Chuck Armstroong is leaving the Mariners...

PurpleJ

Reminds me of my storied t-ball career.

[Deleted User]

I have it on good authority that one of the things that made Chuck retire was the passing of Don James. Really hit him hard and made him think about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

He was a good team president for twenty years and an awful one for the last ten.

Despite what people say, winning was his chief priority, but he lost that touch years ago and retired far too late.

dnc

uw2010 said:

PurpleJ said:

The fuck is a Mariners?

I *heart* Lawn Dart Ibanez

dnc

CollegeDoog said:

I have it on good authority that one of the things that made Chuck retire was the passing of Don James. Really hit him hard and made him think about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

He was a good team president for twenty years and an awful one for the last ten.

Despite what people say, winning was his chief priority, but he lost that touch years ago and retired far too late.

Please tell me you're referencing something Skinny Jeans said and this isn't your own Chuckpology?

[Deleted User]

Nope. He helped keep the team in Seattle. Brought in Gillick and Lou. Helped build Safeco. Oversaw the best period in Ms history. Should've called it quits around 04-05. Just saying his legacy is mixed.

dnc

CollegeDoog said:

Nope. He helped keep the team in Seattle. Brought in Gillick and Lou. Helped build Safeco. Oversaw the best period in Ms history. Should've called it quits around 04-05. Just saying his legacy is mixed.

By the count in your poast above he was team presodent for 30 years. How many other periods were there? I would argue the last 10 years was the worst period in team history as they actually had resources and were still total dreckfest.

You're giving him a lot more credit for things like keeping the team around and hiring Lou than I remember him deserving. Weren't you like 4 when the team almost moved?

[Deleted User]

I grew up with the Ms. Dad was a season ticket holder from 1977 until 2004.

Armstrong was influential in keeping the team here.

"At the behest of then U.S. Senator Slade Gorton, Armstrong was recruited with a number of other business leaders to try to keep the Mariners in Seattle when Smulyan discussed relocating the club to Tampa Bay. Eventually, a group headed by Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi purchased the Mariners in 1992, and Armstrong was, once again, brought in as president of the Mariners."

As President he oversaw the day to day operations so you have to give him credit for the 1995-2001 golden age of Mariner baseball.

Again, I'm not arguing the last ten years were good and Armstrong wasn't at all complicit for the failures of the franchise. He was. But his legacy is more than those recent failures.

PurpleJ

CollegeDoog said:

Armstrong was influential in keeping the team here.

Fuck that guy then.

dnc

CollegeDoog said:

I grew up with the Ms. Dad was a season ticket holder from 1977 until 2004.

Armstrong was influential in keeping the team here.

"At the behest of then U.S. Senator Slade Gorton, Armstrong was recruited with a number of other business leaders to try to keep the Mariners in Seattle when Smulyan discussed relocating the club to Tampa Bay. Eventually, a group headed by Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi purchased the Mariners in 1992, and Armstrong was, once again, brought in as president of the Mariners."

As President he oversaw the day to day operations so you have to give him credit for the 1995-2001 golden age of Mariner baseball.

Again, I'm not arguing the last ten years were good and Armstrong wasn't at all complicit for the failures of the franchise. He was. But his legacy is more than those recent failures.

I still don't see it.

So Armstrong was "one of" the business leaders that Senator Stud (as he was known back then) recruited? There was like 15 of them. Armstrong maybe gets partial credit, but he has to fall behind Gordon, Yamauchi, John Ellis and the McCaws in order of importance at the very least. He played a part but his part was hardly critical to the success or failure of the venture.

As for the on field stuff, all the most important pieces of those 95-98 teams were acquired before Armstrong came back on board: Junior, Randy, Edgar, and Buhner. Yeah, Armstrong was around for the ARod draft pick, but he wasn't involved in the draft, that was Woodward and Jongeward who went back and forth about whether to roll the dice with Alex.

I'll give him Gillick who gets most of the credit for 2001-2003.

IMO the damage of the past decade far outweighs any goodwill Armstrong ever accumulated.

[Deleted User]

CollegeDoog had reached Moog territory in this thread.