A Day of Sadness

I woke up yesterday to read the horrible news that Greg Halman had been killed at the age of 24 at his home in the Netherlands.  His brother was arrested in the stabbing.  Words can't express what a horrible tragedy this is.  He was so promising earlier this year.  I loved his passion, skill, and the way he held himself.  Nobody knows what type of player he was going to turn into.  And now, we'll never know.  In the history books he will come across as hitting .207 in 44 career games with 2 HR and 9 RBI.  He was so much more than that.  My heart goes out to his friends, teammates, and family.  Just a horribly senseless act.  I can't recall the Mariners ever losing an active player before, it is quite a shock and left me disoriented throughout the day.

The only solace we can all take is that he was able to live his dream, if for only a fleeting moment.  Not many of us can say that.

Rest in peace, brother.

2011 and Pitcher Recap

,

I wanted to see how well the starting pitchers did during the games I went to.  However, the W/L does not mean the SP necessarily picked up the Win or Loss.  It refers to the final result for the game.  As you can see, the Mariners scored only 1 freaking run in Fister's 3 starts.  Poor guy, I'm sure he's feeling much better in Detroit.

Let's compare run support.  Fister, as I stated, only had 1 run scored for him in three games, or .33 runs per game.  That's definitely at the bottom.  Bedard, traded to Boston, was given 4 runs in three games, 1.33/game.  Furbush, Vasquez, and Pineda were all even at 2.3/game.  Felix was 2.89/game, and Vargas 3.22/game.  The man with the most support was Beavan at 3.6/game.  If you take out the first game Felix pitched, the historic come from behind win, then the Mariners only scored 2 runs per game in which he started!!

To the side you will find the SP ranked from lowest to highest ERA.  This isn't the best gauge always, but is a good indication on how their totals compared.  Then I decided to take out the "outliers".  That is, a game in which they just weren't as sharp as usual.  I only did this on pitchers who had 5 or more starts, 'cause it enabled me to see trends more easily.  I removed the 4/8 game for Vargas, 4/11 game for Felix, 8/15 for Pineda and 9/27 for Beavan.  We had a 2-2 record in those games.

It looks like the top two starting pitchers duking it out are Felix and Pineda.  They are pretty even in all categories, if only Pineda had 3 more starts then it would have been really easy to pick the top guy.  Statistics wise, Pineda not only tops Felix in ERA, but also in run support, strikeouts per 9 innings (9.44 vs 8.97), and Strikeout/Walk Ratio (4.1 vs 3.58), and Walks & Hits per Inning Pitched (.95 vs 1.06).  But Felix did last deeper into the games, and like I said he had 3 more starts.  Some of the stats could have something to do with the fact that he was a rookie.  They tried not to push his innings too far, and a lot of the teams did not have scouting on him.  Felix won the Cy Young last year, he had a lot of people gunning for him.  Ask me who I want on the mound and I would pick Felix over Pineda any day.  Felix is proven, Pineda still has a few more years to develop.
It was much harder for me to compare the hitters.  We had so many injuries and roster moves that I was only able to find 6 players with at least 100 plate appearances over those 41 games: Ichiro, Olivo, Ryan, Ackley, Smoak, and Kennedy.  Carp was just under at 91 PA.  The result?  They were pretty much pathetic!  I don't know how many more ways I can prove that our offense sucked this year. 

Below you see our team hitting organized by month.  April and August were our best months, followed by May.  Remember, this is only with the top seven players mentioned above.  Doing the whole team would have been too large of a project.

Team batting by month, combining Ackley, Carp, Ichiro, Kennedy, Olivo, Smoak, and Ryan

Overall, not good at all. No single player has ever had that many plate appearances in a season.  But let's ignore that part.  Even if this had been a regular season length, 17 homers with 63rbi could be seen as a pretty poor season, akin to the seventh man in the lineup.  The .216 batting average is terrible, the 191 strikeouts vs 66 walks is horrible.  That's 2.89 (nearly 3) per walk.  We struck out 23% of our plate appearances. 

The tables above compare the 7 players.  The first organizes by On Base Percentage, Batting Average, and finally by plate appearances.  I was surprised to see how low Ackley's BA was, it seemed like every time I saw him he got a hit, or at least got on base.  I'm excited to see what he brings over a full 162 games next year.  In general I care more for On Base Percentage than Batting Average.  A good batter will have an OBP of at least 75 points higher than their BA.   A great one will be 100 or more above.  For the seven players, here is how they ranked:

1. Smoak (.116)
2. Ackley (.113)
3. Ryan (.082)
4. Olivo (.051)
5. Carp (.051)
6. Ichiro (.042)
7. Kennedy (.027)

I also like extra base hits.  I like them because if you have someone on, they are more likely to score!  I like them because the only way you can score in baseball is if your runner gets around the bases.  The faster they move from base to base, the less work the player behind them has to do.  If you leadoff the inning with a double, you can get two productive outs and score the runner without a base hit.  So, here are the players listed by the percent of their hits being extra bases.  For the team it was .067, just below the "good" threshold.

1. Smoak (61.90%)
2. Carp (47.37%)
3. Olivo (41.18%)
4. Ackley (36.84%)
5. Kennedy (33.33%)
6. Ichiro (20.51%)
7. Ryan (13.04%)

Ryan isn't really surprising, he went a really long time without an extra base hit to start the season.  OlivoSmoak's and Carp's numbers can probably be partially attributed to their lack of games played.  Overall, the "team" percentage was 34%.

Finally. let's look at the Strikeouts per Walk ratio.  The lower, the better.   As stated above, the team ratio was 2.89:1

1. Ackley (1.71:1)
2. Smoak (2.00:1)
3. Ryan (2.50:1)
4. Ichiro (2.86:1)
5. Carp (4.67:1)
6. Kennedy (6.67:1)
7. Olivo (8.00:1)

I like RBI almost more than I love extra base hits, 'cause I don't care how we get them!  Let's compare the leaders in the percentage of time a plate appearance led to an RBI.  It may not exactly be fair because the meat of your order is generally who will produce your most runs.  So, it isn't surprising that Ichiro and Ryan are near the bottom.  Olivo hit in the 3/4/5 spots most of the year, and he should be higher.  Kennedy is the real surprise.

1. Carp (13.19%)
2. Smoak (11.32%)
3. Kennedy (9.00%)
4. Ackley (7.92%)
5. Ichiro (6.29%)
6. Olivo (5.22%)
7. Ryan (3.23%)

Now, if we "weigh" all the leaders in the categories I talked about above, here is a list of the top batters for the year.  There are 7 categories: OBP, BAA, PA, BAA above OBP, XBH%, BB/K, and RBI %. 

1. Smoak
2. Ackley
3. Ichiro
4. Carp
5. Ryan
6. Kennedy
7. Olivo

The top two hitters were Ackley and Smoak.  I was surprised to see Ichiro that high, although that is attributed to being first in plate appearances and second in batting average.  He was second to last in two categories and smack dab in the middle for the other one.  Olivo was at the bottom, and we got him for his bat, 'cause his defense sure sucks.  I'm hoping we either pick up a new catcher, or Adam Moore stays healthy.

Well, that's it.  That wraps up 2011.  I'm sure I could spend months digesting and regurgitating different statistics but I think this will suffice.  2012 is right around the corner, and our kids are going to deliver (or heads will roll).

End of Year Recap

 I ended up going to exactly half of the home games, if you include the away games we played against the Marlins.  I ran short of my goal, but this was due to missing around a month because of my back injury.  From the statistics I compiled, I pretty much proved that if the Mariners scored more than 4 runs, they would win.  Their record was 12-1 when they scored more than 4 runs, which means they won 92% of the time!!!   Unfortunately, it seemed a little too difficult for them to score that many.

Mariners Record By Team Played

As you can see from the stats, I saw the Mariners play 15 different teams, 4 NL and 11 AL teams.  Since there are 14 in the American League, I only missed 2: Baltimore, and Boston.  Our record in Inter-league games was 2-4.  It isn't surprising that the top two teams I saw most frequently were from our division.  Nearly 20% of the time I hit Safeco I had the pleasure of seeing the green and gold of the Athletics, but that is helped by our positive record (5-3).  I was a little surprised that I saw the Rangers as many times as the Blue Jays, but maybe that is a good thing (1-3).

Now I will show a game of all game results organized by date played.  I will do another post on individual batter/pitcher statistics, although that is turning into a bigger venture than I thought!.  As you can see by the chart below, losses are in red and wins in black.  There are so many different ways I can rank/calculate, the options are endless and I could do 15 posts about it.  But I won't, at least for now.

The Greatest Loss was on Opening Night, as we lost by 9 runs to Cleveland.  Our Largest Win was July 1st (Game 19) against San Diego.  Interesting that the Starting Pitcher both games was Jason Vargas. 

Average attendance per game I attended was 22,798.  The capacity of Safeco Field is over 45,000.  The average time of game was 2:41.  The shortest game of the year (Game 34) clocked in at 2:04, and the longest was the historic comeback in Game 3 at 3:46.

The smallest crowd of 12,770 for Game 6 was only 4 tickets above the second smallest (Game 5).

From the table at the top of the page as well as to the left, you can see our pathetic run totals.  We scored 1 or fewer runs in 15 games.  That is over a third of all games I went to!  We won only 1 of those (Game 5), the lowest attended game of the year, and were shut out in 6 of them.  At least we threw 5 of our own!

The absolute worst day to go was Saturday. I find it hard to believe that we lost every single Saturday game I went to! But the stats don't lie, they were 0-9.  That can't be a coincidence.  It will be interesting to see if I find a similar result in 2012

I'm glad I compiled all these, it will be interesting to look for patterns year after year.

September Games Recap

The final month of the season wrapped up poorly.  I didn't keep track of food the final games, but that ended up being too hard to keep track of anyway so I won't do again next year.

Thu 9/1 LAA L 4-3, Furbush,  Baked Potato, scored, 19,453
Thu 9/8 KC W 4-2, Vargas, Pizza, scored, 14,473
Sat 9/10 KC L 4-2, Pineda, Torta, scored, 17,883
Sun 9/11 KC L 2-1, Vasquez, Cafe, scored, 20,951
Tue 9/13 NYY L 3-2, Furbush, Burger, scored, 18,306
Fri 9/16 TEX W 4-0, Beavan, scored, 17,607
Sat 9/17 TEX L 7-6, Vasquez, scored, ROOF, 22,159
Mon 9/26 OAK W 4-2, Vargas, scored, ROOF, 17,507
Tue 9/27 OAK L 7-0, Beavan, scored, 18,600
Wed 9/28 OAK L 2-0, Vasquez, scored, 20,173

Record by Starting Pitcher
Felix: N/A (6-3)
Pineda: 0-1 (4-2)
Vargas: 2-0 (3-6)
Beavan: 1-1 (3-2)
Furbush: 0-2 (0-3)
Vasquez: 0-3 (0-3)
Fister: N/A (0-3)
Bedard: N/A (1-2)

Record by Day (Overall)
Mon: 1-0 (6-3)
Tue: 0-2 (2-3)
Wed: 0-1 (3-2)
Thu: 1-1 (2-1)
Fri: 1-0 (5-4)
Sat: 0-2 (0-9)
Sun: 0-1 (0-1)

Record By Food
Baked Potato: 1-0 (2-1)
Cookies: N/A (1-1)
Pizza:  1-0 (4-1)
Gyro: N/A (3-2)
Garlic Chicken N/A (2-2)
Garlic Fries: N/A (1-1)
Kettle Corn: N/A (3-2)
Crepe: N/A (2-3)
Brisket Sandwich: N/A (1-1) 
Burger: 0-1 (0-2)
Cafe: 0-1 (0-1)
Torta: 0-1 (1-1)

Record with Roof Closed: 1-1 (3-3)
Record while Scoring: 3-7 (10-17)

Attendance:
Mon: 17,057;
Tue: 18,306; 18,600
Wed: 20,173
Thu: 19,453; 14,473
Fri: 17,607
Sat: 17,884; 22,159
Sun: 20,951
Avg Attendance:  18,666 (21,953)

Overall Score:  Opponent 33 (135) Mariners 26 (121)
Run Differential: -7 (-14)

Avg Runs Scored
Mariners 2.6
Opponent 3.33

Greatest Run Differential Win: 4
Greatest Run Differential Loss:7

Mariners total Runs Record:
0: 0-2 (0-6)
1: 0-1 (1-8)
2: 0-2 (1-4)
3: 0-1 (4-4)
4: 3-0 (5-0)
5:       (3-0)
6: 0-1 (2-1)
8:       (2-0)

Opponent:
0: 1-0 (5-0)
1:       (2-1)
2: 2-2 (7-4)
3: 0-1 (1-3)
4: 0-2 (1-5)
5:       (1-3)
6:       (0-1)
7: 0-2 (1-2)
8:       (0-2)
9:       (0-1)
12:     (0-1)

Overall 3-7 (18-23)
One Run Games: 0-4 (6-7)

Mariners Blanked to End Year

I couldn't wait to get out of their fast enough, it is really frustrating.  Yesterday was bad, but today we only managed TWO measly hits the entire game.  TWO.  We also had 3 walks, but 11 strikeouts.  It feels like the players couldn't wait for the season to end fast enough so they could go fishing.

Athletics (73-88)

Crisp CF

Taylor LF

Weeks 2B

Willingham DH

Sizemore 3B

Carter 1B

Miller RF

Powell C

Rosales SS

Gonzalez (15-12, 3.25)

Mariners (67-94)

Ichiro RF

Robinson CF

Ackley 2B

Smoak 1B

Carp LF

Kennedy DH

Liddi 3B

Seager SS

Giminez C

Vasquez (1-5, 8.89)

I'm not going to talk much about the game. The Athletics scored the lone runs of the game via a 2 run homer to right center by Miller.  Vasquez never impressed me, I would be surprised if he makes the club next year.  And that was the ballgame... even though we were only down 2 runs it just wasn't going to happen today.  Horrible way to end the season, being shut out the final two games.  20,173 hard core baseball fans were there for the final one this year.

Ichiro failed to get above 200 hits for the first time in his ML career, ending 184, a .272 BA, and a pathetic .310 OBP.  He is now 37 and his numbers will continue to decline.  He's only got one more year on the contract and then it is sayonara and we can finally get a real lead off hitter. 

It was a tough first year without Dave Niehaus.  But we're getting younger, we've got a new Manager in Eric Wedge that I believe is competent, and some exciting players to watch.  Ackley is going to be solid.  Pineda is young, if he develops a third pitch he'll be locked in the two spot for years.  Carp, did he finally have a breakthrough after years in the Minors?  Will Smoak match his potential?  So many questions, and after a sometimes frustrating year I am optimistic about 2012.  We're definitely turning this franchise around, you can see it.

Here's to next year!!

A Stinker

That's the best way I can sum it up.  We just stunk.  Total blowout, our offense was inept and only managed 4 hits as we lost 7-0.  Beavan, who had been doing pretty well lately, was not sharp.

Athletics (72-88)

Weeks 2B

Crisp CF

Matsui LF

Willingham DH

Dejesus RF

Sizemore 3B

Suzuki C

Allen 1B

Sogard SS

Cahill (11-14, 4.31)

Mariners (67-93)

Ichiro RF

Rodriguez SS

Ackley DH

Carp LF

Smoak 1B

Olivo C

Seager 2B

Liddi 3B

Saunders CF

Beavan (5-5, 3.82)

Beavan ended up going exactly 5 innings, giving up eight hits and all seven runs.  It started in the first with a 3 Run BOMB by Willingham to deep left field.  The Mariners threatened in the 1st inning with back to back singles by Ichiro and Rodriguez, but Ackley struck out and Carp ground to second for a double play.  Beavan gave up two more runs in each of the third and fifth innings.  The 5th inning runs were thanks to another homer, this time by Sizemore.  The only other possible scoring opportunity by the Mariners was in the 7th inning with runners on 1st and 2nd with one out, but the runners were stranded.  The Mariners had 4 hits, 1 BB, 8 K, and 4 LOB.  I'm hoping that we will end the season on a positive note tomorrow, with some signs of offense.

Att: 18,600

Vargas is Stellar in Final Start.

Fantastic pitching by both starters, as Mariners won 4-2 in front of 17,057 fans.  There was a little excitement in the 5th inning as Carter hit the roof with a foul ball!!!!!  This is a rare occurrence, occurring only two other times that I can recall.

Athletics (72-87)

Weeks 2B

Crisp CF

Matsui DH

Willingham LF

Sizemore 3B

Suzuki C

Carter 1B

Taylor RF

Rosales SS

McCarthy (9-8, 3.26)

Mariners (66-93)

Ichiro RF

Rodriguez SS

Ackley 2B

Carp DH

Smoak 1B

Olivo C

Robinson LF

Liddi 3B

Saunders CF

Vargas (9-13, 4.38)

The Mariners scored all of their runs via the long ball.  Olivo got a solo shot in the 5th to tie up the ballgame.  Then, in the 6th, Smoak launched a 3 run homer 403 feet to right center, scoring Ackley and Carp with 2 outs.  I'm hoping that Ackley, Carp, and Smoak will be producing like that for the Mariners for the next decade.  Smoak has had a tough year with the passing of his father, and injuries.  I'm hoping next year he's healthy, and finally proves that we made the right trade for Cliff Lee.  Olivo is now the all-time leader in single season home runs for a Mariners catcher with 19.  If only he could actually catch the damn ball. 

I was a little pissed that they pulled Vargas after 8 innings.  He got his career high 10th strikeout in the 8th. Vargas only had 105 pitches, and it was his final start of the year.  They way he was cruising, I don't think an extra 12 pitches would have put him in imminent danger of injuring himself.  Plus, League struggled and practically blew the save.  He gave up 2 hits and a run before getting Suzuki to ground to short for the final out.  My heart started racing for a few minutes, thinking that League was going to ruin the night.  But he pulled it out, and Vargas got a much deserved 10th win of the year.  The lone run he gave up was in the top of the first, after that it was smooth sailing.

I guess McCarthy deserves some praise as well... he had a complete game.

The Mariners are now 18-21 when I attend.

Mariners Appreciate Fans With Another Loss

Tonight was not as good of a pitching performance, for either team.  It was fan appreciation night for 22.159 in attendance, but the Mariners couldn't put together a good pitching performance, and despite the six runs they scored they only got one runner on base past the 5th inning.

Rangers (86-65)

Kinsler 2B

Andrus SS

Hamilton LF

Young 1B

Beltre 3B

Napoli C

Cruz DH

Murphy RF

Gentry CF

Lewis (12-10, 4.29)

Mariners (63-87)

Ichiro RF

Seager 3B

Ackley 2B

Carp 1B

Kennedy DH

Bard C

Ryan SS

Robinson LF

Saunders CF

Vasquez (1-3, 7.29)

Vasquez was never in it, struggling from the beginning.  He only went 3 plus innings, giving up two hits in the first and second innings (including a run in the 2nd).  Then, it pretty much fell apart in the 3rd inning.  To lead off the inning Vasquez gave up back to back home runs to Andrus and Hamilton, then another solo shot to Beltre that traveled 408 feet.  This was after the Mariners had scored 4 runs of their own in the 2nd inning.  They enjoyed their 4-1 lead for only a few minutes.  After starting the 4th inning with a walk, Vasquez was pulled for Gray.  But he himself struggled and the Rangers scored another 3 runs in the inning to go up 7-4.  Carp made it interesting in the 5th with a 2 run homer of his own, to pull the Mariners within 1 run at 7-6.  But there the score remained.  The Mariners were lucky to escape without giving up more runs.  Let's take a look at the Rangers' box score, everyone contributed.  They left 10 men on base, the damage could have been so much worse.

Kinsler:  BB, R
Andrus: 1B, HR, RBI, 2 R
Hamilton: 3H, 2B, HR, 3RBI, R
Young: 2 BB, 1B, SAC, RBI
Beltre: HR, RBI, R
Napoli: 2 2B
Cruz: 1B
Murphy: BB, 1B, R
Gentry: 1B, RBI

On a historic note, Ichiro passed Mantle with his RBI base hit in the 2nd inning.  He now has 2,416 base hits for his ML career.  Never thought I would talk about Mantle in the same sentence as Ichiro.  This will be the last time.

I would also like to add that this is the second year in a row that nobody from my seating section has won a prize.

The roof was closed in the bottom of the 8th.
They are now  17-21 when I attend.

Mariners earn 10th Shutout

The Mariners put in a solid performance, shutting out their opponent for the 10th time this season behind the excellent pitching of Beavan.  He ended up going 8 strong innings, giving up only four hits.  League wrapped up his 45th save of the year by striking out the side.  

Rangers (86-64)

Kinsler 2B

Andrus SS

Hamilton LF

Young 3B

Beltre DH

Murphy RF

Torrealba C

Moreland 1B

Chavez CF

Wilson (16-6, 3.01)

Mariners (62-87)

Ichiro RF

Ryan SS

Ackley 2B

Olivo C

Carp 1B

Pena DH

Seager 3B

Robinson LF

Wells CF

Beavan (4-5, 4.32)

The Mariners scored 3 of their 4 runs in a 41 pitch 3rd inning, thanks to a key error. Wells and Ryan were on 1st and 2nd, respectively, with 2 outs when Ackley came to the plate.  The count was 3-2 and he hit a chopper to Kinsler.  Kinsler fielded it fine but his throw to first was way off.   It ended up being a 2 base error as Wells scored and Ryan ended up at 3rd.  Chalk it up to Ackley's speed, a brain fart?  I don't know, but I'll take it.  Just three pitches later and a wild pitch got past Torrealba, scoring Ryan.  Olivo ended up with an infield single to shortstop followed by an RBI single off the second base bag for Carp. Pena was then hit by a pitch on his foot to load the bases, but Seager struck out for the final out. It was a wild inning, and one that Niehaus would have enjoyed.  Remember, this was all with 2 outs.  So we got an error, wild pitch, and freak hit to thank for the 3 runs as we went through the lineup.  That was all we needed, but they added an insurance run in the 7th inning as Wells lead off with a homer into the Rangers' bullpen, and we won 4-0.  Special note, Wells worked a full count in each of his at-bats tonight.  

Now 17-21 when I attend!
Att: 17,607

In Honor of Dave

Dave Niehaus 1935-2010

I never knew Dave Niehaus.  Well, not personally.  I can't recall ever catching a glimpse of him at Spring Training in 1993, or when walking by the broadcast center on the club level at Safeco.  I didn't know him, but I felt like I did.  He felt like a part of my family, a surrogate Grandfather.  He told me fascinating stories, and lulled me to sleep at night over countless spring, summer, and early fall nights.  His loss has greatly affected the Mariners community, and it will never be the same without him.  This first year has been really tough.  Sure, it has been nice hearing Ken Levine, Ken Wilson, and Ron Fairly on the airwaves again.  But, it isn't the same.  It isn't even close, and I can't bear to listen to the television broadcast anymore.

Niehaus was an important part of the Mariners since day one, 34 years, and all of my years. Words can't adequately express how a simple radio broadcaster can have such an impact on your life. If you don't listen to baseball, you wouldn't understand. You let these people into your homes and hearts for nearly half of the year. You go through the excitement of the first day of Spring Training, the hope of Opening Day, dog days of summer, the blowouts, come from behind wins, pennant races, and the thrill/agony of the playoffs. Don't tell me that you wouldn't feel the loss of losing someone who has been an important part of your life. He could possibly be the reason I fell in love with baseball. I think maybe I fell in love with his voice first. Dave spoke to me.

I went to his memorial last year, there was a small shrine with various trinkets and gifts left for his family.  I left a token of my appreciation, and my childhood.  My favorite rock.  I used to collect them when I was a kid, and this one was special because it was perfectly round with a single white stripe, almost like a belt, around it.  But what made it even more special, was that it was so smooth.  I used to love rubbing its surface against my cheek.

But let me digress for a moment, the most amazing thing I saw left at the site was by a middle aged man, I'm guessing at least fifty. He approached the offerings, took the glove off his hand, left it, and simply walked away. It gave me goosebumps. The glove was well worn, it was obviously beloved, and I still get choked up thinking about it.

I left the rock for many reasons.  With the loss of Niehaus, I felt like I lost a bit of my childhood.  So it was only fitting to me that I should leave a bit of my childhood behind.  Rocks are constant, he was our constant.  It was also a way to acknowledge that "I was here, I recognize you, I remember you."


They remembered Dave today with the unveiling of his statue. It is the first statue in Mariners history.  It shows Dave, sitting at his broadcast booth with his scorebook opened up to game 5 of the 1995 ALDS.  He is surrounded by his most well known phrases, as seen above.  I think my favorite part is the empty seat beside him.  So that we, the fans, may join his broadcast for one final time.

The detail is extraordinary, as you can see from the pictures at right.  You can see his veins, the ring, the detail on his tie, the wrinkles in his suit!  Kudos go to the artist, Lou Cella.  The only issue I have is the grammatically incorrect "Its" in his Grand Salami phrase.  I didn't see an apostrophe.  Maybe I didn't look closely enough.  I believe it should be It's, as the phrase would be "It is Grand Salami...".  Maybe someone out there can shed some light.  Am I mistaken?

All in all, a great tribute to a great man.  He will always be a part of this community, and now he has been immortalized so that generations of Mariners fans to come may pay tribute to The Voice of the Mariners.  Rest in Peace, Dave.  Thank You For the Memories.