Former Mariner ace Cliff Lee kicks Yankee butt while Howie and Chuckie chase their tails

Watching former Seattle Mariners ace Cliff Lee put the New York Yankees down like rabid animals had to hurt any baseball fan in the Jet City. Lee, the stud who was suppose to take Seattle to post-season glory this season, pitched eight scoreless innings and fanned 13 Damned Yankees for the team that bestowed us with Justin Smoak and Josh Lueke.

That coulda been us, Mariners fans thought to themselves Monday evening while weeping into their micro brews. We coulda been contenders instead of 100-game losers, which we, alas, are again. Stupid reality and Mariner management mismanagement ensured us that 2010 was another 2008, 2006, 2005 and 2004. Notice that 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010 fell under the watch of Seattle Mariners Chief Executive Officer Howard "Howie" Lincoln and President Chuck "Chuckie" Armstrong.

While Lee shut down Yankee batters, the Howie and Chuckie Show introduced its newest addition to the managerial merry-go-round by introducing former Cleveland Indians skipper Eric Wedge as replacement for Don Wakamatsu and Darren Brown.

Will the change in leadership make a difference next year? Only if Mariners owner Minoru Arakawa of Nintendo takes mercy upon long-suffering fans and pulls the plug on the wearisome Howie and Chuckie Show. That dynamic duo blew millions of Nintendo dollars... and gave us Jeff Cirillo, Rick Aurilla, Scott Spiezio, Richie Sexson, Aaron Sele, Jarrod Washburn, Pokey Reese, Carl "I Don't Believe in Dinosaurs" Everett. Kenji Jojima, José Guillen, José Vidro, Horacio Ramirez, Carlos Silva, Miguel Batista and Erik Bedard. The Mariners couldn't hang on to a fortysomething Jamie Moyer, who saw the exit sign at Safeco and bolted.

And don't fool yourself by thinking that the Mariners could have changed their fortunes if they had drafted Tim Lincecum -- and not Brandon Morrow -- in the 2006 MLB draft. Had they signed him, the Mariners would've messed with Lincecum's head and arm as they did with Morrow... and baseball's favorite Freak would be an afterthought in the organization.

The Texas Rangers could escape what Charles Barkley called "the s*** list" of athletes and teams that cannot win The Big One -- here, being an American or National League title. If the Texas Rangers play in the World Series this year, only the Mariners and Washington Nationals emerge as Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs that never competed in the Fall Classic.

At the outset of 2002 -- the first season of the Howie and Chuckie Show -- seven MLB organizations never reached the World Series. Gradually, California/Anaheim/Los Angeles (2002), Houston (2005), Colorado (2007) and Tampa Bay (2008) captured their respective league pennants. It's 2010, and the Mariners appear no closer to the goal of playing in the Fall Classic than they did eight years and tens of millions of dollars ago.

With Howie and Chuckie running the show the Mariners deserve to remain as the last World Series virgin. We'll see the Mariners playing live in November only if Howie and Chuckie hit the road.