What a ride for the 2022 Mariners

Season is over, but I can't wait until April

Matt Baide | Oct 20, 20220

It's Oct. 8, and I'm running errands to help my brother and sister in-law prepare for my nephew's third birthday party in Richland.

The Mariners second playoff game against the Toronto Blue Jays had begun. The Mariners had already won the first game of the three-game wild-card series 4-0 behind a brilliant performance by pitcher Luis Castillo.

I get to Costco to pick up five pizzas for the party. As I walk past the electronics area, the game is on the TVs. It's 8-1 in the top of the sixth. I am almost certain there will be a Game 3 on Sunday.

I take the pizzas to the car and go to a nearby grocery store to pick up my nephew's cake. My girlfriend and I drop off the cake and pizza at my brother's house and head to my parent's house to change clothes for the party.

I get to the party around 4 p.m., and the score is now 9-6 Toronto in the top of the eighth inning. My brother, friends, my dad and I are all crowded around the outdoor TV as J.P. Crawford steps to the plate with the bases loaded.

He hits a blooper into shallow center, Bo Bichette and George Springer collide as the ball drops and clears the bases with a double to tie the game.

Some day, my three-year old nephew might ask about that and what happened during his party that day. I will tell him what he saw was the joy of adults and family who finally had something to cheer about after 20 years of a playoff drought, and it's a moment you will likely never forget.

The game was tied and the game went to the top of the ninth inning tied at nine. Adam Frazier hit a double to score Cal Raleigh to take a 10-9 lead, George Kirby came on in the ninth to earn the save and the Mariners advanced to the American League Division Series to host a playoff game.

My girlfriend and I are saving to buy a condo next year, and some things are more important than sports, but I would have loved to be at

T-Mobile Park on Saturday, despite the M's losing to Houston. I had several friends attend the game, and said even with the loss, they said it was awesome to be in attendance for history.

The Astros swept the Mariners in their series. I put Game 1 on for the newsroom to watch, and editor Justin Johnson, not being a baseball or Mariners fan, was the troll needed to keep me grounded as the Mariners took a lead and watched it slowly evaporate, punctuated by a 3-run walk-off home run by Yordan Alvarez in the bottom of the ninth.

Because much like my pure joy and happiness in watching the Mariners three days before win a playoff series, the gut punch of a loss in Game 1 followed by losses in Games 2 and 3 remind us all that only one team or player truly ends the season in ecstasy. As my mom always quotes to me from "ABC's Wide World of Sports," "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat."

I was at Dick's Brewery in Centralia after the Mariners' 18-inning, 1-0 loss Saturday in Seattle. I watched or listened to most of the game, and as the game continued to go to extra innings, four hours, five hours, six hours, I became at peace with the Mariners this season, because coming back from down 2-0 wasn't likely to happen.

But the thrill of the season, making the playoffs and ending the drought, winning a playoff series but then falling in the ALDS, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I'm not on the Mariners team and I'm just a fan, but there's something quite validating about sticking with the team through the 20 years of mediocrity and to finally have that validation of being rewarded for your faith in something that I really have no control over, it's a sense of belonging that is hard to explain to someone who doesn't like sports. I'm not a religious person, but I imagine this is what people feel when they feel like they have a prayer answered. You just look up, thank the powers that be, accept the blessing and hope that it continues.

The Mariners season is over, but it was a fun ride in 2022. It's not the ending I wanted, but it was wholly satisfying, and I can't wait for April to see if the Disney-happy ending is in store for the Mariners in 2023.