A Milestone for the Mariners

Yesterday, up three runs in the sixth inning, Riggleman saw the chance to make something of this turdroll of a season, an opportunity to find some meaning in an otherwise wasted year, to achieve something real and important - something his players could look back on with fondness.

Felix was 1/3 of an inning away from pitching 200 innings.

Riggles on this historic milestone: "Some numbers speak volumes: 162 makes a statement. 200 innings makes a statement. There's a difference between 199 2/3 and 200." Amen.

So he left Hernandez in to finish out his 200th inning, and in the process gave up 3 runs. The Angels ultimately won the game and gave us a more meaningul milestone: 100 losses (thanks to John Hickey of the PI for pointing out the 100 loss, 200 inning parallel)

When asked, Ichiro said "I don't know what 100 losses means." Perhaps in an effort to help explain, Raul said "It's like 99 losses. It's like 101 losses. Any of those numbers is terrible." True, Raul, but maybe Ichiro needs a little more help understanding the gravity of this milestone. Let's reflect:

1. The Ms haven't posted 100 losses since 1983. That's a quarter of a century, people. In 1983, Return of the Jedi was ruling movie theaters, Michael Jackson's video for Thriller was released and Apple unveiled something called the Apple Lisa.

2. With a $117 million payroll, that that means we've spent $2,017,241 for each win. Having spent $40 a ticket to witness a few of those wins myself, I'm trying to decide if I'd throw in an extra $2,017,201 to avoid one of the many losses I've suffered. If only there was some way to win games without spending so damn much.

3. With this loss, we managed to edge out San Diego (currently at 61-97) and Washington (currently 59-99) as the first team to break the century mark this season. That's right, Nats, suck it!

4. Flip our record, and we're two games ahead of the Angels. Guess we're better at losing than they are at winning. What losers.