Dude, I know things got pretty bad for the Mariners this year, so much so that Richie Sexson had to do some mound charging to help everyone forget how much he sucked, but infighting? Ganging up on a teammate? Seriously? This tid-bit from the Seattle Times via the wealth of news that is Rotoworld has me extremely concerned:

“I just can’t believe the number of guys who really dislike [Ichiro],” said one clubhouse insider. “It got to a point early on when I thought they were going to get together and go after him.”

The coaching staff and then-manager John McLaren intervened when one player was overheard talking — in reference to Ichiro — about wanting to “knock him out.” A team meeting was called to clear the air.

It was a repeat of May 2007, when Mike Hargrove was in charge and a team meeting had to be called during a series at Tampa Bay because of clubhouse bickering over Ichiro being a “selfish” player.

Now I might not be in that clubhouse, but as far as I can tell, Ichiro’s done a pretty consistent job of performing at a high level ever since he came to the U.S. Raul Ibanez is pretty much the only other Mariner about whom you can say the same. So if there are any concerns about guys not being “team players,” maybe those doing the bullying should have focused on picking up their offensive and defensive games to Ichiro’s level. If they did, I’m guessing the Mariners would be doing just fine. By the way, it’s not to say I couldn’t see where Ichiro would rub people as a selfish player, because I could, but still.

UPDATE: J.J. Putz calls the anonymous source a coward

As far as craziness in athletics, this has to be right up there. I knew that some athletes were borderline insane and that some will do anything to be able to perform in the heat of battle. I even heard of fans who lost toes watching games. And I’ve even heard the story of Ronnie Lott asking doctors to cut off his finger so it wouldn’t get further injured. At least when Lott opted for amputation, he let the doctors take care of the messy part. Apparently that wasn’t the case with Juan Carlos Robles. Deadspin has the scoop:

[Robles] went home, put towels over the kitchen table and blocked off a working area with several two-by-fours. He put gauze around the area and twisted soldering wire around his right pinkie to slow the flow of blood.

“Then I put a wood chisel on it and dropped a 15-pound weight on the chisel,” Robles said. “The piece shot out about six feet like a missile.”

If you’re wondering what led up to the amateur surgery, Robles injured himself in a motorcycle crash but didn’t have medical insurance. Rather than pay for surgery to fix the one injury that lingered (he also broke his knee cap and forearm), he decided to do it himself. He now proudly wears the pinkie as a souvenir around his neck. Must be one pleasure of a man. Oh yeah, I believe his record is 10-2. Read the full story if you’re still curious.

Once again, UCLA’s sports marketing department has dropped the ball, rather, taken the ball and run the opposite direction to create a score for the opposing team. The first step in this season-long process was baiting USC to run up the score against the Bruins, proclaiming the football monopoly in LA was over. Yeah, real smart. Well, apparently not shaken by back-to-back blowout losses to BYU and Arizona, the marketing department has taken out an ad in the Fresno Bee, all but begging Fresno State fans to come fill up the Rose Bowl when the two teams meet on Saturday. If that wasn’t enough, they’ve also taken out a radio ad as well. And check out this explanation:

UCLA assistant athletic director of marketing Scott Mitchell said advertising in the Central San Joaquin Valley was a necessity because it is his job to fill the Rose Bowl. He added the campaign was targeted toward UCLA and Fresno State fans, but acknowledged “if we weren’t playing Fresno State, we wouldn’t run the ad.”
…
“We’d prefer that UCLA fans attend en masse and we were selling out and that would be the best way, but it isn’t,” Mitchell said. “We’ve got availability and we need to let people know there still are tickets available.”

I believe the whole “I’m just doing my job” line was pretty much discounted at Nuremburg. That’s not going to fly with me. If you want to let people know there are tickets available, advertise towards your target audience — UCLA fans. Why don’t you try ramping that up a bit rather than reaching out to the opponent? Even still, I’d much rather have fewer fans in the stands than have an athletic department personally reaching out to the opposition. Do we even care about winning? Is Mitchell so shortsighted as to not realize that winning is what sells tickets and creates a buzz? Does he not understand that the chance of winning decreases when there is less support from the crowd??

Last year’s AL Cy Young winner, CC Sabathia, was acquired a month prior to the trading deadline by the Brewers from the Indians. Since the acquisition, Sabathia has been nothing short of brilliant, going 10-2 with Milwaukee winning 13 of the 16 games he started. Sabathia has been quite the workhorse since his acquisition, throwing three straight complete games in July, and three more in August, totaling an astounding (by today’s standards) six complete games in 16 starts. And since falling out of the wild card lead, the Brewers have decided to pitch CC on three days rest as opposed to the standard four in each of his last two starts. They have also said they wouldn’t hesitate to pitch Sabathia on Sunday (also on three days rest) if it were necessary.

While Milwaukee’s worrying about making the playoffs for the first time since 1982, the Yankees have already been eliminated from postseason contention — for the first time in 14 years. Hank Steinbrenner already stated that he expects the Yankees to win the World Series next year, and that he plans on Sabathia being one of their big free agent signings in the off-season. That’s why he’s filing a grievance with MLB, saying that the Brewers are abusing Sabathia, mere months before CC’s set to become a free agent:

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While Dodgers owner Frank McCourt was busying drafting a letter to season ticket holders asking them to renew for next year not long ago, the other team in the LA-area that’s approaching 100 wins came out with a ticket plan that would blow most teams in MLB out of the water. For the final series of the season, the Angels are offering tickets as low as $3, and discounting many other seats as much as 80%. Sure, I realize you’re not going to find premium seats here, but to be able to buy $40 seats for eight bucks, or to even get into Angel Stadium paying just three bucks a ticket is pretty strong.

Even if the Angels have already clinched the division and the Rangers are eliminated, you’re still going to get a quality on-field product. What’s more, this is a fan-friendly gesture that will truly allow a family to come to the ballpark and check out baseball’s best team (record-wise) without being gouged. This is not something that’s necessary, and sure it will help the team at the concession stands and souvenir shops, but it’s just one more reason why Arte Moreno might be the best owner in all of baseball. How many other owners would let fans come watch a first place team for $3 a ticket?

I briefly touched on my postseason award picks when I argued for Tim Lincecum to win the NL Cy Young. Incidentally, it looks like Brandon Webb will win it because he’s now at 22 wins while Lincecum has tacked on two losses to go 17-5, though I still would choose Lincecum. Anyway, in the comments section we had an argument for Ryan Howard as NL MVP over my pick of Albert Pujols who has been by far the most superior player in the league. Seems as if commenter Gene is not alone in his choice; Donovan McNabb argued in his blog that Ryan Howard should be MVP:

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