Pitcher Freddy Garcia had his bags
packed and ready to go to the airport
leaving Seattle this weekend. But
today on July 31, after the
Mariners swept the Tigers
suitcases and going home
to his plush condo overlooking
beautiful Elliot Bay in downtown
Seattle and will be back
tomorrow Saturday to start
game one against the
Chicago White Sox.
No big deal here in Coffee Town.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez
SeattlePat Gillick the General Manager
of the Mariners said he tried
to make a deal but at 1PM
-the deadline-arrived and
nothing.., nada. No Bret
Boone brother coming
here to be reunited with his
secondbaseman brother
Bret.

On July 30th the Mariners
got veteran infielder/utility
Rey Sanchez for a minor
league pitcher from the
dead Mets, and that’s it !

The Mariners are praying
that Freddy Garcia comes
back to his form in July
when he won the 5 starts
and that closer Kasuhiro
Sasaki returns soon
(he is rehabing in Triple
A Tacoma).

If above happens and
none of the regular here
have a serious injury (shortstop
Carlos Guillen is out at least
15 days with groin pull)
the Mariners management
feel they have enough to
make it to the Postseason.

People in Seattle are very
dissapointed, they are really
“fed up”with Freddy Garcia
and his inconsistency and
were hoping for trade that
would have sent Garcia to
China, Taiwan or Russia, anyplace
but Seattle.

Sports talk shows here in
Seattle run 10 to 5 in
favor of trading Freddy Garcia,
he has become the whipping boy
here. Freddy is such a nice
person that he was really
surprised “I have been a very
good pitcher here and I like
this town is great and I am
happinjg I am staying” he told
me in Espanol. Freddy was
born in Caracas, Venezuela.
He won 16 games for
the Mariners last season.

The A’S made a very nice move
by getting a hitter that has
better stats than any of the
Athletics in that lineup. The
A’S must be concerned that
the Mariners have 5 starters,
all doing reasonably well
(minus Garcia, up and down
each month).But if Garcia
pitches well the last two
months the M’S might
have a deeper rotation
that Oakland’s.

But the main concern here
is that they see the ghost
of the A’S coming at this
time of the year. Although
I do not think the A’S are
goin to win 20 in a row
in these last two months
I do think this will be
a great great race maybe going
to the last 3 games of the
season when the Athletics
are scheduled to visit
Safeco Field, Seattle.

Enjoy it !!
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