So, as I’m sure all of you know by now, the Mariners made the decision today to let go manager Don Wakamatsu, pitching coach Rick Adair, bench coach Ty Van Burkleo, and performance coach Steve Hecht. The one positive of posting this so late in the day, is that I don’t have to do any real guesswork as to the reasoning. Jack Zduriencik’s already held his press conference, and he used it to make his motives about as clear as we could possibly expect from a GM as tight-lipped as him. Keep in mind, everything I’m about to say is in reference to Don Wakamatsu, and Don Wakamatsu alone. It’s nearly impossible to accurately evaluate coaches, and as far as I can gather, the other three were only fired because of their relationships with Wak himself.

So, as for why Wak got the axe, it really comes down to one thing; failed expectations. Coming into this season, the Mariners were expected to be good. They weren’t only expected to be good, they were expected to contend. 2010 was supposed to be an entertaining baseball year for both the Mariners and the city of Seattle, and the team has flat out failed to deliver. When teams under perform, or fail to meet expectations for any reason, there’s always going to be some sort of a scapegoat. Now – there are different degrees of scapegoating. I don’t think anyone out there would claim that this disaster of a season is entirely Don Wakamatu’s fault – that’s just silly. So many things have gone wrong with this team, it’d be impossible to point the finger in any one direction. However, it’s important to understand that Jack Zduriencik is at the head of this ship, and he has an entire city to answer to. When sports teams fail, the fans want answers, and inevitably, action.

To the majority of the fans, it doesn’t matter who’s actually to blame. This miserable season could be entirely a product of unfortunate luck, but it wouldn’t matter to most of the people watching the games. Fans, by nature, want to be able to blame someone, and the manager is usually the most convenient place to look.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this decision was simply a case of Jack Zduriencik giving the fans a scapegoat. It’s quite possible that he’s just come to the conclusion that Don Wakamatsu is no longer the right man for this job – and at this point, I find that point hard to argue. His questionable decisions on the field have been more abundant and more noticeable than they were in 2009, and this probably is the right time to cut ties. That being said – do I think Daren Brown, or whoever the team hires for this position long term will do a significantly better job? Maybe, maybe not. I personally don’t put much stock in managerial evaluation techniques anyway. I think they get too much credit when teams are good, and too much blame when teams are bad. The fact is, there just aren’t any clear-cut, proven ways to evaluate a manager’s performance, and because of that, there are always going to be two strong sides of the argument when one of them gets fired.

It’d be easy to get excited about Don Wakamatsu going away. The first things that come to mind are “less Sean White”, “less Rob Johnson”, or “more Shawn Kelley”(if he were healthy). But the fact is, no manager is perfect, and every single one is going to have their own unfortunate tendencies. Daren Brown might develop a weird obsession with Jamey Wright or something, who knows?

Only time will tell if this was the right move, and I’m certainly not sure one way or another at this point in time. Evaluating managers is a tricky, tricky area to venture into, and I couldn’t tell you whether or not Don Wakamatsu got his fair shot.

Ichiro RF

Figgins 2B

Gutierrez CF

Sweeney 1B

Bradley LF

Griffey DH

Tuiasosopo 3B

Johnson C

Wilson, Jo SS

I just have a few questions for you, Don.

Why is Casey Kotchman benched against a  RHP?

Why is Mike Sweeney starting against a RHP?

Why is Mike Sweeney playing 1B when he can’t play defense at all?

Why is Bradley playing LF when just 3 days ago you said he’d be DH’ing against RHP?

Why is Griffey playing?

Why isn’t Michael Saunders starting when just 3 days ago you said he’d be starting against RHP?

Why is Matt Tuiasosopo playing?

If you’ve decided that neither offense nor defense matter, why don’t we just dump all these big contracts of good players and put together a team full of replacement level 30 year olds?

I’d love some answers, Don, as I’m beginning to feel like you must be the worst manager at constructing lineups in all of baseball.

I never loved Ken Griffey, Jr. like others did.  I was three years old when the Kid raced home on Edgar’s famous Double, sending the M’s to the AL Championship.  I went to my first Mariners game in 2001, by which point Griffey had taken off for Cincinnati.  By all accounts, I’m a rookie of a Mariners fan.  When the surefire Hall-of-Famer returned to Seattle for one final season, I took on the city’s excitement, despite the glaring fact that I hadn’t been around for the Griffey years.  Not because I felt I had to, but because I wanted to.  Throughout my short tenure as a Mariners fan, I never had a hero.  I mean no offense to the incomparable Ichiro, but I wanted someone like Albert Pujols —- an all-around phenom —- on the team I loved, even though I knew full well that the Kid’s glory days were over.  Ken Griffey, Jr. embodies the oddly romantic notion of the falling (and now fallen) star, and I was all too happy to embrace him, like the grandfather I never knew I had.

And now Griffey has overstayed his welcome, has posted a .449 OPS, and constitutes a huge part of the Mariners’ 2010 implosion.  But, through it all, I still like the guy and root for him to succeed.  And I don’t understand it.  The Mariners are 14-26, hopelessly mired in the AL West cellar yet again, score less than four runs on a regular basis, and I still turn on the radio every night to listen to the game.  And I don’t understand it.

So why do I love Ken Griffey, Jr?  And why do I love the Seattle Mariners?  Can the geographic proximity of myself to Safeco Field really conjure up such a massive affinity for a professional sports franchise?  Is it simply the presence of the word “Seattle” in the team’s name that gives me a sense of pure elation elation when they win and a sense of deep-rooted anger when they lose?  And why is it that when I convince myself that there is no rational way that I should continue paying attention to this flailing mess of a baseball team, I still find myself spending three hours that night watching the team lose yet another by way of walk-off to their division rivals?

Jeff Sullivan recently wrote a Game Recap on Lookout Landing where he admitted that he had crossed the line from anger into indifference (or as he calls it, observation) with respect to the Seattle Mariners, at least for right now.  I’m not sure where I am on that scale, but I’m not ready to give up on the team just yet (not to say that Jeff is). However many times I speak the words, “I give up,” or “this team is hopeless,” I realize that I just want the team to succeed that much more.  I will never truly give up on the 2010 Seattle Mariners —- because I am emotionally incapable of doing so.  Rationally, I want Sean White to lock himself in his closet and swallow the key, for Chone Figgins to take a class on how to hit a God damn baseball, and for Don Wakamatsu to learn how to fill out a lineup card like a human being with a IQ above 7; honestly, the myriad of issues with and under-performances by this team makes me want to hang up my sabermetric cleats and find some other team or sport to obsess over.  But I can’t.  I have to watch the Mariners and care about the Mariners and think about the Mariners because I don’t know what I would do otherwise.

I don’t know why I still watch the Mariners, and I probably will never understand the underlying psychological reasons why.  But I do know that I love this team, and if they fail miserably, I will be right there with them.

At least Icarus has someone to keep him company as he falls.