Mariners Win one for Rick “The Peanut Man”

The Seattle Mariners snapped a painful 17-game losing streak by trouncing the New York Yankees 9-2 as all of us in Mariners Nation let out a sigh of relief. Mariners Ace Felix Hernandez went 7 frames allowing only a run and for once he got the backing of his teammates who scored 9 runs thanks to a season high 17 hits. Mike Carp had 4 hits and 4 RBI’s today including a huge bases-clearing triple in the seventh to prove he really can hit in the Majors. Ichiro also had a 4-hit day and Dustin Ackley continued his impressive play with three base knocks and 3 RBI’s of his own.

The flight home will certainly be a lot looser thanks to this win today after a losing streak that felt like it would never end. In my last post I wrote I would not be writing again till the Mariners won two games in a row but that was over a week and two mustaches ago (mine and Eric Wedge ‘s) so I figured I would try to reconnect with any of my readers out there who are still following our club.

This losing streak dating back to the July 5th win over the A’s certainly tried my patience as a Mariners fan and though we have managed to drop completely out of the AL West race I can’t help but feel giddy today as if we just won a playoff game! It was nice to see our guys smiling as they exchang Ed High -fives on the mound after the game and as much as this streak sucked for us die-hard fans you can bet it was way worse for Eric Wedge and his crew who have certainly been up and down this year.

I was feeling kind of lost this past week as the anguish progressed and even went so far as to watching the Pittsburgh Pirates on an ESPN game trying to learn their names so I could jump on their bandwagon for the rest of the season. But after today’s victory I am back in the fold, as like it or not this is our team and after following them for 30 years I really have nowhere else to go.

On a sadder note I just learned that Rick Kaminski the ” Peanut Man” has passed away today at age 67. This is indeed sad as Rick was a fixture here in Seattle over all the years flipping peanuts behind his back and always quick with a joke and a smile. I talked to Rick a couple times in Peoria over the last few years and he was a delightful human being. With Niehaus and now Rick gone there is not much left for and old SeaDog like me to remind me of the old Kingdome days when I head down to the Safe these days, but like a good sailor I will sail on….Go M’s http://jeffsmariners.com