MARINERS

Being out of the Internet loop on Monday was rewarding in one way – the golf was fun – but also like 6:38 on a Friday evening without a cold one. It seems a little strange.

I missed linking to John Blanchette's Ken Griffey Jr., column, or any one else's column for that matter.

So Griff's left town again and all we are left with are, in order, our memories, this Larry Stone column from the Times, and way too many Red Sox fans.

The latter had to suffer through their beloved team getting whipped at Safeco last night, something Ty and I enjoyed immensely. And not because we are all that enamored with this year's M's. More because we were an island of Seattle backers in a Red Sox Nation sea. The inebriated young lady in front of us kept holding up her Manny Ramirez sign, hoping the left-fielder would toss her a ball. She was so busy trying to get his attention she failed to notice when Mike Timlin tossed her one, redirected off Adrian Beltre's bat. The home run landed right next to her, but she probably saw three baseballs coming at her and picked the wrong one to try to catch.

On to today's hot list …

• Another strong outing by Jeff Weaver (will I have to eat my words?) and the timely M's hitting led today's game stories, including the one from the P-I, and the ones from the Times, the News Tribune and the Herald. Here are the game stories from the Boston Globe and Herald.

• Joel Piniero actually says something funny in this News Tribune notebook. He wasn't greeted with Griffey-like cheers Monday.

• Ben Broussard has been playing a passable rightfield recently, though Ichiro shouldn't feel threatened.

• Left-hander Ryan Feierabend never stops working on his pickoff move.

• And our question of the day …

• Does it bother you when more than half the Safeco crowd is wearing the opposition's jersey?

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