It’s been something like 30 hours or whatever since the Mariners lost the game. You don’t need me to say which one, I’m sure.
I’ve talked to some people about it. Read a lot about it. Read a lot of things people think about it. And now, sitting on my porch, watching a show about Ryan Reynolds and the Other Guy buy a Welsh football team, I’m ready to write about it. And I’m pretty annoyed.
Not with the team, though! Threw you for a loop there, didn’t I?
No, no. Not with the team. This team has given us so much already.
I was driving across town to pick up a coach for a summer baseball game in Portland when Jesse Winker and J.P. Crawford fought the whole of the Angels dugout. Taite Hensley and I giggled like little kids at Starbucks and then again for the entirety of the drive down to the diamond. Several weeks later our American Legion team of teenagers gathered in my hotel room in Prineville, Colorado to watch them win 10, 11, 12, 13! 14 in a row!!!! The absolute banger of a game against Atlanta. The heartbreak in Kansas City. The unimaginable joy in Toronto...
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Seattle Mariners, including Jarred Kelenic, foreground, Cal Raleigh, second from left, and another player celebrate with fans after the team's baseball game against the Oakland Athletics, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022, in Seattle. The Mariners won 2-1 to clinch a spot in the playoffs.
This team has given all that. And done it with flair and fun and frenetic energy. Why would I be annoyed with them?
Instead, I find myself annoyed with us, the fans. I’m annoyed with how the goalposts move and I’m annoyed at the entitlement.
Let me put it in baseball terms. There is not a single player on the roster who was not acquired by Jerry Dipoto. Not a one. The last holdover was Kyle Seager who retired at the end of last season. This team, this amazingly fun, albeit flawed and at times frustrating baseball team was built by a guy that way too many people think is bad at his job.
Cal Raleigh? Drafted by Dipoto. Julio? Signed by him. Suarez, Kirby, Gilbert, Frazier, Crawford, Kelenic, Swanson, Muñoz, France, Haniger. Every single one. This team that ended the drought, came back to sweep in Toronto, revitalized baseball in Seattle, all of them. And yet it’s Trader Jerry’s fault when things go wrong?
Stop.
Seattle general manager, Jerry Dipoto, makes his way to the exits with a collection of cardboard cutout "fans" from the stands following the Mariners final home game at T-Mobile Park in September, 2020. Asked if he was going to be trading the cutouts for future prospects Dipoto replied, "No. These ones are special."
On Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021, Dipoto received a promotion to become the President of Baseball Operations for the Seattle Mariners.
And then there's Scott Servais. The guy from the bottom of the pile during the brawl in Anaheim. The guy who lets his players be themselves. The M's unique postgame and clubhouse culture has developed directly under Servais' watchful eye.
See, here’s the thing about baseball and sports writ large: it’s done by people. People with personalities, quirks, fears, weaknesses, strengths, doubts, anxieties, interests, etc. People perform best when they know they have the backing and trust of the people above them. You can nitpick in-game decisions all you want. I’m not sure why, but sure yeah go ahead or whatever.
But true leadership is about love, and make no mistake, Scott loves these players. And the players love Scott. That’s how they win a playoff game they had no real business winning. That’s how Jarred Kelenic, a player still trying to prove himself, sits in a press conference and when asked how the Mariners could possibly recover from a game like Tuesday’s simply says, “We’re not really tripping.”
Seattle Mariners' manager Scott Servais tosses a baseball in a bag prior to throwing batting practice before a home game against the Houston Astros on Monday, Aug. 30. On Wednesday, Sept. 1, Servais received a multi-year extension to continue writing the Mariners' lineups.
Please explain to me how any reasonable person wants to fire every coach and cut every player and burn down the stadium while the team is completely relaxed? How can you, a fan, panic and scream and blame and harass players on social media while still claiming to support these people who have done so much up to this point.
It’s embarrassing. I’m embarrassed. And annoyed. I want to celebrate with likeminded people around a cause that makes me happy. But it seems that every turn is a turn toward the negative, and I hate it.
I don’t hate you, though. I think you can do better. Because it’s not about the last loss. It’s about the next win.
I’m not really tripping. Are you?