58. Its whats for dinner.

Today was a great day for baseball. Francisco Rodriguez earned his 58th save of the season. Passing the MLB all time record for saves in a season that had been in place since 1990 when Bobby Thigpen earned 57 saves for the Chicago WhiteSox. 18 freakin years is how long that record had gone unbeaten. Today I had to listen to the game on the radio, since i was at work. I took joy in that fact since I got to hear the Broadcasting Hall of Famer Dave Niehaus call the play. I am a total Seattle Mariners fan, and I kind of feel proud to have the record broke even though it ment my team lossed. But still, it was very nice to witness history being made.

It started in the 9th inning with the Angels up 5-2. After a walk and a base hit, be barred down, getting a fly out, then a ground out. Then came Raul Ibanez, who in the past month or so has been insane. I dont have the exact stats on me, but its something like .408 Batting average in his last 15 games or so. To put it bluntly, hes been on a tear latly. K-rod gets to 0-2 in the count easily, but then Raul fouled off a bunch of pitches worked it up to 3-2. Then Rodriguez pulled the string. Throwing a nice and slow change up, he got Ibanez to swing and miss to strike him out for that last out, earning him the 58th save. Hearing all this on the radio, with the briliant play calling from Dave Niehaus, and the sound of the crowd roaring like it was back in the gladiator days, I had chills listening to it.

In other news about the Mariners, Ichiro Suzuki is only 6 hits away from 200 hits in the season, tying another MLB record for consecutive seasons with 200 or more hits. Willie Keeler holds that record now with 8 straight seasons with 200 or more. I would love to see next season to see Ichiro break the record.

In closing I was thinking about this whole season. Alot of amazing things have happened to the Mariners even with being the worst team in the American League and 3rd worst in the whole MLB right now. Felix Hernandez became the only AL pitcher to hit a grandslam during inter-league play, hitting it off of Johan Santana of all people. Also, alot of new players who were called up from AAA Tacoma have been amazing to watch. Brandon Morrow I think is my new favorite player. He started out the season being a relief pitcher. J.J. Putz was injured during a Toronto game, so Brandon Morrow took over closing duties while Putz was on the disabled list. Just watching him in the 9th inning as a closer was insane. Strike outs, ground out, pop ups, he was just getting all the outs he needed for the team to get those saves. After Putz came back off the DL, they send Morrow back to Tacoma to stretch him out to become a starter. Personaly at the time I thought he should have stayed as a closer, he was mesmerizing to watch, but now I know that I was wrong. On his very first MLB start, he went up against the Yankees, you know the team with all the "greats". Jeter, Abreu, Giambi, and freakin Alex Rodriguez.(who used to be a Mariner, but left because hes a money grubbin asshole.) Brandon Morrow retired like 9 in a row and had a no-hitter going into the 8th inning. A FREAKIN NO HITTER against the Yankees. Only to allow his first hit during the 8th inning. Still that was just an amazing thing to watch.

This just makes me think about next season. Hopefully the M's can get their shit together, and maybe at least go to the playoffs next year. With the new talent acting as that little bit of light breaking through the dark clouds hinting at the beautiful sun light about to shine through later, it just makes me root for my team even more. Hoping that our time will come...