Go, Mariners! Part III: You Get What You Pay For

Alvarez launches game-winner, Oct. 13.

	2022 Record	MLB rank (of 30)	2002 Team payroll	MLB rank
Seattle Mariners	90-72	9	$107 million	22
Houston Astros	106-56	2	$176 million	10

[MLB Teams With Highest 2022 Payrolls: Dodgers on Top | BetMGM]

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A Few Random Thoughts on “Drink the Kool-Aid” as a Political Metaphor

Recently, in the agonizing run-up to this God-forsaken election [1], I’ve been coming across the idiom “Drink the Kool-Aid” much more often than I’d like or even expect. Accordingly, I took it upon myself to express my indignation. Before clowns got creepy Then I thought: Do I even know what it means, really? Where did the phrase come from? I wasn’t sure, and I wasn’t sure people who have been using the phrase were sure. (I’ve become forgetful in my geezerhood.) And so, like so many of us do when we aren’t sure, I resorted to Wikipedia: "Drinking the Kool-Aid" is an expression used to refer to a person who believes in a possibly doomed or dangerous idea because of perceived potential high rewards. The phrase often carries a negative connotation. It can also be used ironically or humorously to refer to accepting an idea or changing a preference due to popularity, peer pressure, or persuasion. The phrase originates from events in Jonestown , Guyana , on November 18, 197...

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Wow, that was some ball game yesterday! [Sat., Oct. 8] I am referring of course to the Mariners’ improbable come-from-behind victory in Toronto that eliminated the Blue Jays and sent the Ms to the next round of the play-offs. From my standpoint, it doesn’t rate as a “great” or even a “good” baseball game. It was just unbelievable, i.e., literally hard to believe, an outlier. I’ve watched a lot of baseball games, (God help me), but I’ve never seen one quite like that. Not that I watched the whole thing. In fact, I wonder how many Mariners fans, aside from those who were stuck at the “watch party” [i] at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, actually watched the whole game, beginning to end. The Ms’ starter, Robbie Ray, had a wretched outing, falling behind 4-0 in the early going. At that point, recalling the previous day’s 4-0 victory by Seattle [ii] , I remarked to my wife, “Well, the old saying ‘Turnabout is fair play’ comes to mind. The ...

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