The Mariners have been fun, playoffs or not

Matt Baide | Aug 11, 20220

The year is 1995, and the Mariners are facing the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the American League Divisional Series. Edgar Martinez hits the ball down the left field line and Ken Griffey Jr. motors around the bases and slides home for the game-winning run to send Seattle to the American League Championship Series.

Fast forward to 2001, a young Matt Baide attended games in the brand-new Safeco Field as the Mariners went on to tie the record for most wins in a season with 116. Seattle defeated Cleveland in the ALDS 3-2 before falling to the Yankees in five games.

Those two moments stand out in Mariners’ history. The first moment occurred when I was 6 years old and it was the time I remember falling in love with the game of baseball, watching my favorite player Ken Griffey Jr. In 2001, Ichiro joined the Mariners, and it was an exciting time for Sodo Mojo.

The Mariners are sitting in playoff position coming down to the final two months of the regular season, and this year feels different. This doesn’t feel like a standard Mariners season where the doom and gloom of no shot at a playoff spot has usually already set in.

This team could not make the playoffs this season and while that is not ideal, I’ve already made my peace with it. This Mariners team is just fun to watch because for the first time in a while, this team just looks like they’re having fun out there, which is at least rubbing off on me and probably some other fans as well.

Perhaps it’s because the team is winning games or because they have the right group of players together, but whether it’s Eugenio Suarez’s “Good Vibes Only” or Ty France’s “Viva La France” or Julio Rodriguez’s “J-Rob Squad,” it’s been a blast to deep right-center field to watch this team feel like it’s a more cohesive group than in previous seasons.

You can see this from former Mariners players as well. Bret Boone, a Mariner on the last team to make the playoffs in 2001, was tweeting about the Mariners 14-game win streak prior to the All-Star break and got to throw out the first pitch for the first game back from the break. Mike Cameron, also on the 2001 team and who works for the Mariners in player development, has been interacting with fans on Twitter and making his thoughts and feelings on this season’s team known.

As someone who followed baseball much more closely before the Mariners went into playoff purgatory but still enjoys watching the game, it has been exciting to get more into baseball this year than I have in previous years. As boring as the sport can be sometimes, the strategy and skill of the game has improved. Pitchers are throwing harder, baseballs are being hit farther and the Yankees are still the most hated team in pro sports.

All this exposition boils down to my main point: I want the Mariners to make the playoffs, but I’ve made my peace with Seattle not making it while still enjoying the team and sport. In professional sports, winning is everything, but for myself, I’m trying to not put as much into that side of it and more into the love of the game. This love has made me want to dig into some nostalgia of some of my favorite baseball movies, including “Angels in the Outfield,” “Little Big League” and “A League of Their Own.” The latter is getting a new show on Amazon this month, and as someone who watched the movie with my mom several times growing up, I am excited to see whether they pay homage to the movie while also telling a different story.

Hold on, I’m getting a message. The Seahawks play their first preseason game on Saturday? Scratch everything I said, it’s FOOTBALL SEASON!