When it comes to sports, I know I'm not typical. I stuck with baseball through its labor problems. Then, I was pushed away by the longball era. Changes with my favorite team, the Seattle Mariners, further complicated things.
I followed the Mariners pretty much my whole life. In 1995, the team finally had a truly breakout year. The Mariners never won the World Series. In fact, they never even reached the World Series. Despite that, the Mariners had a magic feel to them from 1995 through 2001.
The Mariners tied the Major League win record in 2001. They were pretty much guaranteed to follow that season in a downward trajectory. Unfortunately, they seemed to go downhill faster than expected. It became clear fairly quickly that they were no longer in a position to compete.
Financially, the Mariners were doing well during this period. There were calls for the Mariners to become the Yankees of the West coast. I never liked this idea for two reasons. The first is that I hate the New York Yankees (as well as the nearly identical Boston Red Sox). Why would I want my favorite team to model themselves off of a team that I hate? The other issue is that the Yankees utilize an insane market size to buy their way out of their mistakes. Simply put, the Mariners couldn't out-Yankee the Yankees. This model was never going to work for the Mariners.
The Mariners handled their decline by trying to get a big bat each year. Because they couldn't outbid the Yankees for the top players, they would go after second-tier hitters. In most cases, they would focus on a player coming off of a career year. These hitters consistently underperformed for the Mariners.
Because they were so fixated on the idea that buying a second-tier bat would magically turn the team around, they started dumping their younger players. This hit a low point for me when the Mariners tried to trade Carlos Guillen straight across for Omar Vizquel. Carlos Guillen was young and had potential. By contrast, Omar Vizquel was overrated and past his prime. This was coming at a time in which the Mariners should have been rebuilding.
I continued following the Mariners, although I cut back on watching games. In some ways, it was painful seeing what the team had become. I just kept hoping that the Mariners could find a way to fix their problems. Eventually, there were finally signs of improvement.
There were questions about whether or not the Mariners would finally make the playoffs in 2021. The team came up short. In 2022, the drought finally came to an end. It wasn't quite the breakthrough I was hoping. They actually finished with the same record as 2021. Since playoff chases can impact how a team plays (and their opponents) I would still say that making the playoffs with a 90-72 record is more impressive than missing the playoffs with a 90-72 record.
Unfortunately, I didn't have many opportunities to watch. I might have just had some bad luck in which games I watched, but this was not the same kind of magic. The games that I saw just weren't entertaining.
I think I know where the problem is for me. It goes back to how I essentially started this post off topic. Home runs have been ruining the sport for me. A timely home run can certainly get you off of your seat, but this is from a standpoint of wanting to win. The truth is that home runs themselves are not entertaining baseball plays. When a player hits a home run, the ball remains out of play. This negates defense and baserunning. Home runs also diminish the strategy.
I got a kick out of how the Mariners clinched a playoff spot. Cal Raleigh hit a walk off home run on a 3-2 pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs. This is the kind of things people dream about when they are kids. On paper, this comes off as magical. That said, I'm not going to watch it repeatedly. It was the circumstances behind the home run that made it special, not the hit itself.
In the games that I saw this year, that is how most runs I have watched managed to score. Again, this might just be bad luck on my part. I saw the Mariners have success with home run derbies. I did not see them win actual baseball games. I did not see them win games in a manner that I personally found entertaining.
What made the 1995-2001 Mariners special? Their ability to manufacture runs. They found all kinds of ways to score outside of the long ball. This strongly contrasts with what I saw this year. I simply didn't see the Mariners find a way to score when they weren't hitting it out of the park.
The defensive side wasn't as bad. Their pitching seemed a little overrated, but they could generally get the job done. This was especially apparent when it took the Astros 18 innings to score against them in game 3. The problem was that the Mariners failed to score in that same time. If they can't score a single run in 18 innings, they deserve to lose.
I don't want to sound overly negative. I loved the 1995-2001 Mariners. It's not easy for any baseball team to entertain me nearly as well as the Mariners of the past. I am proud of them for reaching the postseason. That said, this team still needs some work to do if they want me to fall in love with them all over again. They especially need to start playing better between home runs.
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