Goodbye Dave

For my regular readers who aren't friends and family in the Seattle area this is going to be out of place but bear with me. I'll have a game preview up tomorrow for the Eastern Conference Final.

Yesterday legendary Hall Of Fame Mariners broadcaster Dave Niehaus passed away from a heart attack. Dave called the first pitch in Mariners history in 1977 and almost every pitch between that one and the Ichiro fly-out that ended the 2010 season. Everybody in Seattle of my generation and younger grew up listening to him on the radio and TV. Before I was a soccer fan and almost before I was a football fan I listened to Dave calling the Mariners.

You never listened to the national announcers when watching a Mariners game, you always muted the TV and turned on the radio to here Dave calling the game. His trademark phrases of "That ball will fly away!", "My oh my!", and "Get out the rye bread and mustard Grandma, its grand salami time!" were repeated by everybody. The run to the '95 ALCS saved baseball in Seattle and usually players like Griffey, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, and Randy Johnson get credit for that, but I think more than anyone, Dave Niehaus saved baseball in Seattle. That run wouldn't have been the same without him.

I think Seattle Times columnist Jerry Brewer's wife said it best,"When we suck, its not going to be the same". The M's sucked for most of the 34 years that Dave called the games, but he made it bearable, sometimes even enjoyable. Now its just going to suck.