I knew it, I did, Sports Fans! Look at that line-up of Mariners! The line of charge, attitude and control, and they have it right there in the Mariners’ dugout as Team with a capital “T”.

Maybe I should have been a little more patient at first, but when the Spring Training team first took so many bad second places with the Giants and the Rangers at this year’s spring training, my hopes began to slip like bald tires on an icy street.

Then hopes perked up when the Arizona Diamondbacks took it on the chin and the Mariners sauntered away with a 4-to-0 win.

BUT! Everybody’s heart leaped when the whole Mariners team lined up to watch with the expectation of the first home-run hit on the first pitch and obviously every other pitch in the Mariners’ game against the Anaheim Angels.

Let me tell you Kent, they would have knocked their socks off if it had been Chicago, but the Angels’ halo will be spinning for a long time at a final score of 11 to 6. When you see the “Halo” on the top of the “A” tilted to the side, you can be sure that the Seattle Mariners did it!

You can’t turn a train around on a dime and the same goes with a baseball team, but with the right engineer we can count that “He will git’er done”.

Last year, I had real qualms that anyone was interested in the fans, the spectators, or winning a ball game.

I watched Fred Hutchison, we called him “Freddy”, when he was a player for the Seattle Rainiers at Sick’s Seattle Stadium. My brother Jerry caught a fly ball that the batter signed later as Ted Williams. I watched a young rookie called Reggie Jackson start out in right field for the Rainiers with more bounce to his step than if he was on a trampoline.

It breaks my heart to watch kid fans passed up by players too busy for an autograph. I saw none of that this year. I did watch Mike Brumley with other teammates at the railing, sign and tease and make the kids feel special.

It’s said that everything rises and falls on leadership and I think that we have a management team that is a winner and a baseball team that is out to tilt some halos and knock some Sox off.

Kent is going to help make the difference this year too.

Remember the pact we made, Kent. Continue to flood Jack Z’s office (Jack Zduriencik, Mariner’s General Manager) with e-mails, letters and notes of support, written on the back of a ticket or receipt, or anything handy to write on – just write.

And, remember sports fans, identify yourselves as KENT Fans.

Mailing Address: Seattle Mariners; P.O. Box 4100, Seattle, WA 98194-0100.