The “second round”of games early
this season between the Mariners
and the Athletics starts Monday
and ends Thursday here at Safeco
Field. The Mariners won their last
two games over Texas capturing
their first series of the season and
the M’S are getting healthier.

Scott Spiezio played for the first
time this season during the last
two games against the Rangers
handling plays at third
and driving in a couple with a
home run. Raul Ibanez came out
of a slump with a home run while
Bret Boone still hot and Ichiro
starting to get his hits.

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez
Seattle,WA.So, the Moneyball team arrives
in Coffee Town with a hot
Jermaine Dye and a cold
Eric Chavez but still in
first place with a record
of 8-4 while the Mariners
are in last with 4-8 but looking
much better this past
weekend.

The Mariners were the only team
with 90 or more wins last year
that didn’t advanced to the
playoffs. The A’S have advanced
the last four years but they have
died in ‘game fifth’ of each
first round series.

Let’s find the “weaknesses”
of these two teams”
MARINERS;
The oldest team in Major League
Baseball, average of 32,5 years
per player. Jaime Moyer(who won
21 games last years,second highest
in the league)and DH Edgar Martinez
both are 41 years young.
Julio Mateo the Dominican middle-
reliever is 24 years old and the
youngest player on this team.
The Mariners problem is that
they are old, although a good
team with lots of experience
with more All Stars
than any other team
except the Yankees.
During the past few seasons the
Mariners have been unable to
make a trade for the second
half of the season. In 2003
the M’S were in first place
from Opening Day until the
later part of August when they
collapsed. Their defense
is excellent. The M’S have
no errors during their past
8 games and at this pace
they will break their own MLB
record(2003 of 65 errors
in 162 game season).

ATHLETICS:
The A’S are as strong as
their starting three Hudson,
Mulder,Zito. They are the second
trio of pitchers with the
most wins in recent years,
only second to Clemens,
Mussina and Pettite with
Yankees(Clemens and
Pettite are gone from
New York).

Dye is one of the keys
for the A’S, he must have
a good year and drive
around 100 runs to replace
the void left by Tejada.
Chavez should assume the
leadership of this team although
Chavez is a terrific player
we will see this season if
he is a leader or not.

The A’S do not manufacture
runs, rarely sacrifice-bunt
and they depend on the
3-run homer more than
most teams, therefore
their offense have to work
for them to be a winning
team in October. Unless
one of more of their starters
are out with injury the A’S
have another great shot
at the postseason. The
question would be then:
How far can they go into
the postseason. Joe Morgan
said Sunday when the A’S
played in Anaheim: “The A’S
are not build to go all the way
because of their style of play”.

For the Mariners and their fans
it is always an exciting season,
these are great fans here that
come in on average over 3
million strong each season.
This is a regional team drawing
fans fromWashington, Oregon,Montana,
Idaho and even Alaska on
some weekends as well as
weekdays. A recent article
on a Seattle newspaper revealed
that the Japanese ownership
of the Mariners turned out the
biggest profit in baseball.
Ironically the owner has never
seen his team in person, he
lives in Japan and follows the
M’S via television on NHK
network. The Mariners
broadcast all their games
in English, most televised
in Japanese and all their
home games (81)on a
Spanish radio network of
5 stations covering Washington
and Oregon states.

Rumors come and go here that
Bill Bavasi their new GM will
get Ken Griffey Jr from the
Reds. The Mariners do not
have a lot of power and they
still need another bat in this
lineup. Will it happen ? I
think Bavasi will do a trade
before July 31 and will try
to get that extra punch needed
on his team.

I can’t wait for this series to
start, the Mariners are showing
more life and the A’S just
took 2 out of 3 from the
Angelinos in Anaheim.
For the 4 game series,
3 night games and a day
game thursday the Mariners
expect total of 150,000
fans.

See you at the SAFE !!
————————————————————
Amaury Pi-Gonzalez is on his second season
as Spanish radio play by play announcer
for the Seattle Mariners Spanish radio
network, see(www.spanishmariners.net)
all 81 home games from Safeco are
broadcast live in Spanish. Amaury
also calls the action(on his 10th season
with the SF Giants)over KZSF 1370 AM
Radio, La Caliente for the Bay Area.
For 17 seasons Amaury called games
in Spanish for the A’S during the
Wally Haas ownership.
VP of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball
Museum and recently inducted into
the Cuban Sports Hall of Fame in
Miami as a Sportscaster.