Press Conference with Lincoln and Armstrong

Caveat: it's tough to tell these guys apart sometimes, so I did the best I could. This isn't a full transcript, just the stuff I thought was interesting.

Howard Lincoln's opening statement:
"[The team's performance] is simply not acceptable. We have tried to be patient. Given this team's record, change is in order."

Lincoln says that the search for a new GM will be led by Chuck Armstrong (who led the search for the last GM).

"We are sorry that we have dug ourselves into such a deep hole."

"I expect that our manager coaches and players will get going and turn this thing around."

"The time has come and gone for these players to get going."

"It seemed to me and to Chuck that given the momentum that it made sense to continue on with Bill. All of us had that expectation that things would get better. Very frustrating, very exasperating."

How far away are you from having a winning team?
"I'm not gonna sit here and pull your leg and say that two or three players will turn this around."

Lincoln on whether he's happy with McLaren's performance:
"Frankly as I sit up here I'm not in the mood to sing the praises of anyone in our clubhouse."


Chuck Armstrong said that his speech to the coaches was to quote John Paul Jones, including a bunch of naval history. Then he tries to inspire the media:
"We have not yet begun to fight. We're determined to turn this thing around and we're not going to rest...until we're back in the playoffs."

Howard Lincoln on whether the search for GM will include a philosophical change:
"I don't know that it would be a philosophical change. I think there are a lot of myths out there about how we consider players. Let me just say that we are open to anything."

On what will change:
"I certainly don't have all the answers, I'm trying to formulate what the best answers are."

"Success and winning are contagious ... From 2000-2003, the Mariners had the best record of anybody in baseball."

On how they might turn it around:
"If we continue like this till the end of the year, we're gonna have one of the top draft picks."

Do you want the players to feel like they are playing for their jobs in the next few weeks?
"Yes."

Chuck Armstrong on the perception that the owners care more about money than winning:
"If this ownership group was focused on the bottom line, we would not have one of the highest player payrolls in all of baseball. In the past few years, the Mariners have made money. All of that money has gone back into the franchise. Since 1992, not one single owner has got one single penny in distribution."

Here's the question I would've liked to have heard answered, but didn't hear asked:
"Chuck Armstrong, you led the search for the GM in 2004, the search that picked Bill Bavasi. What specifically will be done differently in this search?"