Be sure to turn off the lights before you go home

Baseball is becoming a spectacle sport. What started as playing music for plate appearances has turned into each Major League established closer having their own music as well. Mariano Rivera has "Enter Sandman," Trevor Hoffman trotted out to "Hells Bells" and JJ would strike fear into opposing batters with "Thunderstruck."

But is this an intimidation tool? Or simply another way for the home stadiums to pump up an already excited crowd with the lead in the ninth?

I haven't been to a Mariners game this year where Brandon Morrow has needed to come in and lock the game up with a save. Because of that I have no idea what his "closer entrance theme" is. If you do know, please tell me in the comments.

But this posed an interesting question for me. If you were a major league closer what would your entrance music be?

I'll go first...Hatebreed "I will be Heard."

Hopefully most of you reading this will know what I'm talking about but for those of you who don't, imagine the most hardcore metal song that starts out with, "Now...is the time...for me to rise...to my feet! Wipe this spit...from my face...wipe these tears...from my eyes!"

If you can't get jacked up for that, you aren't alive.

How say you? What would your closer entrance music be?

*UPDATE: Garbs points out in the comments that Morrow's closer music may be Lenny Kravitz' "Are you gonna my way." If this is in fact true, (which I hope it's not) you can eliminate any chance of using closer entrance music to strike intimidation into the hearts of batters. Instead, in this case, it's used as a means to get the average fans toe tapping with catchy guitar riffs while at the same time succeeding in ultimately pissing people like me off.

The Bush Leagues Blogcast, Episode 2

We finally got our second blogcast up and ready for download. Check it out, and let us know what you think!

Special thanks to Nate Minear for producing the opening music for us.

Nick

Episode 2

Freddy Garcia Released!

Former Mariner Freddy Garcia was released by the Mets today. "The Chief" allowed seven runs in two starts for New York's Triple-A club, the Buffalo Bisons.

Unfortunately I think this may be the end of the line for Freddy Garcia. He was quoted by MLB.com as saying, "I don't feel I have any power, so I tried to do the best I can with whatever I have."

Since leaving Seattle, Freddy Garcia enjoyed success with the Chicago White Sox, winning a World Series with the club in 2005. He was traded to the Phillies prior to the 2007 season but never lived up to his expectations. He was placed on the DL as he needed surgery to repair his rotator cuff.

Way to go, Rookie Biotch!

Noah and I took a shot at recording episode 2 of our blogcast yesterday, only to figure out when we listened to the play back, that my mic sounded like hell. We think it was because it was too far away from my face. Go figure. Anyway, We are going to meet up on Tuesday and give it another shot, and hopefully I can pull my head out and get a good recording.

On a lighter note, its my B-day! Turning 26. Absolutely nothing happens for this birthday. Yay...

Garbs

Hanging out right now, watching Eric Bedard throw the Angels into a hole that is going to be a bitch to get out of. Currently, its 7-1 in the bottom of the 5th, and the M's look like they have a pretty good chance of winning the opening game. There is some psychic ability for you. Watching Bedard do what he was brought to Seattle to do is a bit bitter sweet for me for the simple reason that I don't know if he'll be here next year to keep doing it. If the M's end up making a run at the pennant this year, its going to be because we have the best 1-2 punch in baseball (currently, with how Washburn is throwing, we have the best 1-2-...4 combination in baseball). Granted, we do need to hit the ball better to hope to do anything, but having Felix and Bedard at the top of the rotation is a huge part of our success. Can you imagine having to face a rotation like the M's have in a five game series? I have a feeling teams around the league are secretly keeping an eye on the M's, hoping this insane pitching we have going on is going to cool off.

Our bats are bound to come alive. Right now, the M's are winning 8-3, Chavez is 3-4, Branyan has a HR along with a double, and even Beltre has an RBI double. If either Beltre, Branyon, or Griffey decides to have a great month of May, look for the M's to be a top three team in the league still. They have the pitching of a playoff team, just need a bat or two to get hot, and it won't matter when the Angles get healthy, they'll be 8 or 9 games out.

What do you think, are we a bat away from leaving the West in our dust?

Also, Noah and I are going to try and record the blogcast every Sunday, so if you have any questions or issues you want brought up by a couple of guys who think they know way more about sports then they actually do, leave them in the comments, and we'll bring them up on the show.

Be sure to tell anyone who likes the M's or baseball about our blog and blogcast. Word of mouth is always a great way to spread information, and we can use all the help we can get! Thanks to everyone who downloaded the first episode. Be sure to check in on Monday for episode two!

Nick

Whoa...I can tell you the future!

Here is a direct quote from an earlier post about the M's - Rays series:

"My guess? Seattle wins Game 1 with Washburn on the mound. Tampa wins Game 2 and Felix dominates the Rays in a pitching duel with James Shields for the Game 3 W and the series win! "

I'm not saying I can predict the future...but that's kind of creepy. Twilight Zone style shit.

For those of you who missed it...

Sure, people laughed at me when I said it. Hell, when asked after the podcast if I really thought it was true I recanted on my decision and said I didn't think it was possible. But let it be known that I did say Jarrod Washburn would have 10 wins by the All-Star break! If you don't believe me, have a listen here:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/bushleagues/blogcast4-18Final.mp3

Now this could completely blow up in my face but, after 3 starts, Washburn has 3 wins (2 of which came while he was experiencing the flu and cramps) and has looked impressive thus far. Come on, Jarrod! Seven more!