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Seattle Mariners

Grip on Sports: Mariners tack on another year of disappointment

Where will Brad Miller and the Mariners’ fans be hanging out in the postseason? Sadly, not at Safeco. (Associated Press)

Wednesday: We are into the second half of September. The calendar will soon tell us fall is actually here. Which means the World Series will be as well. When will the Mariners be a part of it?

• Today we discuss the hypothetical. Or the impossible, whichever you prefer.

See, if you look at the baseball standings in today’s paper, you will see the M’s near the bottom of the American League West. And Toronto three games clear in the American League East.

Why are we citing the Blue Jays? Simple. If they win the division, heck, if they make the playoffs, the M’s slide into the unenviable position of having the longest non-playoff streak in major league baseball.

The last time the Blue Jays made the playoffs was 1993, when they won the World Series. The last time the M’s made the playoffs was 2001, when the franchise sold its soul to the devil, seemingly, won a record-tying, regular-season 116 games but still didn’t get a World Series ring – or appearance.

By the way, the team the M’s tied for that regular-season win total? The 1906 Chicago Cubs. It’s no coincidence, is it, that they are the two most ill-starred franchises in their respective leagues?

And don’t look now. The Buffalo Bills won their first game of the NFL season, making it possible in a few months the M’s will have the longest postseason drought in the four major sports. That’s not good.

So when will it end?

Last year at this time it seemed as if it would end in just a few weeks. But then the M’s came up a game short of the postseason. So the offseason seemed too long. The M’s were poised to take the next step. Until that next step was over a cliff.

So now we are back in the wait-until-next-year mode. And we’re tired of it. Next year probably won’t be any better. There doesn’t seem to be enough promise in the minors or enough money in the coffers to get substantially better.

The franchise’s first World Series appearance seems long enough away right now that I’m afraid I won’t see it in my lifetime. After all, if you are a baseball nut, you understand statistics. And,  statistically speaking, I have 20 years left, tops.

So the M’s front office better get straightened out, and straightened out in a hurry. If they don’t, I intend to stick around after my life’s last pitch and haunt Safeco, a ghost that smells of garlic fries and stale beer, wandering the offices of the franchise’s executives.

It’s not much, but it’s the only way I can think of motivating Howard Lincoln, Kevin Mather and the Mariner brain trust to do something, anything, to give the Northwest baseball fan a World Series ring. They have them in Toronto, they have them in Tampa, they have them in Phoenix for goodness sakes.

It’s time to get one in Seattle. Past time.

Monday: Thanks, Seahawks. Thanks for another tough defeat. That’s two in a row.

Sure, the season-opening overtime loss at St. Louis wasn’t the punch in the groin the Super Bowl loss was, but it was a karate chop to the stomach, that’s for sure.

So where does  the 34-31 defeat leave Seattle? At the risk of  sounding mundane, 0-1. And nothing more. There are 16 games in the NFL season. Six teams in each conference make the playoffs. Then the real fun begins.

Who knows what the next few months will hold. The Hawks aren’t the Mariners. Thank the Lord.