Mariners take tools of ignorance to a new level

Moments after a story came over the wires showing that the Cleveland Indians were symbolically taking a mulligan on their season, the Seattle Mariners provided a more tangible example of how a team gives up on a game. Handing the ball to your backup catcher and telling him to go out there and throw strikes in the 15th inning is one of the most bizarre things the author has ever seen. You play to win the game after all.

Pitch counts have dwindled, young prospects are handled with kid gloves and starting pitchers throw complete games about as often as backup catchers are the centerpiece of postgame coverage. But never before has such a blatant example of how bad the pitching situation has gotten been on display.

The Mariners have 12 pitchers on their active roster. And they found themselves in a position where Ichiro was begging to pitch in the 15th inning of a tie game. This should never, ever happen in a professional baseball game. What does that say to your fans, who have already endured a half-season to forget? Of the 29,083 people who paid for tickets, it's probably conceivable that one of them expected the Mariners to try and win the game. By packing it in and throwing Burke to the wolves -- in the form of Miguel Cabrera and Marcus Thames -- the cellar dwellers failed to hold up their end of the agreement.

We can only hope this is a wake-up call. The last time MLB ran out of pitchers and it got embarrassing, severe changes were made, so there is a chance managers learn from this mess. The author would really like to see this not happen again. And, if worse comes to worse, he'll throw an inning for you.