In Rotary confessional blowout, Mariners poohbah spills the beans... and other Tuesday click-worthy clacks

It's always kismet when a three-martini suit speaks truth to the halls of Babbitry. The latest is Kevin Mather, former CEO of the forever-tainted Seattle Mariners, who socked it to the Harper Valley PTA the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club in a recent speech, in which he admitted:

a) Dirty dealing by the owners
b) Collusion by the owners
b) Underpinnings of racism by the owners
d) The moon landing was faked.

Actually, no. 4 is wrong... maybe. Keeping you on your toes. Mather - who resigned after his lapse in felony-grade deceit - basically confirmed everything the players union has claimed for the last seven years. His confessional tour de force stemmed from the claim - (which I don't buy) - that MLB lost $2.9 billion last year. According to the NY Times, he said:

“The industry lost $2.9 billion, and before any of you make faces: No, nobody cares that rich owners lost money. But we lost $2.9 billion last year, and we have taken the position that there are 180 free agents still out there on Feb. 5 unsigned, and sooner or later, these players are going to turn their hat over and come with hat in hand, looking for a contract.”

So it went. This explains why just days before Camp Tampa opened, the Death Barge  signed Justin Wilson and Brett Gardner, and why franchises regularly hold back prospects, screwing them in future contracts. But, yawn, everybody knew this. Soon after the current Players Union contract took effect, the owners began sailing yachts through their loopholes - the biggest one, which allowed luxury taxes to replace the salary caps that union men long ago went on strike to avoid. 

So Mather will spend a few months in the penalty box, then resurface in some quieter job with duct tape over his mouth, and nothing will change - until next winter - dear God, next winter - when the new contract comes up, and all hell breaks loose. 

In other Yankee clickbait...

Surprise! Clarke Schmidt has a barking elbow, and if you're not thinking the worst, you haven't been following the Yankees. The team says it's minor, that he'll rub dirt on it and be back by May. I'm sorry, but who believes this? I've heard more reasonable predictions from Q. Let's wish Schmidt the best - he's already gone through Tommy John surgery - but remember that talk about a six-man rotation? What a joke. Yesterday, they were talking about finding Domingo German another team. Now, he's in the rotation. 

Luis Severino - he of the eternal injury list - told reporters he hopes to be back by July.  Thus, this glass season is either half empty or half full. The last time we saw Sevy, he was battling the cheater Astros in game 5 of the 2019 ALCS. He fought hard, worked 4.1 innings - 97 pitches - and gave up two runs. (We lost, 4-1.) Did the Yankees rush him back from injury? 

If somebody had simply said, "Luis, it's not worth risking you in the long haul, so sit out the playoffs and come back next spring," would we have him now? We'll never know. 

Yeah, I'm oversimplifying this: Severino wanted to pitch, they had nobody else, and he'd looked good in a few regular season outings (until his last one, when he didn't.) But we somehow managed to make a double bank-shot of negativity. We lost the playoffs, and we lost Severino. So... back by July? Sure.