THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Bumbling as they are, Mariners still have a chance to keep our interest

Let's talk about the Mariners, shall we?

You know, take a serious look at the fierce pennant race in the American League West?

(Go ahead. Feel free to howl with laughter!)

This team HAS been a joke, truly, despite strutting out on opening day as everyone's choice to be a cinch playoff powerhouse.

So, why are we aiming at the Mariners — today, as they stare WAY up at the .500 mark?

Couple of reasons.

The first one speaks for itself, and we've already touched on it.

Hilarious or not, the Mariners have a legit shot at winning the West.

Houston and Texas are floating around .500, and neither looks like a gang that could suddenly run off and win 10 in a row.

If Seattle can simply play what boss Jerry Dipoto calls "clean baseball" over its last 30 games, we might have postseason action at T-Mobile Park.

It was NFL guru Bill Parcells (among others) who said: "You are who the standings say you are."

The point: No matter their record, the Mariners still might steal the West.

While that possibility exists, we should take a good look at how the lads need to find their mojo in September.

No use quitting now.

OH, WE promised you two reasons to run the rule over the Mariners with a month left to play.

The second is pretty obvious.

Almost every other sport — not sure about dog mushing — will be overwhelming us by October. It's tough to squeeze in a walk-off homer.

Football is everywhere.

The Seahawks (aka Super Bowl champions) play one more exhibition and then slug out the regular season all through the winter.

The Hawks are loaded again, although the biggest dog in the kennel this season is likely to hang out in Los Angeles.

As usual, there hasn't been much news from the exhibition games, except for the normal, untimely injury. This time, the Seahawks lost promising rookie safety Bud Clark for the season with a broken ankle.

Ho-hum.

College football is a different animal this fall, with Kirby Moore taking over as the new coach at Washington State, not to mention the Cougs and Oregon State beginning life in the reborn Pac-12 Conference.

It's almost impossible to toss you an overview of college hoops, where everyone is busy suing everyone else.

The idiotic NCAA set up a system — the new "5 seasons in 5 years" — and now is going to court to fight its own rules.

The result, as of last weekend, left hundreds of players in eligibility limbo.

Trust me: The NCAA will either lose most of these lawsuits, or there will be a compromise that should have been cobbled together at the beginning.

The whole thing has produced nothing but thousands of headaches ... yep, everyone but armies of lawyers spinning out tons of billable hours.

YOU SEE why we should babble about baseball for a while?

This is our chance.

Those arguments on behalf of the Mariners are not exactly lock-solid, but some of them will hold up in a pub dispute.

Houston and Texas are running Class 4-A pitchers out there every couple of nights.

The M's (theoretically, at least) should have the semblance of a rotation that might not fall totally apart.

The bullpen looks like a box of spare parts, but it's as good as the Astros' or the Rangers' ... which might be enough in a stretch run.

Light candles for rehabbing Matt Brash, the true lights-out relievers on any of the three contenders.

(I love using the word "contenders" in a division with no one over .500.)

The AL West will probably just fall into the paws of whoever gets lucky.

The Mariners need to avoid another thump of the week — for instance, Brendan Donovan getting hit on the head in the batting cage.

Did it send him to the concussion injury list?

Hah!

Of course it did.

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Longtime journalist Steve Cameron writes "The Cheap Seats" three times each week for The Press.