Art Thiel

"Not in Seattle's 25 years in the major leagues has there been a hitter who can get mothers to pause while fixing dinner, fathers to halt channel surfing and ballpark patrons to scurry back from beer lines, just to witness an infield grounder. Not that his offensive game is devoted exclusively to infield divots. An at-bat in the fourth inning Sunday against Toronto was, while not a game-breaker, another demonstration of bat mastery savored by connoisseurs of the game's small sweetnesses. The count against Ichiro fell to 0-2 after a swing that may have been the worst in his 37 games as a Mariner. Fooled on a slider that was so low and inside it nearly bounced at his feet, Ichiro lurched into a loopy cut that left him wobbly as a longshoreman on paycheck Friday. The next pitch was about the same speed and location. He lifted the ball from his shoetops and scorched it into deep right center for a triple that had the power and parabola of a Tiger Woods 2-iron." -Art Thiel, sportswriter

"Rather than slowing down after a hot April, the Mariners are getting better. To beat three times the team that had the best record in the American League last year, they didn't even need to use relief ace Kazuhiro Sasaki. In winning eight in a row, the Mariners averaged seven runs a game. In that same streak, they may have invented an All-Star second baseman out of a journeyman. If matters get more delightfully absurd for Mariners fans, there is danger of spontaneous combustion from bliss overload." -Art Thiel, sportswriter

"If Orlando Hernandez and Roger Clemens can be considered the Experience Music Project of pitchers, all exotic, controversial, weird and occasionally scary, Moyer and Sele are two beige walls at perfect right angles, all plumb and flush. Fortunately for the Mariners, the task at hand was merely playing good baseball, not getting their pitchers on the cover of Rolling Stone." -Art Thiel, sportswriter

"(Alex) Rodriguez also (like Carlos Guillen) has returned from a slow start, hitting .332 with 18 homers and 50 RBI, numbers all in the top 10. The irony is if he had stayed in Seattle, he would lead the league in all those categories and eventually win the Triple Crown. That's because he would get 20 games against Rangers pitching." -Art Thiel, sportswriter

"In the upper deck behind home plate, a hand-made sign summarized the local feeling as well as any: 'I Coulda Been a Contender -- A-Rod'." -Art Thiel, sportswriter

"On the other hand, Rodriguez's script has become as quickly and tritely familiar as "I Love Lucy," only not as cute. He has a lot of 'splainin' to do, but never does it in a way that leaves any listener satisfied that Rodriguez is operating with the same Mother Nature-issued heart, head and adrenal gland as the rest of us. Just once, it would be good to hear Rodriguez say, 'You know, I should have said right away it would be about the money.'" -Art Thiel, quite possibly my new hero

"Yesterday was Two-Headed Calf Day at the ballpark. Ichiro showed off his home-run trot. John Halama pitched seven shutout innings. Weirdest of all, Al Martin had two hits. These signs can only mean the Mariners are back to putting their pants on two legs at a time." -Art Thiel, sportswriter

"Hitting has been so bad for Martin that Jay Buhner put his teammate's bats in the clubhouse sauna, in an attempt to heat them up." -Art Thiel

"There are many ways to measure what has been accomplished so far - almost as many ways as there are cautions for assuming too much about the future. What is certain is the here and now -- a team domination almost unprecedented in Seattle sports, one long overdue, whose duplication is almost unimaginable." -Art Thiel, sportswriter

"For a night, the offense wasn't enough. For a season, it is enough to make forgettable Griff Kenney and Rod Alexriguez." -Art Thiel

"The team's trademark resilience left Piniella beaming." -Art Thiel