Just some linkage tonight, as it's been a long, rough week at work.

Mrs. Frinklin goes into detail about why we hate our neighbors. You would too if you dealt with them. Just for an update, it's quarter to 10:00 at night, and they are STILL out there in the rain.

A couple great Slate articles. Matt Feeney eviscerate SportsCenter on ESPN. It's pretty snarky, but it's also true. Dan and Keith aren't coming back kids. The second is a Daniel Gross feature on Petco Park, the beautiful new Padre ballpark. The gist of the article is the park is actually doing all those nice things for downtown that teams always say when trying to get a new park. And trust me, Petco is very nice.

Beliefnet does April Fools? Heh...

Tim Kurkjian reminds everyone how painful baseball can be. I never get on any athlete who says he's hurt. I can't get out of bed because of headaches some days. Who am I to judge?

The PI ran part 1 of their baseball preview this morning, leading with John Hickey's piece on the aging M's, concentrating on The Edgar, Dan Wilson, and John Olerud. It's mostly fluff, completetly pushing the Company Line. To wit:
The team has a "sense of urgency". Okay, if everyone is so urgent, then why did they downgrade three positions (SS, LF,CF) and fail to signifcantly improve anywhere other than the disaster that was Jeff Cirillo?
If Freddy Garcia has a big year (which I think he will) the team can't resign him because "a big year means a big contract, bigger than the $6.875 million he earns now." Excuse me, a team that willingly gives Raul Ibanez 13 million based on 2 mediocre years in a hitters ballpark can certainly afford Freddy.
This entire section makes me chuckle
The thing is, the Mariners have a flood of good young starting pitchers just ready to make a splash in Seattle. The main reason Garcia won't be back is the Mariners have to find room for pitchers like Clint Nageotte, Travis Blackley and Rett Johnson to move into the rotation. It's one thing to have great young talent at Tacoma this year; there's no way sensible management lets that talent stagnate there next year.
So, we don't want talent to stagnate. Jamal Strong couldn't possibly play as well as Quinton McCracken, he needs to spend more time in AAA. Neither Matt Thorton or Bobby Madritsch could handle the bullpen this year, so we need to resurrect Ron Villone, Mike Myers and Terry Mulholland.
But the absolute money qoute is this, from Chuck Armstrong "I think there may be an increased emphasis on getting to the playoffs," Armstrong said. "When you think you should get there and you don't two years in a row, it's tough on everybody in the organization." So does this mean they're admitting the team hasn't been all that committed the past couple years?

The more discussed article, at least here in the blogosphere is Dave Andriesen's piece on Bill Bavasi and the Internet. Art Theil takes much the same tack, and they both take great pains to mention that Bavasi is a good mixture of objective and subjective. Again, the Company Line. Both peices have been pretty well hacked elsewhere, but I'd like to mention to Dave that I personally would like Bavasi a lot more had he not ridiculously overpaid for Ibanez, and traded a pretty effective pinchhitter for Quention McCracken. Just a thought.

Oh, and Adriesen also lists a ridiculous Top Prospects piece, including AJ Zapp, since he is a "great fielder". Oh, and this :If he lives up to the promise the Mariners see in him, Lopez could one day be America's most famous J. Lo, is a horrific sentence, and by itself knocks the PI sports section down at least 2 pegs.

Dog B (Jeffrey) tonight decides to continue his ongoing destruction of our couch. Our couch was somewhat healthy when we bought it secondhand. This of course was Pre-Jeffrey. Over the last 2 years he has utterly destroyed it. First he dug a hole in it's side. That's hardly noticeable, did you know how much fun upholstery glue can be? Thwarted there, he moved on to cushions. Both the bottom cushions have large, nasty gashes in the fabric thanks to him. Both sides of course, we're well beyond "flip the cushion over, no one will notice." The dog seems to have developed quite the taste for the foam inside each cushion, so every once in awhile when he thinks the Frinklins aren't paying attention, Jeffrey will go right for his favorite snack, couch innards. Such as it was tonight, I was in the spare bedroom looking for cool stuff to add to my fledgling blog, Mrs. Frinklin in the bedroom watching The Cosby Show on Nick at Night (a recent obsession, I've no idea why). Anyway, we both hear the by now familiar sounds of ripping, tearing and the odd growl Jeffrey affects while doing things he knows specify him as a bad dog. He sees me coming down the hall, so he runs off into the master bedroom. There Mrs. Frinklin admonishes him with the classic dog training phrase, "Not Appropriate".

Not Appropriate. Not, "Jeffrey" or "Bad Dog" or "Stop". Not Appropriate.

The damned thing is, it worked. Jeffrey drops his hard earned couch stuffing, and lays down with his momma. This dog can be positively evil.

I was asked for fantasy stuff...ok.
I'm not an NL expert but I have a couple ideas.

1-My blog will continue to push for Rockies 2B Aaron Miles as ROY. First of all you can't go wrong with a Rox batter, unless it's Neifi Perez. Second: this kid (well, he's 27) can play. Miles spent most of last year with Charlotte, hitting .304/.351/.445. He reminds some people of David Eckstein, but with more power (11 HR in AAA). He should be cheap, and Colorado waived Damian Jackson to clear the 2B job for him.

2-Jake Peavy has had a terrific spring (14.2 IP, 15K 5W 3R), and the new Petco Park should favor pitchers, especially righhanders. He won't be terribly cheap, but I'll bet he gives you comparable W and WHIP to Josh Beckett, and Beckett will be one of the most overpriced guys in the draft this year. Don't get me wrong, I think Beckett is terrific, but he's never pitched a full seaon, and never won more than 9 games.

The wife and I have thought about a combined blog, but we really wonder if we have enough to say for 3 of these. Besides, neither of us have been at this for more than 10 days.

Quickies!

This has to be a joke, right?

This kind of scares me.


Who's your inner rockstar?

Just a couple quick sports bits, nothing too exciting.

Aaron Miles takes the first step towards that ROY.

Junior is hurt again, this time time not too terribly serious. Still, it's not a good sign.

Jayson Stark, still cleanshaven, still disconcerting to me, plays Meet the Candidates for the World Series. The Beloved M's place in the Richard Gephart (looks good on paper,anyway) division. It's hard to argue with this.
Mariners: Biggest assets -- pitching depth, great young arms (Rafael Soriano, Joel Pineiro, Gil Meche, Clint Nageotte, J.J. Putz), deeper lineup. Biggest questions -- age, downgraded defense, age, power shortage, age.


Rosenthal mentions that the Mariners and Dodgers are looking at the Ranger OF Kevin Mench and AAA 1B Adrian Gonzalez. The problem is, as usual, the Mariners are "reluctant" to move their young pitchers. Which is what Texas wants and needs. So why do they bother. Just for the record: I like Adrian Gonzalez, I think he would make a nice fit if Olerud retires.

Okay, so no AL predictions today. Perhaps tomorrow. And no, I'm sane enough not to stay up and watch the Yankees-Devil Rays game this morning. I'm really conflicted about starting the year in Japan. Originally that was going to be "really ambivalent" but I doubt that's possible. I love the globalization of the game, and I think playing exhibitions in Japan are a wonderful idea, but forcing two teams to fly 14 hours for two games is rather ridiculous. It also takes away from Opening Day, which I fully support becoming a National Holiday. I'm unable to take the day off this year, as we have massive computer failures at work right now, and I'm the one how has to plan around them.

Mrs. Frinklin tells her side of the marriage story here, and tries to explain why she didn't wear her ring today. She also fixed her blog up good. Now, she didn't figure out HTML, but found a site where she can customize her own. It looks quite snazzy.

One last thing, check back tomorrow for AL predictions.

Back from Jersey Girl. It's an okay film, far more sentimental than any other Kevin Smith. Almost sappy in places, but it works for the most part. Ben Affleck, looking buffed and shined to perfection, actually acts more than poses. Racquel Castro is very cute, and pretty effective as his daughter, the titular Jersey Girl. To me the dialogue didn't sound much like typical Smith, it lacked that crackle and real-people-can't-talk-like-this wit. It sounded much more real, which is good, but loses some distinctiveness. The movie is very much worth seeing however, if only for a 1st grader singing Sweeney Todd.

Ever seen a bunny possessed by the devil? Check this.

We're off to see Jersey Girl. We're geeky, comic-book readin' suburbanites, you think we miss any Kevin Smith movie? I'll post a review later. It's a Santa Ana day, so the theater will be crowded. For those who are not familiar with the Santa Ana, they are really nasty winds that come up off the California desert and turn where I live into a combination of windtunnel and EZ-Bake Oven. Both Mrs. and I get unnaturally cranky during Santa Ana winds, so wish me luck.

Mrs. Frinklin took the tests from below and scored The Godfather and Saddam Hussain. Should I be nervous?

Well, Mrs. Frinklin spent much of tonight attempting to set up her own blog. She went with a different host, one she likes, but to me seems more complicated. Neither of us have any HTML experience whatsoever, but we're all set to learn. She even bought a book on the subject, but to me the damned book as well be written in Klingon. She's already thrown herself into it. Which is cool. Once she learns she can make mine all spiffy.

So I spent the evening watching the Padres and Cubs. We're near San Diego, so I've adopted the Pads. Nice late-Sprint Training game. Jake Peavy walked the leadoff man, then gave up a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. He pitched his way out of it beautifully, striking out Sammy, Alou, and Derrek Lee in succession. Giles lined one into the Padres bullpen, and the good guys won 7-1. A Padres ST record crowd of 12,694, about half of which was Chicago fans.

A couple of great tests here. I ended up Wuthering Heights and Che Guevara. I'll be up tonight trying to understand that.

Real quick, since the first game of the Elite Eight has already started. Your Final Four: UConn, Georgia Tech, Duke, and Oklahoma State.

In an effort to get people reading my 4 day old blog, I hooked up with BlogSnob. I hope it works.

This is just cool. And I'm going to abstain from making any snide remarks about George Steinbrenner or Scott Boras.

Mrs. Frink has to work today, so I have some time to do some serious blogging. The odds are good that I won't though. Days like this I have a tendency to plan out all the things I need accomplished, then get distracted and get very little actually done. Currently the distractions are 2 large barky dogs that happen to live with me. Oftentimes said dogs are very cute, playful and generally adorable. Unfortunately that’s only about 50% of the time. The other half they tend towards loud and destructive.

Dog A is Matchbox, a lab-husky mix, as least as we can figure. He was a rescue dog I adopted about 6 years ago when I first moved down to California. He was cute and perfect and healthy when I found him at pet store adoption center. That lasted about week. He then became deathly ill and I was certain he wouldn't make it. He did though, and I still owe my mother for his vet bills. He also picked up an odd habit. When he was really sick we were unable to crate him, and he slept on blankets in on the kitchen tile. When I went to work my mother would take whatever clothes I'd slept in the night before and place them in his bed with the blanket. My mother told me it was to keep my scent around him when I was at work. Well, it did something, because to this day he gets into the hamper, picks out socks or boxer shorts or undershirts, and carries them around the house with him. Matchbox is a very healthy dog now; in fact he hasn't been to the vet for anything beyond his shots since. He does still carry scars of his illness though. When he was sick his puppy teeth fell out, and other then his molars, his adult teeth never grew in. The effect is fairly comical, his lips always seem askew, and his tongue never does manage to stay in his mouth. There is some additional drooling involved too. He's a bit standoffish, a bit on the paranoid side. For some reason he's terrified by our television. He'll be perfectly content and then suddenly realize it's on. He then scurries to whoever is closest, and hides the best he can.

Dog B is Jeffery, and we have no idea whatsoever what he might be. We think he has some pit bull, and maybe some Shepard, but it's guesswork, nothing more. Jeffery was an adopted dog too. Mrs. Frinklin and I had been seeing each other for just under a year. We were driving home from my apartment and we stopped to buy some food for her two cats. There was yet another adoption day, this one run by Baja Animal Shelter. This group has decided to do the impossible: attempt to rescue and find homes for the thousands of neglected cats and dogs in Baja, Mexico. When we pulled up I mentioned we should go take a look. This is always dangerous for us, we both are big softies, especially for animals. This is true; currently we have 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 birds and a 3-legged turtle.

When Mrs. Frink first saw Jeffery it was over. He was 6 months old, 12 pounds, about half of which was located in his giant batwing ears. He had been a Tijuana street dog, captured and brought to the TJ pound. They bring in about a thousand dogs each week, keep them for 48 hours and then put them down. They don't use drugs either. The dogs are kept in cages with wires attached underneath. When their time is up, a switch is flipped and the dogs are electrocuted. Baja is allowed to take 3-4 dogs from the TJ pound each week. One of them was our Jeffery. He was tiny and adorable, in that so ugly he's cute way. Mrs. Frink picked him up, held him close. He made a couple soft sighing noises, almost like a baby. We took him home, and you would have too. He was supposed to peak at about 30 pounds. He actually didn't stop until 75. He has run of the house, not only does he sleep on the bed with us; he does so under the covers. Jeffery is loud, often annoying, and he doesn't like strangers. He's also the cuddliest dog ever, when he gets tired he will fold himself into whatever space he can find on the couch between us and fall asleep within an instant.

Can you tell we love our dogs?

And no, my name isn't Franklin either.

I had hoped to list at least some of my American League predictions today, but no luck. I thought I'd explain the name instead. No, Frinklin is not my name. When I first met the future Mrs. Frinklin she told me her name, a very pretty name that is frequently mispronounced. She was very adamant about me pronouncing it correctly. She told me both the correct and incorrect pronunciation, and made it very clear which she preferred. Me, attempting to be both cute and flippant told her I knew exactly what she was talking about, that my name was actually "Franklin" and yet people persisted in calling me "Frinklin".
In a lifetime of bad jokes, this one stood out. I had that horrid moment where you think, "God, did I just say that?" For a split-second I convinced myself that this was such a stupid joke that I had no choice but to bail. I was certain that I would regret this one for a long time, cuz in the short time we'd been talking I'd already become a bit smitten.
And then she started to laugh. I've been Frinklin ever since, and we're working on living happily ever after.

I'm really rather stunned at how popular the Mariners have become, both in and out of Seattle. It's different from what I grew up with. I started going to games in the early eighties with my grandparents. I can remember in 1985 (I would have been 11), going to game really early and watching batting practice. Stormin' Gorman Thomas was a Mariner then, having what I remember as a monster year (in reality: .215-32-87). Anyway he would always put on a show in batting practice, and afterwards all the kids would try to get him to come over and give an autograph. Well, on this occasion he came over to the stands and started asking every kid what their birthday was. Mine is in December. He said, "Me too." and tossed me a bat he'd cracked in BP. From then on, I became a fan of the Mariners and of Gorman Thomas. I still am.