressful end of the year…

My year had an… interesting finish.

First, my truck broke. So Paul the p’up (thats the isuzu model of pick up) has been retired. My dad is in the process of possibly getting a 1995 subaru legacy and I’ll either get that or the subaru outback.

Next, some friends and I all got together and decided to have a social gathering for new years. Then added that it be dress shirt and tie affair. So here was 4 gentleman, all in ties and nice shirts and vests, and no one who was planned on coming came. But it didn’t end in complete failure, I dominated my friend’s pinball machine again.

Finally, my boss decided that it would be better if I were no longer employed. So now I get to go back to giving resumes out to businesses. I’m hoping the Mariners Team Store likes what I can offer. But at least I have some extra time for the business of the first little bit of this quarter of school.

On a good note, during our new years social gathering I won a super sweet board game on risk. Lord of The Rings Risk. This game is probably one of the greatest invented. The End.

I could use some prayer for the job situation though. Thanks,

Peace out, Stay sweet.

R.L. Judd