Thursday, April 16, 2009

Mariners Talented Off The Field

For our first installment of Mariners Off Field Talents, I present to you Ryan Maves stand up comedy performance at the Mariemont talent show. He is accompanied by his brothers, Ben and Jack. He had a great time rehearsing this and performing it.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Mariners Make Dodgers Blue; Cards See Red

A couple of strong pitching performances led the Mariners to a two game sweep over a three day period. Jack Kotal came in to throw 4 impressive innings on a Saturday game against the Dodgers. This was complemented by a barage of scoring as the Mariners get scoring and scoring in an 18-4 victory. There were a lot of offensive heros in that game as well including Jacob Nelson, Matt Condrin, Nate Calderon and Ted Giberson.

Two days later, the Mariners had an important game against the 3 and 1 Cardinals. Facing one of the top pitchers in the league, the Mariners were able to put 7 runs on the board. That was more than enough runs as Nate Calderon pitched well for two innings and handed the ball to Ted Giberson who absolutely shut down the Cards the rest of the way. If it were not for a poor coaching shout from the dugout from an unknown baldish coach, Ted would not have surrendered a single run!

Ben Couch has a couple of big hits at important times for the Mariners, Nate Calderon had a couple hits and Patrick Miller's hit a very long shot to the fence for a triple to get the Mariner offense going. The Mariners ended up on the winning side of a 7-3 game.

The Mariners are in a 4 way tie for first with the Yankees, Cubs and Red Sox with 3 games left in the first half. We'll see how this weeks games affect the standings. Go M's!

Better Know a Mariner - Jacob Nelson

Jacob Nelson, aka "Tenacious J", is a 9 year old third grader at Del Dayo. This is Jacob’s first season in the Minor League. Last year he played for the Angels Farm team and was coached by his Dad, Steve Nelson. Steve must have done an excellent job coaching him as he is one of the most fundamentally sound 9 year olds ever to play in the minors. Jacob is very excited to be on the Mariners this season and loves his new coaches. Jacob is not related to the Tyler Nelson. They just both really liked the name.

In addition to being a baseball fanatic, Jacob loves football. He played tackle football for the American River Raiders Mighty Mite Team last Fall. His nickname was "Gorilla Grips" because once he decided to tackle an opponent, he wouldn’t let go. He loved playing tackle football and hopes that some of his baseball friends will want to play football too. I pity the runner that tries to score on a close play when Jacob is catching!

Jaocb has an older brother, William, who is a fifth grader and plays for the Major Rays Team. Jacob enjoys keeping pitch count and updating the scoreboard for William’s team. Jacob has a dog named Buster, a cat Fred, and a hamster called Hami. (No fishes or birds?) If you are working the snack bar after an M's game, be ready to for Jacob's assault on Churros and Coke. Just try tackling him after that sugar-tastic combination!


Friday, April 3, 2009

M's Can't Bear the Cubs


In an epic battle for first place early in the season, the Mariners were not able to outscore the Cubs in a very well played game Tuesday night. The M's took a 3-0 lead after two innings, but Jake Virga of the Cubs pitched wonderfully and kept the high powered Mariner offense under double digits for the first time this season. For the M's, Two-Strike Ted pitched as well as I have seen a minor division kid throw in my four years of minor manager until his arm got a little tired. Ben Couch returned from his two-game vacation to pitch a shutout inning.

Despite facing some very difficult pitchers, we had several great hits. Nate hit well (again!), Ted smoked a very hard extra base hit and Matt Condrin had two hits. Jacob Nelson, the most fundamentally sound 3rd grader to play baseball, had two solid hit balls against Virga and earned the M of the game for his outstanding play.

The M's take on the Dodgers this Saturday followed by a rematch with the tough Cardinal team on Monday. We'll review that doubleheader next time.

April Will be Eggs-citing!

There are lots on tap this month. I know it is the busiest of all months around my house. Here's the schedule of events for April.

Sat, April 4 - Game vs. Dodgers @ 12:15

Mon, April 6 - Game vs. Cardinals @ 5:15

Sat, April 11 - Practice at Valley Oak @ 12:00

Sun, April 12- Easter Sunday! Happy Hunting for baseball eggs.


Wed, April 15 - Game vs. Giants @ 4:15 (Note the strange start time)

Fri, April 17 - Anna turns 40!!

Sat, April 18 - Game vs. Brewers @ 3:00

Tues, April 21 - Game vs. Red Sox @ 5:30. Last game of the first half!

Thurs, April 23 - Practice at Valley Oak at 6:00. Meet at the cages.

Sat, April 25 - Coach Mike and Scorekeeper Anna head to Europe!

Sat, April 25 - Game vs. Cubs @ 5:30

Mon, April 27 - Game vs. Yankees @ 5:30

Wed, April 29 - Tentative Practice at 6:00. Place TBD.

Whew! I'm tired just typing all of that. March was a super month in the World of the Mariners! I'm really enjoying all of the boys and families on the team. April will be even more fun.