The Seattle Mariners have been one of the hard-luck organizations in Major
League Baseball. They're still one of
two teams to have never appeared in a World Series, and have the longest
playoff drought in baseball at 15 years and counting. That's not me being negative, those are
facts. However, the roller coaster of
emotions we Mariners fans go through in the course of a season is perhaps
unlike any other team. We go from
thinking this team is cursed, unlucky, bad, to having glimmers of hope and
optimism, thinking the end of futility is near.
It's much akin to being stranded on a deserted island and hearing a
plane overhead, but them not seeing you, so you remain stranded.
This Mariners season of 2017 has not gotten off well and it seems the Mariners are in a very unfortunate pattern of following up hopeful seasons and offseasons with losing seasons. They have not even had two straight winning seasons since 2002-2003. The influx of talent of Cano, Cruz, and Seager the past few years has given fans something to cheer for and given them hope. But two of the past three seasons the team has fallen just short of the playoffs in the final week of the season. It leaves fans wondering "What if?" What if the Mariners hadn't gone on that losing streak, what if they hadn't blown the lead in a particular game?
I think Mariners fans are the most bipolar fans in all of baseball. When the team is struggling, I see two crowds. One crowd thinks this team is the worst in baseball, everyone needs to be fired, and perhaps that the organization is cursed. The other crowd remains optimistic, saying we can't play this bad all year, and we can't have this bad of luck all year. I have to admit I flitter between both crowds. I sometimes feel like boycotting this team, not going to games, watching their games on TV, or buying any merchandise, because they are underperforming. But other times I know I will be rewarded for my loyalty and passion for this team, because whenever they do finally make the playoffs again, it will make it THAT much sweeter.
I am never going to fully give up on the Mariners. No matter what they do. They could trade Felix, Seager, AND Paxton, and I would still call myself a Mariner fan. They are too engrained in me to ever switch allegiances. There's just something about MARINERS BASEBALL that makes me want to be root for them until the day I die. Perhaps it's memories of Martinez, Griffey, Niehaus, and Ichiro. Perhaps it's that the organization has EVERY reason to fold and just admit they are inferior as a baseball organization but every year do their absolute best to show they are a likeable and fun bunch.
One thing I never want to be called is a bandwagon fan. For someone who has stuck through a team's losing seasons, and the team becomes successful and popular and then get called a bandwagon fan is absolutely infuriating. I will stick through the Mariners lack of playoff success until they finally start making the playoffs again, whether that starts this year, in 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years. Anyone who ever calls me a bandwagon fan will get directed to this post. I have been a fan of the Mariners since I started watching sports. I've followed them through the lean post-2001 years, the disastrous 2004 and 2008 seasons, the horrific hitting seasons of 2010 and 2011. I remember watching in agony as players like Carl Everett, Jack Cust, Milton Bradley, Scott Spiezio and Corey Hart were brought in watching them STRUGGLE. I remember watching first round draft picks like Jeff Clement, Brandon Morrow, Dustin Ackley, Phillipe Aumont, and (now) Alex Jackson not pan out. I remember Bill Bavasi and Jack Zduriencik making bad front office decisions. I remember, because I stuck with the Mariners through it all.
So what is my mood with this team? Resilient. Patient. Determined. I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic. Odds are somehow someway this team will make the playoffs some year. Five American League teams out of fifteen now make the playoffs. That is exactly one third. If everyone had the same odds, you should expect your team to make the playoffs once out of every three years. Odds are, the Mariners will make the playoffs soon. But that hump they have to get over is huge. Once they do, they could go on a string of seasons where they make it 3 in a row, 4 out of 6, something like that. But once they get over that hump, it'll be so worth the wait AND I'll be right there in the middle cheering the Mariners on.
This Mariners season of 2017 has not gotten off well and it seems the Mariners are in a very unfortunate pattern of following up hopeful seasons and offseasons with losing seasons. They have not even had two straight winning seasons since 2002-2003. The influx of talent of Cano, Cruz, and Seager the past few years has given fans something to cheer for and given them hope. But two of the past three seasons the team has fallen just short of the playoffs in the final week of the season. It leaves fans wondering "What if?" What if the Mariners hadn't gone on that losing streak, what if they hadn't blown the lead in a particular game?
I think Mariners fans are the most bipolar fans in all of baseball. When the team is struggling, I see two crowds. One crowd thinks this team is the worst in baseball, everyone needs to be fired, and perhaps that the organization is cursed. The other crowd remains optimistic, saying we can't play this bad all year, and we can't have this bad of luck all year. I have to admit I flitter between both crowds. I sometimes feel like boycotting this team, not going to games, watching their games on TV, or buying any merchandise, because they are underperforming. But other times I know I will be rewarded for my loyalty and passion for this team, because whenever they do finally make the playoffs again, it will make it THAT much sweeter.
I am never going to fully give up on the Mariners. No matter what they do. They could trade Felix, Seager, AND Paxton, and I would still call myself a Mariner fan. They are too engrained in me to ever switch allegiances. There's just something about MARINERS BASEBALL that makes me want to be root for them until the day I die. Perhaps it's memories of Martinez, Griffey, Niehaus, and Ichiro. Perhaps it's that the organization has EVERY reason to fold and just admit they are inferior as a baseball organization but every year do their absolute best to show they are a likeable and fun bunch.
One thing I never want to be called is a bandwagon fan. For someone who has stuck through a team's losing seasons, and the team becomes successful and popular and then get called a bandwagon fan is absolutely infuriating. I will stick through the Mariners lack of playoff success until they finally start making the playoffs again, whether that starts this year, in 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years. Anyone who ever calls me a bandwagon fan will get directed to this post. I have been a fan of the Mariners since I started watching sports. I've followed them through the lean post-2001 years, the disastrous 2004 and 2008 seasons, the horrific hitting seasons of 2010 and 2011. I remember watching in agony as players like Carl Everett, Jack Cust, Milton Bradley, Scott Spiezio and Corey Hart were brought in watching them STRUGGLE. I remember watching first round draft picks like Jeff Clement, Brandon Morrow, Dustin Ackley, Phillipe Aumont, and (now) Alex Jackson not pan out. I remember Bill Bavasi and Jack Zduriencik making bad front office decisions. I remember, because I stuck with the Mariners through it all.
So what is my mood with this team? Resilient. Patient. Determined. I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic. Odds are somehow someway this team will make the playoffs some year. Five American League teams out of fifteen now make the playoffs. That is exactly one third. If everyone had the same odds, you should expect your team to make the playoffs once out of every three years. Odds are, the Mariners will make the playoffs soon. But that hump they have to get over is huge. Once they do, they could go on a string of seasons where they make it 3 in a row, 4 out of 6, something like that. But once they get over that hump, it'll be so worth the wait AND I'll be right there in the middle cheering the Mariners on.
