WEED WEED — As I work my way north from Tucson to Seattle, I turned on the computer this morning and noticed an email that pointed out some important information regarding Saturday’s 1:10 p.m. game against the Indians at Safeco Field.

Because of the annual Seafair Torchlight Parade and Run through downtown Seattle that evening, the City of Seattle asked the Mariners to play a day game, which was done.

The Sounders schedule was announced several months after the Mariners announced the 2009 schedule. The Sounders start time was set by the MLS at noon because it is being televised by ESPN, and can’t be changed.

The Mariners asked the City of Seattle if they wanted their start time changed,  but because of the Torchlight Run and Parade, requested the 1:10 game time remain the same. What it means, of course, is that traffic and parking will be a challenge for fans coming to either event.  In addition, because of the start time, FSN Northwest is not able to televise the game because it is during the national exclusive “window” for FOX Saturday Baseball.

So there you have it.

Meanwhile, the first part of the drive — an 11 hour, 36 minutes trek from Tucson to Santa Nella, Calif. — was long and uneventful, except for the fact that the temperature gauge in my car reached 100 degrees as I neared Gila Bend, AZ and stayed in triple-digits the rest of the day and evening. It peaked at 109 degrees near Palm Springs. Even the rattlesnakes must have been thirsty.

The agenda calls for golf today at the foot of Mt. Shasta (Lake Shastina Golf Resort is a fabulous place). Played nine holes yesterday afternoon and, as usual, no birdies or eagles — but neither did my playing partner “Noodles”, my old junior college baseball roommate on road trips. He went on to become the national PE Instructor of the Year several years ago.

Well, time to rise and shine. Will check in later and let you know how many birdies (haha) I get.

A fabulous round of golf has concluded — with one birdie! — and an 89 on a 97-degree day. As you can tell by the above photo, the course and surrounding area, such at Mt. Shasta, is extremely scenic. Next stop: Dorris (pop. 1,000 or so).

— Jim Street

TUCSON — In the all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end department, it is almost time to leave the 108-degree temperatures in lovely Tucson, Arizona and head back to Seattle to rejoin the Mariners for the final two-plus months of the regular season.

It will be a 1,600-plus mile drive through the desert, into California — where the gas prices are ridiculously high. I mean, why is the price of gas in Arizona $2.29 per gallon and the same grade of gas in California costs $3.10, or so, depending on which hour you fill ‘er up? Anyway, my mapquest says go north on I-5 until I reach Weed, Calif., the proud home of College of the Siskiyous, which has produced some of our proud nation’s wisest people. Well, a couple of wise people at least. The golf course at Lake Shastina beckons, so three of my former teammates on the COS baseball team (way back in 1964-65, by the way) are going shoot for birdies and eagles, and none are likely to be found. The journey then switches to Highway 97 for a stop at the old homestead in Dorris, Calif., where my high-80s parents still live.

Before leaving Tucson, I was able to get in one round of golf with buddy Bob, Mike and Patrick, the Three Amigos who make 9-1-1 Collision operate on all cylinders. I am still trying to convince them that “You crash ’em, we fix ’em” would be a nice motto. They think otherwise.

You’ll be happy to know that my golf score was lower than the temperature, didn’t see any snakes that rattle, scorpions that bite, or lizards that stick their tongue out at you.

Between playing golf and floating in the pool, I have been following the Mariners closely and it’s good to see that the three-day All-Star break didn’t change things much. They still win the close ones and continue to get excellent pitching.

Furthermore, Franklin Gutierrez is quietly becoming a star in the Major Leagues.

Speaking of stars, I have been working the past few weeks on a fairly in-depth story on Ichiro and it will be displayed on both MLB.com and Mariners.com sometime Monday evening. Several of his colleagues have some interesting things to say about the Mariners right fielder and now a nine-time All-Star as he moves closer to becoming eligible for the Hall of Fame. Also, on Monday, there will be an Inbox (formerly known as the Mailbox) on the Mariners Web site.

In the meantime, I’ll check back in during the l-o-n-g, lonely (superwife is flying back to Seattle pick pick up Mr. Fab and Pumba, the guinea pigs, and resume her work as an interior designer) trek back to the Great Northwest.

— Jim Street

Another day, another trade. It looks like MLB has its next “Trader Jack”, the monikor given to Jack McKeon when he was a busy GM back in the day.

Yuniesky Betancourt gone on Friday, Jack Hannahan acquired on Saturday.

Some of us thought it would take two players to replace third baseman Adrian Beltre and it looks like we were correct. I would expect manager Don Wakamatsu to platoon Hannahan and Chris Woodward at the position as both have similar games — good defensive players that have been offensively-challenged for most of their careers.

The addition of Hannahan to the 25-man roster means someone must go before tonight’s game. Infielder Josh Wilson has not been used a lot — actually, he has not been used at all, really — and he could be the one departing. That would be my guess.

Meanwhile, it’s happy 10th birthday to Safeco Field. It looks as young today as it did a decade ago when it opened to much fan-fare and celebration.

Stay tuned for the next roster move.

The move just came down and right-hander Brandon Morrow is going down to the Minor Leagues. He was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma to work on a breaking pitch and further develop command of his fastball.

He simply needs to learn how to pitch and the organization decided the best thing for him is to pitch in an environment with less stress. 

— Jim Street

A road trip that many thought would turn the Mariners into “sellers” heading towards the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline instead gave the team reason to believe they could be in the AL West pennant race well beyond the deadline and into the dog days of summer.

Winning two of three from the Dodgers and Red Sox on the road is something few teams have done this season and it says a lot about the makeup and tenacity of this entertaining group of players.

But they can’t let up on the gas pedal. The upcoming week at home looms large.

The Mariners have three games against the Orioles starting tonight and then four against the Rangers — a division rival they have not defeated this season — beginning on Thursday night. Those four games could be even bigger in the big picture than any of the nine games played on the recent road trip.

It isn’t a coincidence that the rotation is set up to where the four best starters are set to face the Rangers, beginning with All-Star Felix Hernandez on Thursday night. It gives the Mariners an excellent chance to 1) end a five-game losing streak against the Rangers this season and 2) set the tone for a series that takes both teams into the All-Star break.

While the Mariners are playing the last-place, but still dangerous, Orioles of the AL East at Safeco Field, the Rangers are in Anaheim to face the Angels in a three-game showdown for first place.

After that comes what shapes up as one of the most important weekends of baseball of the season. 

 — Jim Street

Mariners Hall of Fame broadcaster Dave Niehaus is in the booth at Fenway Park preparing for his 5,000-something game behind the mike.

He had a reaction to an insulin shot early this morning at the hotel where the team is staying and was taken to a nearby hospital as a precaution.

“I’m fine,” the 74-year-old said. “It’s no big deal.”

— Jim Street

 

There might not be a better way to spend three or so hours getting from New York to Boston than taking the Amtrak Acela Express.

The seats are wide and leg-room is plentiful, making the journey much better than flying, in my humble opinion. And you can eat something besides old peanuts or pretzels.

I have set up shop inside Fenway Park and several of the Mariners are playing football behind third base. Not exactly, bone-crunching tackle football, but game of catch the football, which is one of the ways the team’s conditioning staff breaks up the monotony of running.

Word just came through that right-handed reliever Shawn Kelley has been activated from the 15-day disabled list and first baseman Mike Carp was sent back to Triple-A Tacoma. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Carp didn’t get to play much during his two-plus weeks here, but he soaked it all in and the experience, brief as it was, will come in handy the next time he’s promoted.

The kid has a good swing and a fine future, possibly as a left fielder.

Getting Kelley back is a huge boost for the ‘pen. The rookie was one of the Spring Training surprises and started the regular season with gusto, compiling a 1.54 ERA in his first 10 big-league appearances. He was moving deeper into games, working the sixth, seventh and eighth innings before suffering a strained left oblique while throwing a pitch against the Rangers on May 6 at Safeco Field, going down in a heap after throwing his third pitch of the game.

His return gives Seattle arguably the strongest bullpen in the AL. Kelley, Miguel Batista, Mark Lowe and David Aardsma all throw hard.

We’ll get back to you with the lineups later, but I expect to see Ryan Langerhans name in there again. He had some quality at-bats in his Mariners debut against the Yankees last night.

And here is the lineup:

1. Ichiro, RF

2. Russell Branyan, 1B

3. Jose Lopez, 2B

4. Ken Griffey Jr., DH

5. Franklin Gutierrez, CF

6. Ryan Langerhans, LF

7. Chris Woodward, 3B

8. Rob Johnson, C

9. Ronny Cedeno, SS

P Felix Hernandez

— Jim Street

NEW YORK — With coffee cup in hand, actually it’s sitting on the desk in front of me, there was something manager Don Wakamatsu mentioned last night that piqued my curiosity, and even at 93 years of age (in sportswriter years) my curiosity can still be piqued.

He mentioned that for one of the few times this season, Ichiro and Russell Branyan were held hitless in the same game.

Ichiro went 0-for-4 last night and never got the ball out of the infield, although he doesn’t have to get the ball out of the infield to get a hit, something that has happened 36 times this season.

Branyan went 0-for-4, and wore, as players call it, “A golden sombrero” which, in layman’s terms, means four strikeouts in one game.

It was, in fact, just the second time the Mariners’ one-two hitters went hitless in the same game this season, but the first time neither of them reached base. Ichiro was 0-for-4 against the Tigers on April 18 and 0-for-4 against the Rays on April 21. Branyan did not play in either game.

Ichiro was 0-for-4 against the White Sox in Chicago on April 28 and Branyan went 0-for-3, but the first baseman reached base on a walk. Same scenario on June 16 at San Diego. Ichiro went 0-for-4 and Branyan went 0-for-3 with a walk.

So having both of them go hitless in the same game and not make it to first base was a rarity, indeed.

For the second time this season, Branyan appears to be a little tired and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him get tonight off against Yankees lefty CC Sabathia. Mike Sweeney could be at first base for the series finale.

This is the second time in the past two road trips that the Mariners have faced a hotter-than-blue-blazes team and have been unable to win. The Rockies were on a roll when the Mariners visited Denver last month and were swept in a three-game Interleague series. The Yankees had a five-game winning streak entering this three-game series and have won the first two games.

Maybe the weather can cool off the Bronx Bombers. Looking outside my hotel room window on the 27th floor of the not-exactly luxurious Courtyard by Marriott hotel on 3rd Avenue and 53rd Street (see above photo), clouds are rolling in and there is a good chance of rain this afternoon and evening. But because this is the Mariners’ one-and-only trip to New York this season, I have a hunch that we could wait all night to play the series finale.

I was wondering last night when was the last time Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez hit home runs on the same day in the same ballpark.

I was going to do some heavy-duty research, but I’ m a busy man and really don’t have the time. So, if you happen to know the answer, send me an email at jim.street@mlb.com and I will make sure to give you part of the credit for knowing the answer.

I have an answer. Ben Cooper from Couer d’ Alene, Idaho sent an email that said: “The most recent time that I have found that Griffey and A-Rod homered on the same day was on August 4, 1999. They went back-to-back off Devil Rays starter Ryan Rupe in the fifth inning. You may want to double check this, but as far as I’ve found, this is the most recent game that they have both homered.”

That could have been the last time they hit home runs in the same game as Mariners teammates and thanks to Ben. I will ask Junior a little later if he remembers if they hit home runs in an Interleague game. He would know as he has the best memory of just about anyone I ever met

A note just came out that the last time Griffey and Rodriguez hit home runs in the same game actually was Sept. 21, 1999. That info was provided by the Elias Sports Bureau.

Meanwhile, Tim Hevly (the team’s rock-solid P.R. dude in an office filled with solid P.R. dudes and a new mom on maternity leave in Puyallup) and I were talking last night about what the Mariners’ past few seasons would have been like without free agency. Can’t you just imagine having Junior and A-Rod being teammates from 1995 until now, with Randy Johnson in the rotation? Seattle could have been the MLB capital of the world for, oh, like almost 15 years or so.

Well, the coffee cup is empty, and you know what that means for someone from Seattle. Refill, please, with room.

It is now later in the day — much later — and the series finale has been delayed by rain. Well, delayed by the threat of rain. It is not raining and the tarp is not on the field, but this is New York, which explains a lot.

The last thing the Yanks want to do is have lefty CC Sabathia throw several pitches and then have to sit through a lengthy rain delay. But if it doesn’t start raining here pretty quickly, a lot of fans are going to get a little miffed.

One of the fans is Jack Nicholson, who is stitting directly behind home plate in one of those expensive seats.

An update: The game will start at 4:40 p.m. PT.

— Jim Street

NEW YORK -The right-handed starter threw right around 100 pitches and made it halfway through the series opener between the Mariners and Yankees.

“It’s just learning how to pitch,” the manager said. “He is not what you would call an experienced big-league starter. There are some growing pains that you go through in learning how to pitch at this level.”

The manager added that his starter had “too many long counts.”

The manager was Joe Girardi and he was talking about Joba Chamberlain, a reliever-turned-starter.

Virtually the same things were being said in the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium when Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu talked about right-hander Brandon Morrow, a reliever-turned-starter.

“The biggest thing we talk about is not about the stuff, but the inconsistency,” Wakamatsu said. “You saw some signs of real good pitching from him and that’s not easy against this ballclub, especially in this ballpark.”

Two pitching careers that have mirrored each other during the past three seasons were like identical twins at the new Yankee Stadium.

There seems to be a feeling in the blogger world — and a few media types — that the Mariners are doing Morrow a disservice by converting him back into a starter role at the Major League level, instead of grooming him at Triple-A Tacoma.

That is nonsense.

At some point, Morrow surely will find a release point that allows him to throw the ball where he wants and he has the kind of stuff that can dominate the opposing lineup. And it is better that he finds it at the big-league level – the same place a wild Randy Johnson found it early in his career, than in the Minors, as long as both he and the organization agree that this is the best approach in the big picture.

Johnson, after all, went through several years of “growing pains” before becoming one of the greatest pitchers in Major League history and he wasn’t sent to the Minor Leagues to “learn how to pitch”.

Chamberlain is going through the same transitional period as Morrow, and you don’t hear nearly as much “blogger chatter” about him being shipped to the Minors as Morrow.

–Jim Street

NEW YORK — As the late, great Mel Allen would say, “How ’bout that?”

That is among the first impressions I got when I walked through the press gate door, past security, and then out of an elevator taking me to the press box at new Yankee Stadium.

It is some kinda place.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t look as big as I thought it would. There are six levels of seats from right field to left field and I am sitting in the second level, overlooking the huge scoreboard in center field. I wonder if my wife, Becky, would allow me to purchase a big-screen, HD screen like the one in CF.

My seat is just to the left of home plate, or, as they say on the South Side of Chicago, a seat where a writer can actually “see the game” as opposed to sitting far down the right field line. I have been there once and promised myself never to go back there again, unless the Mariners are playing the White Sox in the playoffs. That’s not likely. The Sox aren’t very good.

A tear or two were shed on my final stop on the subway. Old Yankee Stadium is still standing, looking like a grand old lady getting ready for the wrecking ball to show up at any time. The grass inside the facility is gone and the outside walls are covered with a a netting material that will be used, I guess, to keep the demolition from hurting someone nearby. It looks small to the new Yankee Stadium.

The walk between the two stadiums to the Gate 4 press entrance brought back memories of 1971, when I first walked into the old Yankee Stadium. Now, that was something special. The metal braces that restricted the view of many seats were there, and there must have been 30 or 40 of them. The press box was small and the elevators were slow.

The dining room and working area were hubs of activity and it was a lot easier to work in the workroom after the game than take the slow elevator back to the press box.

The really old Yankee Stadium had the facade all the way around the stadium, just like this new one. The newer-than-the-old one but older-than-the-new one stadium lacked most of the facade.

First impressions are good. Now, it’s down to the clubhouse to get some work done — and more pictures to take.

As you call tell, it is raining here, which canceled the Mariners batting practice. The Yankees got the pre-game swings in, but the heavens opened up around 5:05, about 15  minutres before the Mariners were supposed to stretch. Manager Don Wakamatsu called it “home field advantage.”

The first post-Beltre lineup has been posted and, as expected, Chris Woodward is manning the hot corner in tonight’s series opener against the Yankees.

The lineup:

1. Ichiro, R

2. Russell Branyan, 1B

3. Jose Lopez, 2B

4. Ken Griffey Jr., LF

5. Mike Sweeney, DH

6. Franklin Gutierrez, CF

7. Chris Woodward, 3B

8. Kenji Johjima, C

9. Ronny Cedeno, SS

P. Brandon Morrow

 

— Jim Street

It is Saturday afternoon at the old ballpark (the third-oldest in the Major Leagues) and I feel fortunate to have driven back and forth from my hotel headquarters and not been 1) rear-ended or 2) stopped by a policeman for not coming to a  complete stop at a stop sign.

It has been a tough driving weekend for my esteemed colleagues Larry LaRue and Larry Stone. I have reached the conclusion that they are 1) good writers and 2) lousy drivers.

Early batting practice just ended and Bruce Hines has left the mound. He seemed to be overpowering Wladimir Balentien, who might have been working on something which caused a few too many balls from leaving the batting cage. Either that or Hines has some good stuff.

Stoney is a long-time Dodgers fanatic and life-long fan of Sandy Koufax. So I just took a picture of him (Larry, not Sandy) in front of one of the paintings outside the press box. Stoney reciprocated by taking my photo with Duke Snider, my all-time hero, next to my dad.

By the way, my fellow scribe talked (begged?) his way out of getting a ticket and my other esteemed colleague is feelilng better after the rear-ender. His new nickname is “nails” as in — he’s as tough as nails.

Not really, but don’t tell him.

The clubhouse beckons, so better get back to work. I think Junior wants to give me an exclusive interview.

Tough day for Stoney, the best baseball scribe at the Seattle Times — by far. He stopped Griffey at mid-sentence in the clubhouse. Junior was pontificating about which outfield alignment he prefers when, he stopped, looked at Stoney and said: “Is your shirt turned inside-out?”

Yes it was.  

And now for the Mariners starting lineup:

1. Ichiro, RF

2. Russell Branyan, 1B

3. Adrian Beltre, 3B

4. Ken Griffey Jr., LF

5. Jose Lopez, 2B

6. Franklin Gutierrez, CF

7. Rob Johnson, C

8. Ronny Cedeno, SS

9. Felix Hernandez

— Jim Street