John Wetteland, the former star relief pitcher who currently works as the bullpen coach of the Seattle Mariners, was hospitalized on Thursday after a woman at his home alerted police.
Sgt. Roger Griggs of the Denton Country Sheriff’s office: “She said he was complaining of being depressed and contemplating suicide.”
Wetteland might be best known for his stint with the New York Yankees. In fact, Wetteland was named the MVP of the 2006 World Series. Few remember that it was Wetteland and not Mariano Rivera who closed games for the Yankees that season.
Other than the Yankees, Wetteland also pitched for the Los …read more

Willie Keeler had 200 hits in eight Major League Baseball seasons. On Sunday, Ichiro Suzuki broke Keeler’s record. For the ninth straight season, Ichiro has at least 200 hits.
Ichiro, who joined the Seattle Marines from the Japanese leagues in 2001, has finished with at least 206 hits in his first eight seasons. This year, he got his 200th hit against the Texas Rangers and has time to add a handful more before the end of the 2009 baseball season.
The 35-year-old from Kadugai, Japan is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, this year has been one of his better …read more

The selling spree hasn’t stopped for the Pittsburgh Pirates. On Wednesday, the Pirates made two more trades as they continue their rebuilding efforts.
The first trade sent Jack Wilson and Ian Snell to the Seattle Mariners. In return, the Pirates received Ronny Cedeno, Jack Lement, Aaron Pribanic, Brett Lorin and Nathan Adcock.
Wilson was the starting shortstop for the Pirates and will continue to start with the Mariners. On the season, he’s hitting .267 with four homers and 31 RBIs. Snell is a starting pitcher with a 5.36 ERA and a record of 2-8. Many scouts think that the 27-year-old Snell still …read more

Although Ken Griffey Jr. has had his ups and downs during his return to the Seattle Mariners, he came up big on Saturday. In the eighth inning, hit a double to knock in Ichiro. That hit gave the Mariners a 2-1 lead that they would prove to be enough to beat the Minnesota Twins.
Griffey, who was batting cleanup, is now hitting .224 on the season with six homers and 16 RBI. He’s also scored 16 runs and has an on-base percentage of .335.
Ichiro, a day after his 27-game hitting streak came to an end, was also a hero. He went …read more

To begin the season, Ichiro was in uncharted waters — the disabled list. Now that we are a couple of months in the the baseball season, Ichiro is at the top of his game.
By getting two hits in five at-bats on Tuesday against the Baltimore Orioles, Ichiro extended his hitting streak to 26 games. That’s not only his career-best streak, it’s also the best streak in the history of the Mariners.
The 35-year-old native of Japan is now hitting .355 and has five homers, 16 RBI and 21 runs. His batting average is the second highest of his MLB career, trailing …read more

Josh Hamilton missed 13 games for the Texas Rangers with a ribcage muscle strain. On Tuesday, Hamilton returned with a bang.
After going without a hit in his first three at-bats, Hamilton came to the plate in the seventh inning with the game tied 1-1. With one swing, Hamilton put the Rangers up 3-1 when he hit a homer against the Seattle Mariners. Texas never trailed again and beat Seattle by a final count of 7-1.
The Rangers have now sit in first place in the AL West after winning eight of their last ten games. At 18-14, Texas has outscored their …read more

Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners has been extremely durable in his Major League Baseball career. However, to begin his 2009 campaign, Ichiro was forced to the disabled list due to a bleeding ulcer. Because of the ulcer, Ichiro was suffering from an extreme amount of fatigue. It was Ichiro’s first time on the disabled list in his career.
Although Ichiro didn’t want to go onto the disabled list, the Mariners made the move to make sure that he could get in as much rest as possible and to treat the bleeding ulcer carefully. He had spent a large amount of …read more

Although all fans around the baseball world are having World Series visions, the reality is that there are going to be a handful of horrible teams during the 2009 Major League Baseball season. Who are the top five worst teams in baseball?
5. Seattle Mariners
The Mariners will likely be improved from last season. They have a relatively high-priced roster so Seattle can expect less bad luck this year. That said, they will likely remain a top five worst team.
4. Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates simply don’t have enough talent. They’ve played hard the last few years but without the necessary talent, it’s difficult …read more

Fifteen innings of pretty good ball for the American League versus National League All-Stars resulted in sleep loss for the East Coast and the 12th consecutive win for the AL (except for that 2002 tie).
Here are five reasons why the AL came up with a victory yet again:
 1. Ichiro Suzuki’s pre-game F-Bombs. Move over, Bobby Knight. The Seattle Mariners‘ perpetual All-Star has a nifty peptalk ritual for his AL teammates every year.
2. Florida Marlins second baseman and probable never-again All-Star Dan Uggla set—wait for it, this one’s nice and corny—an Ugg-ly record by committing 3 errors in the game.
3. The NL probably isn’t quite accustomed …read more

Yikes, if we had known that Seattle Mariners manager John McLaren was about to be shown the door along with GM Bill Bavasi, we wouldn’t have posted a video of his rant the other day as a farewell to Bavasi and GM Willie Randolph of the New York Mets.
No, not because we feel guilty or think it would have been in poor taste. It’s mostly because had we known, we’d have posted the rant video today instead.
Speaking of heads rolling, we’re off to go watch Showtime On Demand . . . the season finale of The Tudors, of course. You know, the one …read more