Congrats Giants, but championship is bittersweet for me

I wanted to first start out by saying congratulations to my second favorite baseball team, the San Francisco Giants, on winning the 2010 World Series. They played incredibly and deserve it. They won it the same year I went to see one of their games, the first time I’d ever seen a non-Seattle pro sports game.

However, this title was bittersweet for me. If you’re reading this and you know me, you know that I am an even bigger—in fact, much bigger—fan of the Seattle Mariners. They are MY team. They always will be. I’d take one Mariners championship over ten Giants championships. As you can tell, there is a substantial gap between my first and second most favorite baseball teams.

What puts the bitter in bittersweet for me is that the Mariners have failed to do what every team except for one has done: get to the World Series. The only other team is the Washington Nationals, formerly the Montreal Expos. My Mariners have struggled in their history, but that’s not to say they haven’t had their bright spots. They had one of the most magical, franchise-saving seasons in baseball history in 1995. They tied the MLB record for wins in a season in 2001. And they have had a handful of future Hall of Famers don their colors.

But never have the Mariners won it all or even been to the World Series. And, as I watch the Giants and their fans celebrate, I hope that someday I will be one of those fans rooting as the Mariners win their first World Series championship. It’s bittersweet to watch that, because I haven’t rooted for the Giants all my life like I have with the Mariners. I haven’t donned Giants jerseys, caps, and shirts all my life. I haven’t been to more than one Giants game. And I haven’t bled Orange and Black, like I bleed Navy and Teal.

The Mariners will someday win it all. I know they will. And when that day comes, I will be the fan cheering hardest. They have to win it all. They just have to. After all of the torture they have put us through, they have to pay us back some day. If I have to wait until I’m 90 and have players win it whose GRANDPARENTS aren’t even born yet, then so be it. I will always root for my Mariners. I would definitely prefer a championship sooner than later, but at the same time, however long the front office and coaches need to put together a championship team, I will wait. Take your time, Mariners. I will be patient. BUT… GET—IT—DONE.