Have you come here for news about the Mariners? A new comic, perhaps? Where are they? What is happening?

Do you feel let down? Angry? Depressed?

I do too. Please check back soon, and we’ll be back on track. Maybe not in the same format, but Yeti Park is not for sale, and will not be closing it’s golden gates.

Thanks for your patience, and for accidentally putting search words in to Google that took you to this site.

 I’d put up a picture of Bud Black for purposes of comparison, but none of the ones that I found look much like Scot Shields. So, close your eyes for a moment and imagine this picture of Scot Shields. That guy you just saw in your mind’s eye? That was actually a young Bud Black. Pretty crazy, huh?

In other news, the Mariners lost 7-3 tonight. Do yourself a favor and come up with simple distractions like the one above until we can go back to talking about how awesome the Mariners are.

I was at the game on Friday to see the Mariners play like the AAA team that they are. The Yuniesky bobblehead that I left with did a pretty decent job of calming my nerves though. I don’t have it out of the box yet or anything, but at least I got something tangible in return for my price of admission. The losing-induced soul searching alone doesn’t always give me the fulfillment that I’m looking for on a Friday evening.

So, I got a plane the next day with my better half and headed for the Bay Area. No, I wasn’t going to see the Giants play in an effort empathize with another floundering team… I went to spend some good quality family time at a reunion slash wedding party for my brother. And what a weekend it was. Short, but awesome. If you have a family, I highly recommend visiting them, and if you don’t, you may want to start one.

The Olympics are also under way now, and Bainbridge Islander Emily Silver did us all proud by earning herself a silver medal in the 4×100-meter free relay. Way to go, Emily!

What can this guy not do? Besides field, I mean… and run fast. But, come on! He’s smashing balls for fun! We’ve needed a little something like this to make us forget about the pain.

It kills me that Felix pitched eight innings of four hit, one run ball and the win goes to Putz. Not that it matters, but I’m a big fan of credit where credit is due, and J.J. didn’t deserve a win a couple nights ago either, when Dickey threw a strong seven.

I’m going to the game tomorrow to pick up the Yuniesky bobblehead and to watch this historic dance that we call baseball. I’ll be up in section 330. You heard me right. That’s directly behind the catcher. Never mind that I’ll be high enough up to eat clouds like cotton candy. 

If I don’t write about the Mariners losing tonight does that mean it didn’t happen? At least we have Felix to look forward to tomorrow, and four games against one of the most exciting teams in baseball. I’m still having a hard time dropping the “Devil” in front of “Rays”. I’m in my twenties, yet somehow change is already getting hard to deal with.

This Wednesday’s wonderful webcomic is none other than Kris Straub’s Starslip Crisis. This strip is definitely one of the more popular ones out there, but I happen to know that there are a lot of seemingly interesting people who don’t know a webcomic from their daily Family Circus strip. Well, Starslip Crisis is a great place to get started. It updates five days a week, rain or shine, and had consistently clever writing complete with intriguing story arcs and memorable characters.

Don’t let the Star Trek vibe scare you off if you’re not a sci-fi nerd. Straub’s humor covers a lot more ground than your standard tribble jokes. If you are a sci-fi nerd than I’m really suprised that this one isn’t already set to be your homepage. He’s also got a few other strips going as well, one of which just debuted this week, as a matter of fact: F Chords. So get in on the ground floor and pretend you know all about the latest hottness on the internet.

Straub makes up one quarter of the Halfpixel gang, and even if you don’t have any interest in webcomics you owe it to yourself to click on the link to see the group picture on their website. You saw it? Looks like fun, right? Well those four dudes make an enlightening podcast called Webcomics Weekly that I’d recomend to anyone with a beating heart. They’re all accomplished artists, have great advice, and are funnier than most of your friends. Yeah, even that extra funny guy who who you thought for sure would end up on Saturday Night Live right out of high school.

Raul has 14 RBI’s in the last three games.  It’s no surprise that they won all three, right? Well, tonight was a real nail biter, and I’m still mad about last night. They’re winning games, and finding suspensful ways to do it. It pains me immensly that R.A. DIckey left with the Mariners up 6-3 tonight, and he doesn’t get to pocket the win. I guess they’re lucky to have pulled this one out anyway.

As of today, Brandon Morrow is down in Tacoma getting his start on. Awesome. We’ve all been waiting as long as he has for this. Okay, maybe he’s been waiting a little longer. My dream rotation may just be coming true. Once Rowland-Smith and Morrow return, and join Dickey and Hernandez, I’ll start sleeping with a smile on my face again. You didn’t think my dream rotation had CC Sabathia and Roy Halladay in it, did you?

It’s also time to say goodbye to Jose Vidro.  He was a… nice baseball player. He was DFA’d today, and I wish him the best of luck. A good guy I’m sure, but he didn’t have the pop that his job description casually suggested.

Here’s some more big news: Richie Sexson hit a grand slam today against the Rangers, but don’t worry, because the Yankees lost, so it wasn’t that helpful and I doubt he can continue that type of play and you know we made the right decision because his grand slam was a fluke.

Seriously though, we’re starting to make a big push towards not being the same lame team that we were earlier this season. It won’t happen over night, but for everyone that has been complaining, somebody might actually be (sort of) listening.

The Mariners won tonight, 11-6, and I’m torn between elation and pouting. I can’t help but feel the same way right now as I did when I was little and complained so much for something to go my way that when it did all of the magic was gone.

Through the first part of the game, I was feeling so crushed by Miguel Batista’s inability to get through more than a few innings and the offense’s total lack of energy. With bases loaded in the sixth and no outs, Jose Vidro stepped in to the box and the pessimist in me correctly predicted a double play. Sure enough, the Twins snuck out of that inning after just giving up one run. That was the lowest I felt through tonight’s game - the moment when I thought all was lost and I seriously contemplated turning the TV off or putting in a movie (the horror!).

When Raul stepped up in the 7th, and had his chance at grand-slam glory, it felt different. You knew that this guy had a legitimate shot at putting it out of the park, and he did. Of course, this led way to the ten-run 7th, and ultimately a victory.

Sure I was excited, but I had just spent so much energy thinking about how much the Mariners were hurting me that I couldn’t fully appreciate the win. Like when you were five and cried longer than you needed to, on purpose, to prove a point. Well I’m still hurting right now, Mariners. And I’m going to keep hurting until you make this better.

He writes books, he appreciates music… the “arts” if you will. He also throws baseballs. A win tonight would mean five on the seaon for him… a full quarter of the way towards the coveted twenty-win mark. It would also mean a two-game winning streak for the Mariners. A win-win situation, if you ask me.

Morrow moves meticulously closer to sustained starting success shortly this season. Meanwhile, ex-reliever Ryan Rowland-Smith  readies for his return from the Rainiers.

Recent roster repositioning may make way for more moves, giving the general manager goosebumps as he gestates Jarrod’s God given gifts and dutifully decides to take a trade, trailing the standing toppers by games in the twenties.

Batista gets the ball, battling baffling bats, thanks to Twins trying to trample tossers tomorrow.  

Here I am in section 116, in the top of the 2nd. Watch out Geoff Baker - here comes another real-time Mariners blog.

Jeremy Reed made a wall crashing catch earlier in the inning, and just broke even by misjudging a Jay Payton line drive that went for a double.

Yuni is out of the game again… hopefully all is well. And Washburn has thrown 37 pitches, and we’re still in the second!

POST GAME: Aside from five runs scored in the ninth (which was pretty fun), the Mariners bats went dormant yet again. I have an Adrian Beltre hydroplane now… and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with it. It’s one of those too nice to throw away, don’t take out of he package because it’s worth something (but not really), better just put it in a box sort of things. If it at least had radio controls and could float, then we’d be in for a fun summer.