March 2004 Archives

We're on our way to our first ever Cactus League spring training vacation.

We left at 1pm and made it to Pendleton, Oregon, but we're on our way! Vacation mentality has set in. Well, road trip mentality. It's a little crankier than vacation mentality, but not too bad.

In an exciting development, the Mariners have hired David Lander as an associate scout helping out in Southern California. The David Lander. Okay, for the older readers here, David Lander was Squiggy on "Laverne & Shirley." But, our family knows David Lander as the voice of Henry the Penguin on our favorite cartoon Oswald. The synergy here is incredible: favorite cartoon, favorite sport, favorite baseball team, son's name... Finally, an off-season move by the Mariners we can all get behind!

Our copy of Baseball Propectus arrived yesterday. This is the book that true geek baseball fans must have. It has raw statistics and translated performance statistics; maybe I'll finally get a handle on VORP, EqA and all the rest. If you too would like to be a baseball "stathead," you can check out more from the Baseball Prospectus people . Note that some of the material there requires a subscription to access it.

I haven't had a chance to take a detailed look. (Nothing must get in the way of basement ballgames with the three year old!) I've read the section on the Mariners and found the writing to be very good, both entertaining and opinionated. As for the analysis, it seems intelligent, but I'm not qualified to judge. (Remember, I still don't have a handle on such basic things as VORP. I know it means "Value Over Replacement Player," that a negative VORP is bad, and that Barry Bonds has a big positive VORP. Also, it sounds funny. Go ahead, try saying it five times in a row: VORP, VORP, VORP, VORP, VORP!) It'll be interesting reading as the season progresses.

We got a bunch of Mariners tickets in the mail last week and the week before, including opening day tickets. There was much excitement in the house. Henry asks every day "We're going to spring training this day? The day after this day?"

Last season, we discovered baseball. Before, we'd been aware of its existence but were indifferent. Great American pastime, blah blah blah. We were not moved. A visit to Safeco Field with our son changed all that. Yes, Safeco is a wonderful ballpark and it certainly shines in comparison to the former home of the Mariners. (I went to a ball game there years ago and was most definitely not moved.) But, watching Henry take it all in and love it was what did it.

Our son converted us to baseball. At two and a half years old, he actually watched a few innings of the game and started asking us about the players, the positions, the field, and the action. We were forced to learn about the Mariners so we could answer him. (He also loved the hot dogs and Dippin' Dots, the ice cream of the future.) Soon, we got a little wooden bat and some soft balls and started pitching to him. He loved that, too, and when winter arrived we moved our games to the basement. Now, we play down there daily.

So, this is our family's first full baseball season as fans and I want to write about it. To document it, to figure out why we suddenly care so much about it, to learn. I'm not an expert analyst, I'm not a lifetime Mariners fan, so a lot of this is new for me. It should be fun.