The Changing Seasons

No, this isn't another post about how damn hot it is in my office (although it's still pretty stifling in here), but rather about how we're one week from August, which means that the NFL preseason will be here before you know it. I don't get too excited about preseason NFL games because it's really just a big scam to bilk more money from season ticket holders (me!) by forcing mandatory purchase of the tickets. That being said, I have to admit the Mariners are making it hard to write off the baseball season just yet. I typically watch at least an inning or two of most every Mariners game during the season, but lately I've found myself looking forward to watching the games every day and flipping to the standings in the paper first thing every morning to see exactly how many games back they are in their division (I believe 3.5 games behind Oakland as of tonight).

Take yesterday's game for example. I put in about 16-18 hours yesterday at work but had the Yahoo StatTracker version of the game open in a small window on my desktop. The game against Boston, just based on watching a statistical play by play may have been one of the most exciting games in a long, long time. Multiple home runs, a couple of lead changes, an in-the-park home run, a blown save in the top of the 9th and a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th. All to give the Mariners an 8-7 victory and a series win over Boston. Nothing better than shutting up the front-running masses who chear for the visiting team. I hate those people.

But I digress... the Mariners are fun to watch again. The played a great game tonight and now have a three game winning streak going. And with the way Oakland and Texas are playing, the M's might just win the division. Yes, I'm conveniently ignoring the Angels whose pitching is positively on fire right now.

Anyway, as much fun as it is to be in the "pennant race" stage of summer, an email from Electronics Boutique with the following image has me already drooling about the fall.

I don't buy the Madden games. Period. I was always a Sega football fan and EA's exclusive license with the NFL killed my playing of football videogames. Yes, I can be pretty damn idealistic when I want to be. That said, there's nothing I love more than seeing my boy Shaun on the cover of the best-selling videogame franchise.