Now that it’s June, I want to take a moment to speak about our national pastime. I know many of you think I spoke about it last week, but no. I mean baseball.
The lead article in Sunday’s sports section here in Seattle was about the hometown Mariners getting booed – at home. The Seattle Mariners have the most exciting pitcher and hitter in organized baseball playing for them and they’re getting booed – at home. Now the Mariners, who were supposed to go straight to the World Series this year, had a bad month in May. They’re only playing .500 ball for the season. And they’re getting booed – at home. The players, understandably, are a bit mystified at all the bile pouring down at them from the stands. They don’t feel they deserve it, and they’re right, they don’t. I think they might begin to understand if they stepped back and took a longer view of the matter. One that includes the stadium.
The Mariners play in the Kingdome. It’s 20 years old and nearly paid for. We taxpayers merely need to shell out another $130,000,000 and it’s ours, free and clear. Several years ago, the men who own the Mariners decided they wanted the public to build them a new ballyard. The stadium question was put to a vote and the voters said no. The city’s going ahead and building it anyway, what’s another couple hundred million? The other team that uses the Kingdome – the Seahawks – they want a new stadium too. Unlike the Mariners, we have no great illusions about the athletic prowess of the Seahawks. They stink, and we here in Seattle suspect they will always stink. But that doesn’t stop management from wanting a new stadium. We’ll be voting on that one in another two weeks. Why? I’m not quite sure. Fooled me once? Shame on you. Fooled me twice? Well, I guess we’ll see. If art imitates life, perhaps sports imitates politics. We keep voting and voting and we never get the outcome we think we’re voting for. We get mad and throw the bums out of office and the system never gets any less corrupt, it just goes off in our face, like an exploding cigar.
If I thought this was a local phenomenon, I wouldn’t bother clogging up the web with it, but it’s not. Back in Washington, DC, as citizens starve in the streets, they’re ponying up cash for a new stadium for Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, who is dead anyhow. I was in Texas last month, where the governor has his own baseball team – in a new stadium, of course – and the big news was the Astros don’t want to play in the Astrodome anymore. I mean, they took their name from the stadium, for crying out loud. I suppose they could go back to calling themselves the Colt .45s – and then sell malt liquor in the stands. I’m a long-time Baltimore Orioles fan and I’ll tell you now I preferred old Memorial Stadium to new Camden Yards. Memorial was a great working-class ballpark, a wonderful place to spend a summer evening. In Camden Yards you pay too much money to sit too far away from the game among a bunch of people who don’t know baseball, they’re just there because they swallowed the hype.
So, to get back to my original point, that’s why I think the fans are cranky. People go to the ballpark to forget their troubles for a few hours, watch the game, have a beer and a hot dog, let the kids run around. With the greed and the constant bickering, it seems our troubles have followed us to our seats. So when the guys on the field hit a slump, it’s no surprise the booing starts.
Professional sports teams are playing more games in the legislature than on the field and until that changes, none of us will have much to cheer about.
Take Me Out to the Backlash
Now that it’s June, I want to take a moment to speak about our national pastime. I know many of you think I spoke about it last week, but no. I mean baseball.
The lead article in Sunday’s sports section here in Seattle was about the hometown Mariners getting booed – at home. The Seattle Mariners have the most exciting pitcher and hitter in organized baseball playing for them and they’re getting booed – at home. Now the Mariners, who were supposed to go straight to the World Series this year, had a bad month in May. They’re only playing .500 ball for the season. And they’re getting booed – at home. The players, understandably, are a bit mystified at all the bile pouring down at them from the stands. They don’t feel they deserve it, and they’re right, they don’t. I think they might begin to understand if they stepped back and took a longer view of the matter. One that includes the stadium.
The Mariners play in the Kingdome. It’s 20 years old and nearly paid for. We taxpayers merely need to shell out another $130,000,000 and it’s ours, free and clear. Several years ago, the men who own the Mariners decided they wanted the public to build them a new ballyard. The stadium question was put to a vote and the voters said no. The city’s going ahead and building it anyway, what’s another couple hundred million? The other team that uses the Kingdome – the Seahawks – they want a new stadium too. Unlike the Mariners, we have no great illusions about the athletic prowess of the Seahawks. They stink, and we here in Seattle suspect they will always stink. But that doesn’t stop management from wanting a new stadium. We’ll be voting on that one in another two weeks. Why? I’m not quite sure. Fooled me once? Shame on you. Fooled me twice? Well, I guess we’ll see. If art imitates life, perhaps sports imitates politics. We keep voting and voting and we never get the outcome we think we’re voting for. We get mad and throw the bums out of office and the system never gets any less corrupt, it just goes off in our face, like an exploding cigar.
If I thought this was a local phenomenon, I wouldn’t bother clogging up the web with it, but it’s not. Back in Washington, DC, as citizens starve in the streets, they’re ponying up cash for a new stadium for Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, who is dead anyhow. I was in Texas last month, where the governor has his own baseball team – in a new stadium, of course – and the big news was the Astros don’t want to play in the Astrodome anymore. I mean, they took their name from the stadium, for crying out loud. I suppose they could go back to calling themselves the Colt .45s – and then sell malt liquor in the stands. I’m a long-time Baltimore Orioles fan and I’ll tell you now I preferred old Memorial Stadium to new Camden Yards. Memorial was a great working-class ballpark, a wonderful place to spend a summer evening. In Camden Yards you pay too much money to sit too far away from the game among a bunch of people who don’t know baseball, they’re just there because they swallowed the hype.
So, to get back to my original point, that’s why I think the fans are cranky. People go to the ballpark to forget their troubles for a few hours, watch the game, have a beer and a hot dog, let the kids run around. With the greed and the constant bickering, it seems our troubles have followed us to our seats. So when the guys on the field hit a slump, it’s no surprise the booing starts.
Professional sports teams are playing more games in the legislature than on the field and until that changes, none of us will have much to cheer about.