Letters To The Editor

Is curse far behind?

When Jose Cruz Jr. arrived with the Mariners this season, hitting all those home runs to everyone’s dismay, I often referred to him as the “Little Bambino”.

I guess there was not room for another superstar in the “House that Griffey Built”, at least not under the Ego Cap. Twenty years of exciting baseball for one potential World Series? We already had a potential World Series. Now what do we have?

Will the Mariners experience another “Curse of the Bambino”?

Allan LeTourneau Spokane

WSU bathes in hype

Reading reports of the WSU-UCLA game in Sunday’s Spokesman Review, one would think the Cougars blew UCLA out of the stadium, not barely squeaked out a 3-point win. Get real. Only a diehard Coug fan would believe all the hype! Carol Nelson Coeur d’ Alene

Answers for M’s

Take half the games in which the Mariners came from ahead to lose. Add that total (11) to their win column; they would have had a 13-game lead over Anaheim with only 23 games to play.

No fun. Even if just the absurd and massively comic reverses of fortune could be altered.

Baseball is driven by the hypothetical, that is its blessing and its curse; can’t afford to keep Cruz because he’s too valuable. Can’t afford to trade Charlton because no one can afford him.

Here’s some “would” to put on the ball: Get Cruz back and make him a relief pitcher/designated hitter. Or spot each remaining opponent three runs in the last two innings of each game and rest the relief corps for the playoffs.

Thank goodness that 95 percent of baseball is half-mental. To paraphrase the tune: “The Blue Jays are Cruz-in’; The Mariners are losin’; But Jun-ior will save us in the end.” John Bonnier Spokane

Read stats, Blanchette

Like John Blanchette, I am a longtime fan of baseball that has been slow to accept the Seattle Mariners as a legitimate major league franchise. Seattle’s history of developing starting players for other MLB clubs, and until recently, low attendance figures, only confirmed that the Mariners would be another short-lived ballclub that worked best as a farm club for the better teams. Unlike Blanchette, I am one of the growing number of Mariner fans that can sit back and appreciate the newfound success.

It is far too obvious that Blanchette’s consistent negative writings about the Mariners and the WSU Cougars reflect an extremely narrow view that is shared by few fans. His recent article criticizing the Jose Cruz trade (who I agree is a future star), for dreadfully needed relief pitching read like a littleresearched junior-high analogy.

Read the statistics, John. Lou Piniella has brought legitimacy to the Mariners organization. Seattle has the third-best winning percentage in the A.L., and is No. 5 of the 28 MLB clubs in team hitting. (Maybe the M’s thought they could afford to gamble on the Cruz trade). The M’s are slowly climbing out of the cellar in team pitching and the new additions have taken pressure off Bobby Ayala and Norm Charlton. Recent appearances of both pitchers have shown positive results. Piniella can afford to still be experimenting with his restructured bullpen with their widening lead in the A.L. West.

I find relief in the reality that few fans and S-R readers share Blanchette’s myopic view of area sports teams. Brian Steckler Spokane