Note: In less than a week our Seattle Mariners launch their 2022 season. With last year’s team winning 90 games and the acquisition of proven veterans who should make this team better, we fans have every reason to be excited. Like many, I have visions of the playoffs dancing in my head, but the truth is, I want more than that…Please read on. MA
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At no time is the phrase, “Hope springs eternal” more applicable for baseball fans than during the last weeks of March leading up to the regular season. As the Major League teams in the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues enter the last days of spring training, they are concentrating on stretching out their starting pitchers and getting their hitters enough at bats to be ready for the coming 162 game grind. This year, with spring training shortened due to the recently concluded lockout, getting the players ready becomes especially important. For the fans, however, the final days of spring training are replete with anticipation; a time when all the speculative questions about your team can still be answered in the positive, free from the intrusion of losing streaks, injuries, and trades that aren’t working out. This is the time when fans can dream unlimitedly, and for me those dreams now center around one thing only—a World Series in Seattle!
Like many of you I imagine, I have been a Seattle Mariners fan since their inaugural 1977 season; the team of Rupert Jones, Danny Meyer, Leroy Stanton and Bob “Scrap Iron” Stinson. Before that, in 1969 I was a Seattle Pilots loyalist, and loved watching the exploits of “Tailwind” Tommy Harper, Tommy Davis, Mike Hegan, and he of “Ball Four” fame, Jim Bouton.[1] I even loved the old Sicks Seattle Stadium, with its bad seats and classic stale smells, to me the smells of baseball. Unlike many, I enjoyed the sunless, cavernous Kingdome, where I thrilled to the hitting of Alvin Davis, the pitching of Randy Johnson (I personally witnessed is first no-hitter, also the first in Mariners team history), the batsmanship of Edgar, and the arrival of “The Kid”, who gave us 10 seasons of unparalleled excellence. Whether at the plate or in center field, Junior was, quite simply, one of the greatest to ever play the game, and I relished every time I saw him display his marvelous skills. I also loved the Lou Piniella years, one of the only managers in baseball who could be as entertaining as his star players. Whether kicking his cap, or dirt on an umpire, Sweet Lou could be a show unto himself, and you never knew when he would erupt. And never, ever, will I forget that “Refuse to Lose” season of 1995—the season that saved baseball in Seattle, and that gave us the beautiful ballpark we enjoy today. And then there was that 116-win team of 2001; the season I’m convinced we would have gone to the World Series, but for 9/11 intervening…[2]
Since the Pilots it’s been 53 years; and since the inception of the Mariners, 45. Through those years we’ve seen all those great players and great plays, and even historic moments. Personally, I will always remember Phil Bradley’s incredible walk-off grand salami against the Twins early in the ’85 season,[3] and will never forget Randy Johnson’s superb pitching in the one game playoff against the Angels, or Luis Sojo’s squibber[4] down the right field line in the same game, when, according to Rick Rizzs, “everybody scores!”. Those plays launched the M’s into the 1995 playoffs, setting up that remarkable series against the Yankees, won by the Mariners 3 games to 2 on Edgar’s ringing, extra inning double and Griffey’s mad dash around the bases, all highlighted by Dave Niehaus’s magnificent call.
After that first trip to the playoffs in 1995, our team would get there again against the Orioles in 1997, losing in the first round; then advancing to the ALCS in 2000 and 2001 before losing on both occasions to the hated Yankees. As disappointed as we were after 2001, we took solace in knowing that our great team would, for the most part, be back again for the next season, to at last make that run to the World Series we all knew was coming. After all, we still had Edgar, Olerud, Boonie at 2nd base, Mike Cameron in center, the marvelous Ichiro in right, and Lou calling the shots. With that team intact, we had a right to high expectations.
Alas, that’s not the way baseball works. In 2002 the Oakland A’s, that “Moneyball” team[5] of 20 consecutive victories, got in the way, and the Mariners window of opportunity closed. Lou left for Tampa before the 2003 season, and Edgar retired after 2004. Oh, we still had Ichiro, and he still was doing amazing things, like setting the Major League single season hit record in 2004 (262 hits),[6] but things weren’t the same. We M’s fans had no way of knowing it then, but that 116 win 2001 playoff team would be our last for what has now become 20 consecutive seasons, the worst current stretch of futility in any of the major American sports: NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL.
And then came 2021, and though the Mariners once again didn’t make the playoffs, they did win 90 games and were in the post season hunt until the last game of the campaign. I was at the ballpark for that must-win contest against the Angels, last season’s 2nd to last game, and witnessed Mitch Haniger’s clutch two-run single in the bottom of the 8th leading the M’s to a thrilling 6-4 victory. I haven’t seen the ballpark that electric in a generation, and with great young players like JP Crawford, Ty France, and Logan Gilbert; great veterans like Robbie Ray, Haniger, Adam Frazier and Jesse Winker;[7] and future All Stars like Julio Rodriguez, George Kirby and Noelvi Marte on the horizon,[8] M’s fans have every reason to believe that their team’s playoff drought will soon be history.
On second thought, screw the playoffs!
I want a World Series in Seattle!!
Now that’s “hope springing eternal,” don’t you think?
Go Ms!!
[1] Jim Bouton (March 8, 1939 – July 10, 2019) was an American professional baseball player, who played in Major League Baseball as a pitcher for the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots, Houston Astros, and Atlanta Braves between 1962 and 1978. He was also a best-selling author, actor, activist, and sportscaster. Bouton played college baseball at Western Michigan University, before signing his first professional contract with the Yankees. He was a member of the 1962 World Series champion Yankees team, appeared in the 1963 MLB All-Star Game, and won both of his starts in the 1964 World Series. Later in his career Bouton authored the 1970 book Ball Four, which was a combination diary of his 1969 season and memoir of his years with the Yankees, Pilots, and Astros. “Ball Four” was famous for being one of the first books to speak honestly about the inside story of baseball, the antics and foibles of the players.
[2] The 2001 Seattle Mariners were by far the best team in the American League record-wise and on the verge of clinching the American League West when the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened. As a result Major League play was suspended for a week, and though when it resumed the M’s quickly clinched the West, they struggled to defeat the Indians in the first round of the playoffs, and were beaten by the Yankees in the ALCS 4 games to 1. I always thought that with 9/11 the 2001 M’s lost their edge. That team and season was our BEST chance for a World Series in Seattle, but it wasn’t to be…
[3] The 1985 Mariners got off to a fast start, winning their first 6 games of the season. I attended the 5th of those games in the Kingdome vs. the Twins, won by Seattle 8-7 on a walk-off grand slam by Phil Bradley. Bradley’sslam is one of the single most exciting baseball moments I’ve ever witnessed, with the fans acknowledging him with a standing ovation that lasted for many minutes. For me, a great baseball memory.
[4] With as great as the Mariners divisional round win over the Yankees was in the 1995 playoffs, it seems to me that the one game playoff against the Angels to determine the AL West winner often gets overlooked. Randy Johnson was on the mound for the M’s that day, and he was awesome, but it was Luis Sojo’s bases loaded squib double down the right field line in the bottom of the 7th off former Mariner Mark Langston that broke the game open. When Sojo came to the plate Seattle was clinging to a 1-0 lead. His double plated 3 runners and Sojo himself scored on an error on the throw to the plate. The M’s would go on to win the game 9-1, clinching the AL West and setting up the playoff series with the Yankees.
[5] The 2002 Oakland As, immortalized in Michael Lewis’ book “Moneyball” and the Brad Pitt movie of the same name, over took the Seattle Mariners for the AL West lead on the strength of an unbelievable 20 game winning streak that stretched from August into September that season. As GM Billy Beane had implemented the use of advanced statistical analysis (Sabermetrics) in evaluating players while building his team, one of the first GMs to do so.
[6] George Sisler, one of the greatest Major League hitters ever, set the MLB single season hit record of 257 during the 1920 season while playing for the St. Louis Browns. His record stood for 84 years, until 2004, when Ichiro broke it with 262 hits, possibly the most magnificent achievement in Seattle Mariners history. For the Mariners team 2004 was a lost season, but Ichiro’s accomplishment made it a season for the ages.
[7] Last season’s AL Cy Young winner, Robbie Ray, as well as Adam Frazier and Jesse Winker, who were both NL All Stars last season, were Seattle Mariners off-season acquisitions this year by Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto. With the young players Seattle is developing, along with these veterans, the M’s could be on the cusp of something big.
[8] The Seattle Mariners have a bevy of exceptional young players on the verge arriving to the Big Leagues. The 3 mentioned here, outfielder Julio Rodriguez, who has superstar written all over him, pitcher George Kirby, widely acknowledged as a top prospect, and young shortstop Noevis Marte, promise a bright future for the Mariners.
