We’re so back
It's Friday and the boys are hot. You love to see it.
I love this shit.
Forgive the profanity but that’s been a lasting thought lately, from Opening Day through last weekend’s sweep to yesterday’s mayhem.
The moment it initially hit, on Opening Day, I was standing out along the rail above the Mariners bullpen with my wife. We’d biked in to the game. With two Happy Hour drafts down and a third hanging on, we watched Cal Raleigh making his way up the concrete ramp with Logan lagging behind out in left. The pink carpet was unfurled in right-center but introductions started with shots of broadcasters in the booth—a first. Rick Rizzs got a hell of a roar.
“I love this shit,” I said out loud.
The pageantry of Opening Day, yeah. But just all this being back. The rhythm of baseball, the steady undercurrent—for good and bad—to the rest of life, it’s good to have again.
My wife and I went to four more ballgames since game one. Last Friday and Saturday were electric.
On Friday, it was a social affair. We went with my two brothers and their significant others. We went nuts for Cal’s go-ahead shot in the eighth. We had too many Miller Lites at The Meyer after.
Saturday was a date. A date where two people deep into their 30s were hungover for most of the day and decided, at the last second, to make good on a promise to ourselves to go to the ballgame.
The Mariners rolled. Cal is still rolling.
“I would be so pissed if we didn’t go” was said throughout by my better half.
I don’t need to recap everything since but I do need to hit on yesterday because I’ve hit on yesterday in real life once every 45 minutes since Randy’s liner to left presumably went through the someone’s seatback.
How Mariners was that?
And it’s a new kind of Mariners but Mariners all the same.
Closers are for save situations and little to nothing else, per Dan Wilson’s managerial philosophy. At least from what we’ve seen. Pitcher wins are big, too.
Andrés Muñoz didn’t pitch when the bases were loaded with Elly De La Cruz at the dish in the 7th.
He didn’t pitch when Eduard(o) Bazardo loaded the bases with a single and a couple of walks in the 8th, the Mariners still up two.
Then, after Luke Fraley of all people hits a grand slam, it didn’t look like one of the best relievers in baseball was gonna pitch at all in a game blown by the Mariners’ bullpen.
But yeah—Cal, Randy, Randy again.
I could hear my wife yell “YES!” as she worked two floors up in our townhouse, iPad on the side.
Then, finally Muñoz.
So Mariners.
When we last left off, I said I have some serious concerns about this team and those do remain, but it all feels a little better now that we’ve reached cruising altitude.
The team has its warts, weaknesses and quirks, and those will keep them from flying at the altitude the team otherwise could and should—but these are our guys now. This is the team for this season.
Some deadwood will be cleared out as things progress. That’s how I always look at it, because the Mariners always build their teams this way. And that will come. Probably not soon enough for everyone, but it’ll come.
But now? Now things are fine. Your Seattle Mariners have won seven of nine, Cal or Polo may get April’s lightning card and Baseball Prospectus (at the moment) thinks they’ll win more games than any other team in the American League.
That number may be 89 wins but that’s also the point. The AL is bad and the West is even worse.
It could be better. It could always be better. But right now? Right now it sets up nicely.
It’s 70 degrees out in Seattle, the bluest skies you’ll ever see hang up above and the M’s play in 20 minutes.
We’re so back.
Go M’s.
Ignoring all the flaws, the same ‘ol Mariners, who have so far to date have failed to act while their window has been open. It’s great to feel giddy and hopeful as the season has started. I LOVE baseball & since I was a teenager M’s blue ran through my blood and still does today. This is why I and others are so passionate. In turn, also why we feel so ashamed and embarrassed when the team refuses to pick up a high leverage reliever in January & February when they were being picked up for 7MM or less on 1-year deals. When we hear about $$ issues, despite the team receiving revenue sharing $$, profitable year in and year out, staying with a lower payroll size compared to their market size, and not having had a payroll get back to what it was during the 2018 season! Stanton has showed what a cheapskate billionaire he and the current owner group is, and I don’t see that changing with the current group. Meanwhile, Dipoto has failed for almost a full decade now but gets to continue in his position…for some reason. A team with $$ constraints shouldn’t be paying $15MM for a backup catcher, or even $6MM for a bench backup first baseman. Or during the 2024 season, spending more than 30MM on two bench players named Mitch & another player who played in AAA all season. Let’s not forget the $15MM the M’s are eating to not have Haniger on the team. This list can go much longer, and is why Seattle remains a .500 team, and why they have missed the playoffs by 1-2 games for 4 of the past 5 seasons. A GM who is unable to improve their team by just 1-game each season, is a failure. Period. The arrogance year after year believing he can put together a quality bullpen with waiver wire pickups. Sure there have been some hits, but no one mentions the dozens of missies…which 1-game difference means playoffs or another early end to the season. I, and many life long M’s fans, have NEVER been more frustrated, even embarrassed, appalled, and fed up! As baseball pundits have echoed the last few months, Seattle Mariners fans are the most disappointed & frustrated fans in baseball. There is a clear line between the frustration and the Dipoto/Stanton era. I will remain hopeful, and watch the game I so love, but it’s time to stop with the BS & CALL OUT THE CHEAPSKATE BILLIONAIRES WHO CONTINUE TO RAISE PRICES AND TAKE AS MUCH $$ FROM HARDWORKING FAMILIES AS THEY POSSIBLY CAN, ALL WHILE CRYING POOR! Stanton & CO run the Mariners as if they are just another asset in their portfolios. Time to APPLY MAXIMUM PRESSURE, all season long, until the team is sold or ownership changes their tune and spends accordingly to their market size, which they will STILL MAKE A PROFIT. Rise up fans, we have a voice and if we turn our voices into a collective non-stop bullhorn, we will effect CHANGE! Do it for the fans, and the players. The players deserve our help to get this team where it can go because we can’t get there with the current old, fat, billionaire, ownership group who can care less about us fans, the players, or even the city of Seattle….because people lie, ACTIONS are what counts. Go M’s!