We’ll be here through thick and (maybe a lot of) thin following the M’s
It isn’t easy being a Mariners fan on the east side of the Cascades.
Heck, Sunday, I probably could have stopped after “it isn’t easy being a Mariners fan,” and called it good, but that isn’t the thrust of this column.
We intend to be here each week, through thick and thicker.
No matter how many 8-1 leads the M’s blow, we’ll still be here.
No matter how often they lose six of seven games, we’ll still be here.
No matter how far they fall back in the American League West race, we’ll still be here.
We’re getting paid.
Well, that’s part of it. But not the entire reason.
We’ve been asked to put together a weekly column on the Mariners to run in Monday’s Spokesman-Review.
To look back at the week that was. To look ahead to the week that will be.
To focus on the M’s like your typical Inland Northwest baseball fan does.
Sometimes it isn’t easy to be one of those. Like today, when the Mariners’ offense finally awoke and the Angels were ready to be plucked.
And then the bullpen blew an 8-1 lead. In the parlance of social media, SMH.
Is that the type of season it’s going to be? Are we going to be disappointed again? Will the playoffs be out of reach one more year?
Actually, as bad as it is on this first Sunday of the Mariners’ season, as bad as the 10-9 loss to the Angels of Anaheim or Los Angeles or Cucamonga was, we have no idea.
Things look bleak. But they may not stay that way. Or – and this is a happy thought – it might get bleaker. There is no way to tell. It’s way too early for definitive pronouncements.
The season is seven games old. That’s 4.3 percent of the season, if my math is correct. And it always is.
So let’s settle back and discover the season together. From this side of the Cascades.
What does that mean?
Right now, it means six losses to open the season, three in Houston and three in Anaheim. It means the M’s return home Monday for the Safeco opener, a 2:10 p.m. start with left-hander James Paxton on the mound.
But it means a lot more.
We’re going to spend the next few months focusing on how folks in the Inland Northwest watch the M’s. We’ll touch on the television coverage. We’ll chat about the radio coverage, my preferred way to enjoy the game. We’ll even delve into the occasional trip across the mountains to take in a game live.
And we’ll examine this team.
Is it good enough to break the 100-year drought? (OK, it’s not that long since the M’s were in the playoffs, but it seems as if it is. After all, 2001 was a lifetime ago for a few baseball fans. For the rest of us, it just seems like a magical time that may or may not have really existed.)
Are general manager Jerry Dipoto’s moves working? Did he strengthen the bullpen enough to allow the M’s to compete? And did he give manager Scott Servais the tools he needs to build a winning clubhouse?
We’ll look back at Felix Hernandez’s exceptional career. We’ll spend time wondering about the middle of the order and how many years it has left. We’ll cast a critical eye at the young guns in the lineup and whether or not they are really going to pan out.
In other words, we’ll continually look at the season as most of us do at the local watering hole. The only thing missing is the popcorn and adult beverages.
We’ll do it because baseball is still part of our culture, a game passed down through generations, from fathers to sons, from mothers to daughters, from gray-haired grandparents to babies in cribs.
And the Mariners, with all their warts and their legacy of disappointment, are our team. It’s a tough relationship, sure. But they are the Northwest’s team. No matter what.
Except when they blow an eight-run lead. Right?