Monthly Archives: July 2013

Mariners Stand Pat at Trade Deadline

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Week 16 & 17 Recap

Date Home Team Score Away Team Score Result
7/19 Astros 7 Mariners 10 W
7/20 Astros 2 Mariners 4 W
7/21 Astros 5 Mariners 12 W
7/22 Mariners 2 Indians 1 W
7/23 Mariners 4 Indians 3 W
7/24 Mariners 1 Indians 10 L
7/25 Mariners 8 Twins 2 W
7/26 Mariners 2 Twins 3 L/13
7/27 Mariners 0 Twins 4 L
7/28 Mariners 6 Twins 4 W
  • The Mariners came out of the All-Star break on a roll, sweeping the Astros and taking two of three against the Indians. We stumbled against the Twins over the weekend, splitting a four game series. This July surge is eerily reminiscent of similar surges in 2009 and 2011 except this year it’s almost completely driven by our young core.

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Zombie Outbreak: Why are Zombies so Popular?

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In 1978, George Romero released his classic film Dawn of the Dead beginning our cultural fascination with all things zombie. Since then, there have been hundreds of pieces of zombie fiction created spanning every medium—films, books, comics, video games, even zombie themed races. One of the highest rated television shows on cable is The Walking Dead. Max Brook’s seminal book, World War Z is now a multi-million dollar blockbuster movie. In 2011, the CDC named their disaster readiness manual “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.” Our culture has been bitten and we’re consuming everything related to zombies.

I read World War Z while I was in grad school and I created a high school Social Studies unit plan based on excerpts from the book. The idea for each lesson was to take a story from the book, examine the social commentary, and then apply these lessons to what the student observed in our society—assessing how truthful the commentary seemed to be. Perhaps zombies have grown so popular, because good zombie fiction is rife with social commentary. It reveals something about us that’s scarier than the monsters.

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Mariners Midseason Report: Hope is on the Way

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Week 15 Recap

Date Home Team Score Away Team Score Result
7/8 Mariners 11 Red Sox 4 W
7/9 Mariners 8 Red Sox 11 L
7/10 Mariners 4 Red Sox 11 L
7/11 Mariners 7 Red Sox 8 L/10
7/12 Mariners 8 Angels 3 W
7/13 Mariners 6 Angels 0 W
7/14 Mariners 4 Angels 3 W
  • Well that was a fun week. The Mariners lost three of four against the best team in baseball, the Red Sox and then swept the Angels in three games just before the All-Star Break. During this seven game homestand, the Mariners scored 6.86 (!) runs per game and hit eleven home runs. It also included two excellent performances by King Felix and the return of Erasmo Ramirez to the rotation. The Mariners head into the All-Star Break having hit a home run in twenty-two straight games and having won three of their last four series.

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The Problem with Superman

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I recently watched Man of Steel, the newest Superman movie, and walked away disappointed. Those of you who know me well know that I prefer Batman over Superman (and Marvel over anything from DC). In the right hands, Superman can be an interesting character at the center of some excellent storytelling. The first two thirds of Man of Steel was an excellent example of this type of storytelling but then something happened during the climax of the entire film that exposed the major flaw with Superman that prevents him from becoming a truly compelling character.

Note: Major spoilers follow, ye be warned

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Mariners Future is Now!

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Week 13 & 14 Recap

Date Home Team Score Away Team Score Result
6/24 – – – – –
6/25 Mariners 4 Pirates 9 L
6/26 Mariners 2 Pirates 4 L
6/27 – – – – –
6/28 Mariners 5 Cubs 4 W/10
6/29 Mariners 3 Cubs 5 L/11
6/30 Mariners 6 Cubs 7 L
7/1 – – – – –
7/2 Rangers 2 Mariners 9 W
7/3 Rangers 2 Mariners 4 W/10
7/4 Rangers 5 Mariners 4 L
7/5 Reds 2 Mariners 4 W
7/6 Reds 13 Mariners 4 L
7/7 Reds 1 Mariners 3 W
  • After taking a week off, here’s my recap of the last two weeks of Mariners action, and it’s been an eventful couple of weeks. The Mariners dropped a five game home stand to end the month of June, losing to the Pirates and dropping two of three against the Cubs. That Cubs series was a fun one to watch as all three games went down to the wire, two of them in extra innings. The Mariners started the month of July with two road series against the Rangers and the Reds and surprisingly won both of them.

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