Back after four lovely days in Missouri, where I attended a wedding and took in a Royals game. Kauffman nee Royals Stadium is really nice–built around the same time as all the cookie-cutter multipurpose stadia, this one has the same concrete construction, but it also has the open walkways, the orientation to the field, and all that nice stuff that Safeco has. Also–a crappy team! There’s really nothing sadder than seeing a plurality of people in Billy Butler jerseys. Nor anything sadder than the postgame show, where people complained about the fact that the team has been terrible for 23 years, which they probably do every single night, after every game, win or lose. Depressing. My friend and I debated whether it’s worse to know you are going to be bad, or to think you might be good and end up bad. I don’t think a conclusion was reached.

Mariners win a game! Steve Kelley says the M’s played with the scrap and intensity they’ll need to make something of this season. The bullpen worked for once, writes John Hickey. On the other hand, Art Thiel says that neither managers, players or fans saw this as any kind of a breakthrough. Geoff Baker says M’s fans should stay on the cliff, while USS Mariner has jumped off it and is looking for hope in the future.

Husky baseball won two of three over the weekend, keeping them at third place in the Pac-10. If the Dawgs can keep it up, they’ll win a berth in the NCAA tourney for the first time since ‘04. The Husky softballers got their ticket to the tourney, they play Friday in the Houston regional.

The M’s had a scout looking at Griffey over the weekend. Big League Stew says that we M’s fans should be gracious enough to want to see Griffey with a contender.

Scott Eklund of Dawgman.com catches up with Will Conroy, who had a long and weird season last year that almost ended with him in Seattle: “They had called me in the morning and said ‘pack your bags’ and I thought I was going to get on a flight to play for the Sonics for the rest of the year, but they ended up taking Eddie Gill over me.”

Frank Hughes had a long and interesting conversation with Hawks K Olindo Mare.

EDSBS, the best sport-specific blog out there, is having a competition for bragging rights. Whichever team’s fans donate the most to Burma flood victims gets their colors on that site and Fanblogs for a day. They’re calling it the Charity Bowl.